[6:05] Good morning everyone. I would like to call to order
[6:09] this public hearing of the judiciary committee on the
[6:12] judiciary and public safety. I am council member brooke pinto
[6:15] representing ward two and chairwoman of the committee.
[6:19] the time is 9:54 a.m. On wednesday, april 29th, 2026.
[6:25] we are conducting this hearing in person in room 412 of the
[6:28] john wilson building and streaming virtually on the dc
[6:31] council's website and youtube, and x at at brooke pinto.
[6:35] today, the committee will continue its review of mayor
[6:38] bowser's proposed fiscal year 2027 budget and financial plan
[6:42] with a round of hearings on agency budgets.
[6:45] today, we're discussing the office of unified communications
[6:48] and the metropolitan police department.
[6:50] first, we're going to hear from our public witnesses to discuss
[6:53] the office of unified communications, or ouc.
[6:56] after we hear and then we're going to hear from our public
[7:00] witnesses to discuss mpd. After we hear from all of our
[7:03] public witnesses for both agencies, we'll then turn to
[7:07] director heather mcgaffin of ou c, ou c is responsible for
[7:11] providing fast, professional and cost effective response to
[7:15] emergency and non-emergency calls in the district.
[7:17] ouc was established in 2005 to combine the emergency 911
[7:22] non-emergency and 311 call activities from the metropolitan
[7:25] police department, fire and emergency medical services and
[7:28] customer service operations. The mayor's proposed fy 2027
[7:33] operating budget provides ouc with approximately $60.2
[7:37] million, which is a 4.5 million or 7% decrease from the fy 26
[7:43] approved budget. The agency's capital budget also
[7:46] decreases from 13.8 million to 9.4 million, just over 31%
[7:51] reduction. At the same time, the budget
[7:54] reduces total agency ftes from 425 to 413 shifts, a significant
[8:00] number. Of vacancy savings.
[8:06] these are crucial and difficult jobs.
[8:09] uc's call takers and dispatchers, supervisors and
[8:12] technical staff are responsible for maintaining the district's
[8:16] emergency and non-emergency communication system every hour
[8:20] of every day. I was concerned to read in
[8:24] recent office of the inspector general report that was released
[8:27] earlier this month, that we still have several ongoing
[8:30] issues in the agency related to chronic absenteeism, lack of
[8:34] cross training for mpd and ems operations, and improving
[8:39] quality assurance. Since some of these concerns
[8:42] also have a budget nexus. I'll be curious today to learn
[8:45] about whether the agency is equipped to meet and improve
[8:48] these ongoing concerns. I look forward to discussing
[8:51] with director mcgaffin how his budget will give the agency what
[8:54] it needs to maintain service levels, continue filling
[8:57] vacancies, support retention and ensure that the 911 call center
[9:00] is fully and reliably staffed. To address some of the outlining
[9:03] issues identified in the oig report.
[9:05] I also want to discuss the proposed reductions and shifting
[9:08] within nine one and 311 operations, including what
[9:11] impact, if any, those changes will have on call wait times,
[9:15] dispatch capacity, overtime and staff workload.
[9:18] finally, I look forward to discussing the mayor's proposed
[9:21] subtitles and the broader fund shifts recommended in this
[9:25] budget, including the movement of personnel costs from local
[9:28] funds to special purpose revenue funds, and the impacts that
[9:32] would be make on our hotel fee. We will then hear from the
[9:37] metropolitan police department or mpd.
[9:40] mpd's mission is to safeguard the district of columbia and
[9:43] protect its residents and visitors with the highest regard
[9:46] for the sanctity of human life. Mpd strives to accomplish its
[9:50] mission with a focus on service, integrity and fairness by
[9:54] upholding the district's motto, justitia omnibus justice for
[9:58] all. Currently, mpd sworn officer
[10:02] numbers remain at a 50 year staffing low.
[10:05] I'm eager today to hear about how the proposed fy 27 budget
[10:10] supports continued efforts to bolster our recruitment and
[10:13] retain our quality sworn officers for the department.
[10:16] we must continue the successful efforts to drive down violent
[10:21] crime like the one that we've seen.
[10:22] the overall decrease of 29% from 2024 to 2025, and overall, 53%
[10:30] decrease we've seen over the last two years.
[10:33] the proposed budget has an overall increase in funding for
[10:37] mpd, but no additional ftes allocated, largely due to more
[10:42] accurately funding for overtime. I look forward to hearing about
[10:45] how this funding will support the department's ongoing
[10:48] initiatives that continue to result in reduced levels of
[10:51] violent crime, support our staffing and include a notable
[10:56] 43% decrease in homicides in 2026 so far compared to this
[11:00] time last year. Concerningly though, we've seen
[11:04] a 35% increase in assaults with a dangerous weapon, and we've
[11:09] seen increases in domestic violence cases.
[11:12] it's also vital to ensure that mpd facilities are properly
[11:15] maintained and updated to serve all corners of the district.
[11:21] I look forward to asking interim chief carol about the capital
[11:24] projects related to these efforts, and how the financial
[11:27] plan supports the continued investments we need to pursue
[11:31] public safety. I also want to note that we have
[11:34] had a particularly violent month, including children who
[11:40] were shot just last night. And as we look at this budget,
[11:44] we have to ensure that all of our public safety agencies have
[11:48] the funding that they need to play their role in keeping
[11:52] everyone safe. And so when we continue to push
[11:56] on the staffing levels at mpd, that is an important piece of
[12:00] the puzzle and ensuring that not only everyone can be safe, but
[12:03] we're also not overworking our officers, which then leads to
[12:07] burnout. And then more overtime.
[12:12] first, we're going to hear today from our public witnesses.
[12:16] for oh, you see, as a reminder, all of our public witnesses will
[12:20] have three minutes to present their testimony.
[12:23] and for our virtual public witnesses, when I call your name
[12:26] as a reminder to please accept our invitation to join as a
[12:31] panelist. All right.
[12:33] with that, we will turn to our public witnesses.
[12:37] lisa abrams. Veronica mosqueda.
[12:46] chairperson, troop d patel and makayla deming.
[12:54] welcome to you all. And we will begin with lisa
[12:58] abrams, vice president of government affairs for the hotel
[13:01] association of washington, d.c. Good morning.
[13:06] chairperson pinto and members and staff of the committee.
[13:08] I'm lisa abrams, vice president of government affairs of the
[13:11] hotel association, washington, d.c. I'm here to testify in
[13:15] opposition to title three, subtitle a of the fiscal year
[13:20] 2027 budget support act, which is the public services hotel
[13:25] occupancy fee amendment act of 2025.
[13:29] this subtitle seeks to impose a tax upon all hotels of $0.80 per
[13:33] room or suite rental per night. Hotels already contribute
[13:38] heavily to the district's coffers, including already
[13:41] paying into the e-911 special purpose revenue fund, with a tax
[13:45] on all of their landlines, as well as for each cell phone that
[13:48] it has for their employees. This is the fifth time that the
[13:52] mayor has proposed this tax on our industry.
[13:55] first, in 2017, again in 2019, 2024 and 2025, and now this
[14:03] year. Our opposition to this tax
[14:06] remains unchanged. As we have continuously stated,
[14:09] it is not clear why the hotel industry has been repeatedly
[14:12] targeted to impose this tax. The correlation between the
[14:15] proposed bed tax and our industry continues to be murky.
[14:22] the e-911 special purpose revenue fund was created to help
[14:25] defray 911 technology and equipment costs for ouc.
[14:29] however, the agency has continuously used the fund for
[14:33] non-technology purposes, such as personnel travel, training and
[14:36] contractual costs. Moreover, the mayor's intent to
[14:38] have the monies for this additional tax deposited into
[14:41] the general fund to use for other purposes.
[14:45] this clearly is not what the fund was created for.
[14:48] it is also unreasonable to burden the hotel industry with a
[14:52] tax to support a government agency whose core function is
[14:55] not related to travel. The proposed tax will have a
[14:58] significant impact on group bookings and make the district
[15:03] less competitive against other destinations.
[15:06] the hotel industry is one of the highest taxed industries in the
[15:10] district by far. Last fiscal year, at a tax rate
[15:15] of 15.95%, the hotel tax generated $408 million.
[15:19] this makes up 19.5% of all sales tax collections for the
[15:24] district. Travelers to the city spend
[15:28] billions of dollars, creating a significant amount of tax
[15:33] revenue for the district. We are at a crucial point in our
[15:37] political landscape where federal rhetoric and policies
[15:40] are creating barriers to travel to the district.
[15:42] the city has experienced a downturn in tourism, and the
[15:45] city should be implementing policies that would attract
[15:48] visitors, attracting more visitors.
[15:49] visitors means more visitors spending and more money for the
[15:52] district. If the district wants to be the
[15:54] premier global convention, tourism and special events
[15:57] destination, the taxes imposed on transient rentals should not
[16:01] be arbitrary. This tax could serve to have a
[16:04] negative impact, causing decreased revenue for the city.
[16:07] thank you. Thank you very much.
[16:12] veronica mosqueda, organizer, decrim poverty.
[16:15] dc. Hi.
[16:17] good morning. My name is veronica mosqueda and
[16:19] I am here as co-founder of seating stories, an anchor
[16:23] organization of the decrim poverty coalition.
[16:25] I am here to urge the council to invest in a comprehensive
[16:29] non-police crisis response system that prioritizes care,
[16:33] dignity and a public health over carceral responses.
[16:37] decrim poverty's core mission is to replace carceral systems with
[16:39] harm reduction oriented systems of care that promote the
[16:43] dignity, autonomy and health of all people pushed to the margins
[16:46] and dc. Personally, I come from a social
[16:48] work background, a direct service provider background.
[16:51] like I said, I'm a community organizer and I'm an active
[16:54] community member. I have been on the front lines
[16:56] of crisis response, crisis, mental health crisis responses.
[17:00] and what I can tell you is that police officers are often the
[17:03] default responders to mental health crises, despite not being
[17:07] trained clinicians or health professionals.
[17:10] the consequences of this are that people with serious mental
[17:12] illness are almost 12 times more likely to experience police use
[17:16] of force. 1 in 4 individuals with mental
[17:19] health conditions has a history of arrest.
[17:20] both of these exacerbate mental health symptoms and systemic
[17:25] inequality, especially for black and brown people in our city.
[17:28] redirecting funds toward crisis response teams for mental health
[17:32] crises and drugs and drug use will create real safety and a
[17:36] healthier city for us all. We urge the dc council to direct
[17:40] funds toward evidence based programs, not towards systems
[17:43] that incarcerate, traumatize and harm community members.
[17:46] our coalition has data and recommendations to share on
[17:49] crisis response teams, but I want to speak on how dc currents
[17:53] model over relies on police due to a flawed 911 diversion
[17:58] system. The research highlights that the
[18:00] ways that 911 operators classify and route calls determines
[18:04] outcomes, and on the ground in dc, 911, calls are not even tied
[18:08] to crisis response teams, so there isn't an opportunity to
[18:12] divert calls directly. That would be better handled by
[18:15] crt instead of police. We can see out of the 1.4
[18:19] million calls to 911, only 870 were diverted to 988 last year.
[18:25] the consequences of calling the wrong responder can be deadly
[18:28] and has been deadly, as was the case for clifford brooks, who
[18:31] was shot and killed during a mental health crisis in 2024.
[18:36] interactions with the police perpetuate trauma and what
[18:39] people experiencing mental health crises and their loved
[18:41] ones need is agency, professional support and
[18:44] responsive and well-funded programs in their care.
[18:47] additionally, we need to follow the evidence and authorize 24
[18:50] over seven harm reduction centers.
[18:52] that includes safe consumption and drug checking programing.
[18:55] this would offer people a safe place to receive life saving
[18:59] services that are evidence to help people access life changing
[19:02] services, while avoiding preventable overdose deaths.
[19:06] when allocating resources, we need to invest in community
[19:09] based, responsive, comprehensive and harm reduction centered
[19:12] models that give people agency over their bodies and their care
[19:15] plan. In dc, several nonprofit
[19:18] organizations are well positioned to lead our partner
[19:20] in this work. Grassroots organizations are
[19:22] connected to the community that will also support.
[19:25] and. These groups already have
[19:27] trusted relationships and cultural competence that
[19:29] government systems lack. Dc has an opportunity to lead
[19:32] the nation in building a crisis response and harm reduction
[19:36] system that reflects our values care over punishment, health
[19:40] over enforcement and community over coercion.
[19:43] thank you very much. Chairperson patel, commissioner
[19:48] from a and c to a good morning. Chair pinto, members of the
[19:52] committee on judiciary and public safety.
[19:54] thank you for holding this performance oversight hearing
[19:56] and for the opportunity to enter my testimony into the official
[19:59] record. My name is patel, and I'm a
[20:01] fourth term advisory neighborhood commissioner
[20:03] representing single member district 203 in the historic
[20:06] foggy bottom. And I serve as the chair of anc
[20:08] two. A.
[20:09] I am testifying regarding the performance of the metropolitan
[20:12] police department during 2025 and into 2026.
[20:15] I want to be clear, at the onset, effective policing
[20:19] depends not only on enforcement but on public trust, data
[20:22] integrity and accountability. Over the past year, all three
[20:24] have been seriously tested. A police department cannot
[20:32] function effectively when integrity is subordinated to
[20:35] optics. As mpd moves forward under new
[20:38] leadership, this committee must assess whether reforms are
[20:40] structural or merely cosmetic. These concerns are especially
[20:44] urgent given the scale of public investment under the mayor's fy
[20:48] 2027 proposed budget, mpd is slated to receive approximately
[20:53] $688.5 million in gross funds, including roughly $674.5 million
[20:59] in local funds, representing a significant increase over prior
[21:03] years. Let me be clear, councilwoman.
[21:06] the slogan you hear in the streets no justice, no peace.
[21:10] the venerable monk broke it down.
[21:13] he said that we wouldn't have to say that if communities actually
[21:17] felt a sense of peace. Communities don't feel a sense
[21:20] of police with police there because they're not protecting
[21:24] them. They're agitating them.
[21:25] they're harming them. So to increase the funding to an
[21:29] instrument using my tax dollars, where communities are harmed is
[21:33] not acceptable. I call for a reallocation of
[21:35] services. Critical core agencies at such
[21:38] as ouc and mpd have not been effective, and it's been a real
[21:42] disappointment to see my tax dollars being used that way.
[21:45] we already are occupied by the national guard.
[21:49] once again, taxpayers are paying over $1 million a day to feel
[21:53] safe. We don't feel safer in our city.
[21:56] if anything, we're just made to feel more unwanted in the place
[21:59] we call home. And so I want to end that.
[22:04] public safety is strongest when communities view police as
[22:07] legitimate partners, not unaccountable institutions.
[22:10] rebuilding trust will require honest data.
[22:13] independent, independent verification, transparent
[22:16] discipline processes, and transparent and sustained
[22:20] engagement, especially in communities most impacted by
[22:22] crime and policing. In closing, I urge this
[22:25] committee and the council, the district of columbia, to demand
[22:28] the four things independent verification of crime data and
[22:31] reporting practices, clear accountability for misconduct
[22:34] and mismanagement, full transparency in complaint
[22:37] handling and discipline, and measurable budget linked
[22:40] progress toward rebuilding public trust oversight is not
[22:43] anti-police. It's pro accountability, pro
[22:46] transparency, and essential to effective public safety.
[22:48] thank you for the opportunity to testify, and I'm happy to answer
[22:51] any questions. And I'd rather you allocate the
[22:53] funding to the office of attorney general for the
[22:55] divisions of worker rights and consumer protection.
[22:58] thank you. Thank you, chair patel.
[23:02] michaela deming, policy director, dc coalition against
[23:05] domestic violence. Thank you, chair pinto and staff
[23:07] for the opportunity to testify. My name is michaela deming.
[23:09] I'm the policy director with the dc coalition against domestic
[23:12] violence, the federally recognized statewide coalition
[23:14] of domestic violence service providers here in dc that serve
[23:18] upwards of a thousand victims of domestic violence on any given
[23:20] day across all eight wards of the district.
[23:23] we must sustain core programing and services for survivors of
[23:26] domestic violence and feel critical funding gaps for
[23:29] survivors and targeted communities.
[23:31] survivors need more resources and services, not less, but
[23:34] proposed cuts to domestic violence and victim services is
[23:37] reduced. Survivors access to life saving
[23:39] services and housing at a time. As you mentioned, when domestic
[23:42] violence homicides have spiked despite violent crime and
[23:45] homicide dropping across d.c., the district cannot afford to
[23:49] abandon survivors and their families at this time.
[23:51] their lives depend on these essential services.
[23:54] the mayor stated that funding for public safety must be
[23:56] preserved to keep up the overall progress.
[23:58] to drive down crime citywide. We urge council to do just that.
[24:02] restore the $6.3 million in cuts to domestic violence and victim
[24:06] services and ofsted and dhs, and provide an additional 4.4
[24:11] million over fy 26 levels to sustain current services and
[24:14] fill critical gaps for survivors and targeted communities.
[24:17] as federal policies continue to create concern for many and
[24:20] threaten the safety and stability of our most vulnerable
[24:22] communities. Adequate local funding is
[24:24] necessary to fill critical gaps for our marginalized neighbors,
[24:27] including immigrants, people of color, lgbtq plus individuals,
[24:31] unhoused individuals, those reentering from periods of
[24:33] incarceration and their families.
[24:35] the broader social safety net is also a lifeline for survivors in
[24:39] crisis. Yet the budget includes
[24:41] devastating cuts to child care subsidies and workers pay, paid
[24:45] family leave and medical leave, snap and tanf benefits, legal
[24:48] representation, emergency rental assistance, removing the very
[24:52] resources necessary for domestic violence survivors and their
[24:54] families to become independent from their abusers, puts lives
[24:58] at risk and undermines broader community safety.
[25:01] in contrast, mpd sees a 15% larger budget than the mayor's
[25:04] proposal, an increase of over 89 million.
[25:07] we could achieve greater community safety by preserving
[25:09] and investing that $89 million into $10 million for victim
[25:16] services, 1.9 million to fill critical gaps for domestic
[25:18] violence services, 27.3 million for access to justice, 685,000
[25:23] to restore cuts to the dhs line for domestic violence.
[25:26] and we'd still have nearly $40 million left over to fund more
[25:30] essential services like restoring all of the cuts to dhs
[25:33] economic security programs, or restoring all the cuts to family
[25:36] services and homeless services and dhs.
[25:39] we join the van request to fund victim services at 59.6 million
[25:44] and protect the entire ofs portfolio and stand in
[25:47] solidarity with a fair budget coalition, lgbtq plus budget
[25:50] coalition and the dc justice lab in their platforms.
[25:53] despite the recent press conference calling attention to
[25:56] increasing lethal domestic violence, no movement has been
[25:58] made to ensure all survivors have equal access to law
[26:01] enforcement. D.c. Code.
[26:05] section 24-211.07 must be amended to protect victim and
[26:07] witness information from immigration enforcement threats.
[26:09] until that happens, immigrant and immigrant survivors will
[26:12] continue to feel unsafe. Calling mpd or benefiting from
[26:15] any of the over half billion dollars their budget includes.
[26:18] thank you for the opportunity to testify, and I'm happy to answer
[26:22] questions. Great.
[26:23] thank you very much, miss deming.
[26:25] thank you all for your testimony.
[26:26] appreciate it. We're going to call our next
[26:32] panel, gregory pemberton. Joey ferguson.
[26:39] gregory sakas. Ashley anderson.
[26:54] great. Welcome to you all.
[26:56] thank you. We will begin with gregory
[26:59] pemberton, president of the dc police union.
[27:02] thank you, chair chairwoman. Good afternoon, members of the
[27:05] committee, thank you for this opportunity to testify as
[27:07] president of the dc police union.
[27:08] I speak on behalf of approximately 2800 sworn police
[27:11] officers, detectives and sergeants who serve this
[27:13] community as members of the metropolitan police department.
[27:15] I've been providing testimony in these hearings for years
[27:18] highlighting the alarming decrease in staffing year over
[27:20] year and the exponential increases in overtime usage to
[27:23] make up for these shortages. My testimony today is that the
[27:26] mpd remains in dire condition. The mandatory overtime usage is
[27:29] beyond abusive members. Days off are regularly canceled
[27:32] with little or no notice, and unexpected holdovers have become
[27:35] the norm. Mpd facilities are disrepair
[27:39] with nonfunctional bathrooms, mold infested locker rooms, and
[27:42] dilapidated buildings that endanger officer health and
[27:44] morale. Compounding these issues, our
[27:46] fleet of vehicles and more specifically, the lack of
[27:48] urgency at our repair shop is impeding our operations even
[27:51] further. These vehicle shortages and
[27:53] availability issues directly impact response times, officer
[27:56] safety and operational effectiveness across every
[27:58] district. Staffing losses mpd have
[28:00] experienced have predictably continued in the past six years.
[28:03] the mpd has gone from 3800 officers to 3150 every year
[28:08] since 2019. The average net loss of sworn
[28:10] members is more than 100 this fiscal year.
[28:13] the most recent reporting period.
[28:15] mpd continues to lose far more officers than it has hired.
[28:17] the union believes the most pressing matter for the
[28:20] council's awareness is that the cba between the union and the
[28:22] city is set to expire in september.
[28:24] the council must consider potential wage increases for the
[28:27] officers, as they are the most crucial aspect to increase
[28:29] staffing back to appropriate levels.
[28:31] the way the mpd is forced to handle these critically low
[28:33] staffing numbers is through mandatory overtime assignments.
[28:37] since 2021, the department has regularly exceeded 1,000,000
[28:39] hours of overtime every year. With 2024 seeing 1.8 million
[28:44] hours. 2025 ended with more than 1.7
[28:47] million hours. And while data for fy 26 is
[28:50] limited, they show similarly unsustainable levels early in
[28:53] the year, relying this heavily overtime rather than hiring and
[28:56] retaining full time officers cost the taxpayer tens of
[28:59] millions annually. Dc police union strongly
[29:02] supports the mayor's proposed fy 27 mpd budget.
[29:05] significant enhancements for personnel services, overtime
[29:08] alignment, contractual services, fleet maintenance and facility
[29:11] related investments represent a critical and overdue step
[29:13] towards stabilizing our workforce, improving retention
[29:17] and addressing deplorable conditions in our members face
[29:19] every day. By fully funding these
[29:21] increases, the council can send a clear message that the
[29:23] district values its police officers and is committed to
[29:25] restoring the strength and readiness of the metropolitan
[29:27] police department. The union asked for the council
[29:29] to give deep consideration when making decisions that affect the
[29:31] ability to hire and retain our best employees, specifically,
[29:35] legislation affecting employee rights as well as budgetary
[29:37] decisions to support staffing, facility upgrades and fleet
[29:41] modernization. These issues are at the heart of
[29:43] mpd's ability to provide exceptional service to residents
[29:45] and visitors. Thank you for the opportunity to
[29:47] testify. I welcome any questions the
[29:48] committee may have. Thank you.
[29:53] joey ferguson, de flock, dc. Miss joey, I'm a ward 7 resident
[29:59] and proud washingtonian. I represent de flock dc, a
[30:03] growing collective of dc residents who are opposed to use
[30:06] of automatic license plate readers and similar surveillance
[30:09] technologies. We are here today to vehemently
[30:11] oppose the expansion of this technology in our city.
[30:14] the mayor's proposed budget slashes slashes the kinds of
[30:17] basic services that keep washingtonians safe in favor of
[30:20] paying private companies to spy on us on behalf.
[30:24] alpers, our street cameras that log your license plate as you
[30:27] drive by, whether you are suspected of a crime or not.
[30:31] flock logs this data in a searchable, nationwide database
[30:34] that any flock user can access, including federal agents.
[30:39] df.loc dc sees this practice for what it is real time warrantless
[30:44] tracking of every driver in dc. The proposal gives mpd an
[30:50] additional 7 million for contractual services, which
[30:52] includes the expansion of alpers and mpd.
[30:56] forecast recently called for up to 5 million to expand flock
[31:00] cameras in the downtown corridor.
[31:02] it sounds like they're getting their wish.
[31:05] while washingtonians not only lose critical services, but also
[31:08] their privacy. For example, the the proposed
[31:12] budget cuts 6.1 million from the school based behavioral health
[31:16] program. For what.
[31:18] or what about the 5.6 million cut from victim services, or the
[31:23] 2.5 million from dc's youth homelessness system?
[31:28] I could go on, but they only give me three minutes.
[31:30] why does the mayor and mpd insist on insist we divest from
[31:35] programs that address crime at its root, so we can pay flock
[31:39] safety for more? Alpers maybe it's because the
[31:43] former chief information officer of mpd now works as strategic
[31:47] relations at flock safety, but I digress.
[31:51] I have been a software developer for more than ten years now.
[31:54] there's a common phrase amongst tech companies that I've heard
[31:58] before move fast and break things.
[32:01] I have unfortunately seen that recklessness come at all our
[32:04] expense and flock safety is no exception.
[32:08] their product, their products violate privacy rights,
[32:11] disregard the fourth amendment and create and create critical
[32:14] security risks for washingtonians.
[32:16] not only is flock software riddled with vulnerabilities,
[32:19] but it also serves as a data pipeline leading straight to
[32:22] federal agencies like ice and sea.
[32:25] we have no idea how frequently these agencies run searches on
[32:28] our data, because mpd stopped responding to our foia request
[32:32] from last year. In conclusion, we are demanding
[32:35] our tax dollars be used to help children, neighbors, and friends
[32:40] rather than spying on them. Doing so will simultaneously
[32:43] restore community services. Our privacy and our rights.
[32:48] I'm happy to answer questions and I love this city and the
[32:53] occupation. Thank you.
[32:55] thank you. Gregory.
[32:59] public witness. Hello, my name is gregory.
[33:02] and if you could turn your microphone on.
[33:05] hello, my name is gregory sarkis.
[33:07] I'm a ward 7 resident, a member of de flock dc and a fair budget
[33:11] coalition member. As a heads up for anyone
[33:14] listening, this budget will kill people, and I'm going to talk
[33:16] about it. I am upset.
[33:19] I am angry that we are continuing to over police dc
[33:22] residents when we know that it doesn't actually lead to anybody
[33:25] safety. I'm disappointed in our mayor
[33:27] and this council for year after year, ignoring evidence that
[33:31] shows that taking care of our people through investment in
[33:34] social service programs is the most effective way to reduce
[33:37] crime and increase quality of life.
[33:39] and I am deeply sad for all of those who will suffer and even
[33:43] lose their lives at the hands of this budget.
[33:46] I'd like to use a moment of my time to honor.
[33:49] to honor all those who will be affected by this budget,
[33:53] including our unhoused neighbors who will continue to perish
[33:55] because they didn't have a safe place to sleep at night.
[33:57] for the children who are suffering because they don't
[34:00] have access to mental health services.
[34:02] for all those who will die of treatable afflictions, because
[34:06] this budget will take away their health care.
[34:08] and for all the people who have been and will be killed at the
[34:11] hands of the metropolitan police department in dc.
[34:13] safe and beautiful task force. If I wasn't clear yet, I will
[34:20] lay it out. This budget is an act of
[34:23] violence being committed by this government against its people.
[34:26] let me ask you what logical conclusions you would want me to
[34:30] make. When we have massive cuts in our
[34:32] social safety net just to fund the violence of the metropolitan
[34:36] police department, what should I think about this government's
[34:38] priorities then? What does it say about how the
[34:40] mayor and this council feels about our most vulnerable
[34:43] neighbors? As I mentioned, I'm a member of
[34:46] of de flock. Dc flock is the perfect example
[34:49] of the kind of reckless police spending that, in the end, makes
[34:52] us all unsafe. This kind of dragnet
[34:56] surveillance is nothing but dangerous.
[34:58] if dc continues to fund companies like flock, it is only
[35:01] a matter of time before there is direct violence.
[35:03] as a result of this technology. In dc, there have already been
[35:07] cases of hacking, stalking and other abuses of these cameras
[35:10] across the country. Why are we allowing dc to suffer
[35:13] at the hands of this technology as well?
[35:15] surely we can find a better use for the $5 million that is
[35:20] forecasted to be spent on more flock cameras, sources for
[35:24] everything that I'm saying are going to be included in my
[35:27] written testimony, including recommendations from fair
[35:29] budget, on how we can adequately, more adequately
[35:32] appropriate these funds, like using $100 million from mbt over
[35:36] mpd overtime funds to fund erap pinto.
[35:39] I highly recommend you read the full thing, especially if you
[35:43] still do not understand that funding schools and housing not
[35:48] increase policing is how we keep our children safe.
[35:50] I am begging you and your fellow council members to do your job
[35:54] and write a budget that prioritizes all the residents of
[35:57] dc. Thank you.
[36:01] thank you. Ashley anderson, policy counsel,
[36:04] dc justice lab. Good morning, chairwoman pinto
[36:08] and members of the committee. My name is ashley anderson and
[36:10] I'm a policy counsel at dc justice lab.
[36:12] and I'm also a resident of ward 6.
[36:15] today I'm going to talk about the mayor's proposed budget for
[36:18] mpd, which includes substantial increases in funding for
[36:21] overtime in addition to funding expanding surveillance
[36:24] technology. Both are disconnected from an
[36:26] evidence informed public safety approach.
[36:28] the last nine months have shown that expanding law enforcement
[36:31] in a way that contradicts local evidence and crime trends and
[36:34] actual public safety needs, leads to higher costs.
[36:37] without a public safety benefit and, more importantly, real life
[36:40] harm to residents. The mayor's proposed budget
[36:44] increases the unchecked use of surveillance technology.
[36:46] the proposed budget includes an increase of about $7 million
[36:50] across multiple bureaus to support various contractual
[36:53] obligations, including but not limited to cctv, camera
[36:56] maintenance and license plate readers.
[36:58] the district has continued to fund an increase in pd
[37:02] surveillance technology without evaluating the encroachment into
[37:04] residents and visitors privacy. Meaningful interrogation of the
[37:08] utility, and mixed uses of this technology, and without
[37:11] meaningful communication or engagement with concerns raised
[37:13] by community members. And this is particularly
[37:16] concerning given that at this year's performance oversight
[37:19] hearing, multiple people expressed worries about the
[37:21] district's use of surveillance technology by law enforcement
[37:24] and other jurisdictions have already sounded the alarm about
[37:26] its harms. And it's even more concerning
[37:28] given that surveillance technologies are used more
[37:30] often, where a majority of the residents are black.
[37:34] in addition, npd's pattern of overspending, especially on
[37:36] overtime, is a waste of resources.
[37:39] the mayor's proposal allocates $81 million for overtime, a
[37:44] substantial increase from 39 million for fiscal year 2026.
[37:47] and their disclaimer is, quote, while the agency works to use
[37:51] overtime judiciously, it is a critical and largely inevitable
[37:54] function of police work. But it's contradictory to say
[37:56] that the agency is using this overtime judiciously, when for
[37:59] years there have been a consistent increase in the use
[38:01] of overtime, district leaders need to ask when our city
[38:05] diverts money to cover police overtime, what communities lose
[38:08] access to those funds, and are we essentially subsidizing
[38:11] overpolicing at the expense of housing, violence prevention or
[38:14] reentry services? And at what point does district
[38:17] leadership say that this isn't working, and instead use those
[38:20] funds to invest in community led public safety solutions in
[38:24] partnership with nearly 30 organizations, dc justice lab
[38:26] produced a public safety agenda that shared what community
[38:29] members and expert demands. This includes expanding and
[38:33] improving dc. S non-law enforcement responses
[38:35] to people in behavioral health crises, authorizing and funding
[38:38] 24 over seven harm reduction centers, and increasing funding
[38:41] for the office of victim services and justice grants to
[38:45] close. The district does not need to
[38:46] invest more resources into policing and surveillance of our
[38:49] residents, but support social services and community led
[38:52] public safety solutions. Thank you for the opportunity to
[38:54] speak with you all. Thank you very much.
[38:58] thank you all for your testimony.
[39:00] appreciate it. Rebecca strauss.
[39:06] talib, kareem. Talib.
[39:10] kareem, are you here? Bill mefford.
[39:25] secondly, gray. Frankie seabron.
[39:40] all right. Welcome everyone.
[39:42] we are going to begin with rebecca strauss director of
[39:46] economic initiatives, federal city council.
[39:50] thank you for having me. And I wanted to thank you,
[39:53] council member pinto, for everything that you've done to
[39:56] make the city safer and your work on.
[40:01] legislation in the past, and also to fight for.
[40:04] a juvenile curfew zones. Really appreciate it.
[40:06] something that my organization supports, I would say about the
[40:11] budget. We generally support what mayor
[40:14] bowser's tried to do. It's a really difficult budget
[40:17] year. You know that and difficult
[40:22] decisions must be made. What I would say about the mpd
[40:28] budget is that it's not clear to us that there is going to be a
[40:32] lot of investment in dealing with the number one challenge
[40:36] facing the force, which is manpower.
[40:40] and we had chief carroll at an event a few weeks ago, and he
[40:46] was very clear about the challenges that they face and
[40:49] recruitment and retention. And it's a very competitive
[40:54] environment right now for law enforcement.
[40:55] as you know, a lot of federal agencies hiring up, offering
[41:00] extremely generous benefits. And in the suburbs as well.
[41:06] and there's nothing really in the budget that is making the
[41:11] value proposition better for joining the mpd versus all the
[41:14] other law enforcement agencies. And something that chief carroll
[41:17] brought up a lot was the state of facilities for police.
[41:22] and I know that the police union has called facilities
[41:26] deplorable. Now, the mayor's budget does
[41:29] have money for public safety facilities, and that's
[41:33] important. But to my knowledge, there's no
[41:36] new money for actual police facilities.
[41:40] and that's just going to be a growing problem.
[41:42] so I encourage you to think about is there any more money
[41:48] that could go towards those priorities?
[41:51] because otherwise. It's going to get worse.
[41:57] thank you. Thank you.
[42:04] bill mefford, executive director of the festival center.
[42:08] good morning. Thanks for allowing me to
[42:11] testify. Preparing for today.
[42:13] I reflected on where we are at this moment in time.
[42:15] in the 36 years I've spent in full time christian ministry, I
[42:20] have never had a more challenging year than this.
[42:23] one central reason for this is simple it's the constant threat
[42:27] of terror for the continued collaboration between mpd and
[42:31] ice, and the continued refusal of our elected leaders to hold
[42:35] each other accountable. So.
[42:39] but yet we continue not just to fund them, but to spend even
[42:42] more money just seems like madness.
[42:45] at the festival center, our primary concern is safety, and
[42:49] we know that safety comes from investment over enforcement.
[42:53] so what does safety look like when we consider the budget
[42:56] before us? I think it would include fully
[42:59] funding the domestic violence and victim services, fully
[43:02] funding paid family leave, fully funding all oag programs to
[43:06] educate workers and domestic workers of their rights,
[43:09] replacing carceral systems with crisis response systems that
[43:13] emphasize care over punishment, fully funding the access to
[43:18] justice program, fully funding the emergency rental assistance
[43:22] program, increased funding for temporary assistance to needy
[43:26] families, unify and fund violence interruption services
[43:31] and encampment clearings while funding storage options.
[43:34] and the list goes on and on. So how do we accomplish this?
[43:38] well, I'm so glad you asked that question.
[43:42] in short, reining in the spending of mpd who are getting
[43:47] a 15% increase from last year's budget despite crime being at
[43:50] record lows, and the department and the department having
[43:54] vacancies that it cannot fill, and losing 67 sworn officers
[43:58] last year, the department is increasing staff pay and
[44:02] benefits by $44 million and is doubling its overtime budget
[44:09] from 40,000,000 in 2025 to over 80 million this year.
[44:11] that's the whole ballgame. The department has secured over
[44:16] $100 million to invest in surveillance systems.
[44:18] as my colleague mentioned and described before.
[44:22] and yet we are still in one of the most surveilled and heavily
[44:26] policed cities in the world. Further areas of cutting include
[44:30] denying any overtime pay associated with collaborating
[44:34] with each I, h, s I and other federal agencies harming d.c.
[44:39] residents that we would harm the very people who are causing
[44:43] terror is beyond my understanding.
[44:46] I urge you to also take a critical look at mpd signing
[44:50] bonuses and the amount of money being given to mpd officers for
[44:53] housing. When housing for the most
[44:56] vulnerable is such an all time low.
[45:00] that's. I'm going to stop there because
[45:02] if I keep going, I'm going to go over and I'm going to get really
[45:05] frustrated, but I really want to encourage us and encourage you
[45:09] to provide to look at what real public safety is and not fund
[45:12] the same old, tired, effective and ineffective and failed
[45:17] programs. Thank you.
[45:19] thank you. Mr. Gray, council member and
[45:25] members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to
[45:27] speak. My name is gray.
[45:29] I am a native washingtonian, a proud mother of four amazing
[45:33] young men, and a community organizer with dc gospel
[45:36] justice. I'm testifying today because I'm
[45:39] deeply concerned about the ways in which metropolitan police
[45:42] department shows up in my community.
[45:44] having more police on the street does not create a safer dc.
[45:49] despite increased investments in policing communities, especially
[45:52] communities of color, continue to experience harm, fear and
[45:56] instability rather than safety. There is a lack of transparency
[46:00] when incidents occur in our communities of color, families
[46:03] are often left without answers or accountability.
[46:05] when. When harm is done, the lack of
[46:09] transparency erodes trust and deepens the divide between
[46:12] residents and those who are meant to serve them.
[46:15] I'm also concerned about mpd's collaboration with federal
[46:18] authorities, which has led to unlawful targeting, harassment
[46:22] and arrest of d.c. Residents of color.
[46:25] this only adds to over and criminalization already
[46:29] experienced in our neighborhoods.
[46:31] recently, the approval of the youth curfew allows police to
[46:34] threaten and arrest young children as young as 12 years
[46:37] old. At the same time, there has been
[46:39] a narrative that places that places blame solely on parents
[46:43] for what has been labeled teen takeovers, which, while crucial
[46:49] social programs that families rely on, continue to be cut.
[46:52] the approach criminalizes our youth.
[46:54] instead of investing in them, we should be asking deeper
[46:58] questions why are young people not going home after school?
[47:01] could it be due to unstable housing or housing conditions
[47:06] under in under-resourced communities?
[47:08] why are they outside at night? Are they avoiding circumstances
[47:12] at home that are beyond their control?
[47:14] why are they gathering in large numbers?
[47:16] could it be because their need for safe spaces, programing and
[47:20] support has continually, continuously been underfunded?
[47:25] our youth are the future of our city.
[47:27] they deserve to feel supported, valued and safe, not
[47:30] surveillance and criminalized in our communities of color.
[47:33] we know when police are called or show up, situations often
[47:38] escalate rather than resolved. This is why we say we keep us
[47:43] safe. The public safety, true public
[47:47] safety comes from strong communities, not overpolicing.
[47:50] at the same time, mpd continues to receive increased funding
[47:54] year after year crucial programs that actually support safety and
[47:59] stability are being cut. The access to justice program,
[48:02] which helps residents face facing eviction and unsafe
[48:05] housing conditions, is being gutted without.
[48:07] if families are at greater risk of displacement and exploitation
[48:11] by landlords, the office of attorney general, worker's
[48:14] rights outreach program is being defunded.
[48:16] the progra plays a crucial role in educating workers about their
[48:20] rights and connecting them to legal support when they
[48:23] experience wage theft or workplace abuse.
[48:26] without it, many workers will not file complaints, leading to
[48:30] deeper financial instability. Potential housing laws and
[48:33] increased reliance on already strained social services.
[48:36] there are programs that truly keep our community safe and
[48:41] stable, yet there are being that they are being cut.
[48:43] while mpd continues to operate with over a half $1 billion
[48:48] budget, we have the resources to invest in real safety.
[48:52] the question is, if we have the. We have the will to prioritize
[48:56] people over policing. I urge the council to consider
[49:00] these budget priorities, invest in youth programs, housing
[49:04] stability, worker protections, and community based solutions
[49:07] that address the root causes of harm.
[49:09] reduce over surveillance on policing and ensure
[49:12] accountability and transparency for mpd.
[49:15] the committee specifically has the opportunity to fund programs
[49:18] like access to justice and the workers rights program.
[49:21] that's by taking very little funding from mpd's budget.
[49:24] thank you for the opportunity to speak, and I look forward to
[49:27] answering any questions. Thank you.
[49:30] frankie. Brian.
[49:32] free dc and harriet's wildest dreams.
[49:35] my name is frankie. I'm a third generation
[49:37] washingtonian, a mother of two children who attend the d.c.
[49:42] today I'm here representing free dc and heritage dreams in a year
[49:45] of quote unquote, tough choices and supposedly unavoidable,
[49:49] unavoidable cuts, the mayor is requesting 89 million more of
[49:53] our tax dollars for mpd. If I do my job poorly, I don't
[49:57] get rewarded. It seems that whether police do
[49:59] a good job or a bad job, the response is always give them
[50:03] more money. Since the start of last year,
[50:06] all of us in dc have had a front row seat to the slow creep of up
[50:12] of authoritarianism in the capital.
[50:13] as this committee was focused on establishing surveillance zones
[50:17] for for dc's youth and paving, paving the way for trump with
[50:22] secure d.c., we've seen mpd following trump's lead.
[50:25] we've seen them helping the trump, the trump regime to choke
[50:29] off home rule and inch their project forward.
[50:32] we've seen our communities with this safe and safe and beautiful
[50:36] task force essentially be terrorized.
[50:39] and specifically, when we talk about the youth and these curfew
[50:42] zones, I myself sent my own 16 year old to the dpr event.
[50:48] they went inside, had a great time, but they were met with a
[50:51] line of police officers on either side when they were
[50:54] exiting. That is not safety, that is a
[50:57] bloated police budget. And to sit behind a desk and
[51:01] sign paperwork that essentially leads to murdering of people is
[51:06] is you are complicit. And so if budgets are moral
[51:10] documents, you have to put your values where you say they are.
[51:14] if you say you want to represent dc and protect dc, do that with
[51:19] your actions and not just your words.
[51:21] we've seen mpd reinstate officers convicted of murder and
[51:26] and conspiracy in a slew of other things.
[51:28] it's not fear mongering. This is not hysteria.
[51:31] this is not vague. We we we've lived this dc is
[51:35] still occupied. Meanwhile, the budget seeks to
[51:37] take away other things. 127 million from from from
[51:42] future pay increases for government workers, 95 million
[51:46] from from universal paid leave. 60 million from child pay
[51:50] equity, 33 million from services and public safety programs.
[51:54] 4.5 million from youth engagement.
[51:55] 4 million from family and survivor support.
[51:59] all of the things that we actually need to be safe to be
[52:02] whole. Our social safety networks have
[52:04] been cut, and yet more money continues to go to things that
[52:08] we know do not work. And let's not forget that this
[52:12] is happening, as 46% of dc's wealth is held by less than half
[52:17] a percent of tax units. Truth is, dc can address this
[52:21] budget deficit with progressive taxes.
[52:25] 322 million from a business business activity tax up to 174
[52:31] million from raising capital gains tax, 121 million from a
[52:36] wealth proceeds tax. And that's just a start.
[52:38] there is so much wealth in this city that is not paying its fair
[52:42] share. But rather than address that
[52:45] gap, the mayor and y'all would rather cut services and give
[52:49] more money to an agency that continues to violate residents
[52:54] rights, undercut dc's autonomy and side against democracy at
[52:59] every turn. Live up to your values, brooke.
[53:04] thank you. Thank you all very much for your
[53:09] testimony. James stroud.
[53:12] tanya gulash bosa. Mr. Ringler.
[53:19] feni gandhi. And then keisha foster, we're
[53:29] going to add a fifth chair to this panel.
[53:37] or you know what. We'll do it after just it'll
[53:40] just be you on that panel. But it'll be okay.
[53:43] rather. Okay.
[53:45] good idea. All right.
[53:48] james stroud, public witness. I'm james stroud, and I'm here
[53:52] to testify against the mayor's ridiculous budget.
[53:55] when the overall budget has shrunk by 4% and the federal
[53:58] government is aggressively cutting jobs, slashing social
[54:01] safety nets and creating record breaking government shutdowns,
[54:04] it makes zero sense for us to be increasing mpd's budget by 15%.
[54:07] while so many live in precarity, I think it's critical for for us
[54:11] to invest in our social safety net, to stop people from falling
[54:14] into homelessness, which is incredibly difficult to escape
[54:16] from and puts a strain on our city's resources.
[54:19] investing more in things like the emergency rental assistance
[54:21] program is not just the humane thing to do, but also the
[54:24] financially responsible thing to do.
[54:27] between 2016 and 2024, mpd spent $41 million on surveillance
[54:32] technology, 6.6 million of that went to sound thinking
[54:35] incorporated, formerly shotspotter incorporated, who
[54:37] provide technology they claim detects whether a gunshot was
[54:40] fired in an area in order to dispatch law enforcement.
[54:43] a study of over 4000 shotspotter dispatches in chicago showed 86%
[54:48] of dispatches resulted in no crimes of any kind.
[54:51] other studies have shown that shotspotter has no impact on
[54:54] reducing crime. Not only is shotspotter a waste
[54:57] of $500,000 a year, but the false alarms are a waste of
[55:00] police resources. If we cancel shotspotter, we
[55:03] wouldn't be the first to do it. Chicago, charlotte and san
[55:06] antonio are just a few of the cities to have canceled
[55:08] shotspotter, while atlanta, portland and seattle outright
[55:12] rejected shotspotter as junk science.
[55:14] and this is not just about shotspotter.
[55:16] the council needs to be more critical of all of mpd's
[55:19] invasive surveillance technology like cellebrite and automatic
[55:23] license plate readers. Last year, mpd paid out $134
[55:28] million overtime. In the last 12 months of
[55:30] available data, mpd stopped over 77,000 people.
[55:35] meanwhile, nypd made just 25,000 stops.
[55:38] new york city has 12 times our population, but their police
[55:42] made three times fewer stops. This practice is not only
[55:45] wasteful, but there's years of data and aclu reports showing
[55:48] that these stops are incredibly discriminatory to black people.
[55:52] nypd went from making over 500,000 annual stops to just
[55:57] 11,000 in the span of two years. After their use of stop and
[56:00] frisk was deemed unconstitutional.
[56:02] in that time span, the murder rate and other types of crimes
[56:05] only decreased, showing that this racist, wasteful practice
[56:08] doesn't keep us safe. Scaling down these incredibly
[56:11] excessive stops would reduce the workload of mpd officers and the
[56:15] bloated overtime spending. One other ridiculous part of the
[56:18] budget is adding an extra person to an already bloated mpd
[56:22] communications team. The budget calls for increasing
[56:23] the size of the comms team from 23 to 24.
[56:27] for reference, nypd has ten times more officers in dc, and
[56:30] their comms team is less than four times bigger.
[56:33] chicago pd has four times more officers, and their comms team
[56:36] is just two times larger than ours.
[56:38] why are we hiring a pr person for the police in such a
[56:41] constrained budget? How are pr people keeping us
[56:44] safe at all? If anything, we should be
[56:46] cutting from here. Invest in programs that support
[56:48] people through these rough times instead of institutions that
[56:51] lock people up and put them in vicious cycles of poverty and
[56:54] homelessness. Thank you, thank you, tanya
[57:00] gulash, public witness. Good morning, chair pinto.
[57:03] my name is doctor tanya golesh. I was born and raised in ward 4.
[57:07] I'm a professor of sociology and the executive director of the
[57:10] university of california, washington center.
[57:12] I'm here to urge you not to increase the budget of the
[57:17] metropolitan police department. We do not need additional police
[57:21] officers. We do not need to pay police
[57:24] officers overtime to pay to patrol the streets.
[57:26] I say this based on what I see every day in wards one and four,
[57:31] where I spend time walking on kennedy street, 14th street and
[57:35] georgia avenue. What I see as nuisance policing,
[57:38] quality of life, policing, police officers and federal
[57:42] agents harassing black and latino residents over expired
[57:45] tags, temporary plates, tinted windows, open containers and
[57:50] marijuana. Not long ago, I saw a young
[57:52] black man get pulled over. He had just bought an infiniti
[57:55] from the dealership. He had recently secured a job,
[57:58] saved his money, and bought himself a car.
[58:01] he was on his way to pick up his daughter, thinking about how
[58:05] excited she would be to see the new car.
[58:08] then mpd pulled him over alongside a caravan of six
[58:11] federal agents, turning a traffic stop into an
[58:16] intimidating, multi-agency scene.
[58:17] it turned out the dealership had not properly registered the
[58:21] temporary plates that may have been the dealership's fault, but
[58:24] this young man paid the price. His car was taken.
[58:27] he had to go to the police station.
[58:29] he had to navigate the costs. Paperwork, lost time and stress
[58:33] of getting his car back, and he had to figure out who was going
[58:37] to pick up his daughter. That is not public safety.
[58:40] that is punishment. I have seen multiple car
[58:45] impoundments in my neighborhood. These are not responses to
[58:49] violence. They are armed operations over
[58:53] registration issues. They create fear, trauma and
[58:56] financial strain. They can mean losing the ability
[58:58] to get to work, take children to school, care for elders, and pay
[59:02] rent. The people who have been
[59:05] targeted that I've witnessed on the street are exclusively black
[59:08] and latino. This is racial profiling.
[59:11] it's also bad public safety policy.
[59:13] the research does not support the claim that increasing police
[59:18] budgets makes cities safer. A recent study of 61 large u.s.
[59:23] cities found no significant association between police
[59:27] spendings and community firearm violence.
[59:30] the research also shows that aggressive order maintenance,
[59:34] policing, the kind focused on low level disorder and minor
[59:39] violations, does not reduce crime.
[59:41] we have to be honest about what we are funding.
[59:44] more money for mpd means more stops, more armed encounters,
[59:49] more opportunities for fatal encounters, and more chances for
[59:53] d.c. Residents to be pulled into the criminal legal system
[59:56] because of poverty, race or immigration status.
[59:59] this does not make us safe. Public safety is produced by
[1:00:03] housing, good jobs, strong schools, mental health care,
[1:00:09] violence interruption, youth programs and stable families.
[1:00:11] I urge the council to not increase the budget to end mpd
[1:00:16] participation and joint patrols to require mpd to release stop
[1:00:21] data. I know they you just passed the
[1:00:22] act, but they haven't released the data and also invest in
[1:00:25] violence prevention, housing, youth unemployment, youth
[1:00:28] employment, mental health care, and community based safety.
[1:00:31] thank you very much. Thank you.
[1:00:35] mr. Ringler. Hello.
[1:00:37] good evening, mr. Pinto. Good morning.
[1:00:43] this mpd budget reflects money that we desperately, desperately
[1:00:48] need elsewhere. I'm just going to run through a
[1:00:50] quick list, echoing many of my colleagues sound thinking
[1:00:54] $500,000. Also formerly known as
[1:00:56] shotspotter, we've already spent $6.6 million on this.
[1:00:59] houston council last year decided to cancel the contract.
[1:01:02] let's cancel it. Let's take that money back and
[1:01:04] spend it elsewhere. As folks have said, it doesn't
[1:01:07] make us safer and it wastes mpd time.
[1:01:09] we're concerned about overtime. Great.
[1:01:11] let's reduce what they're doing. Flock cameras.
[1:01:13] we have a 1 to $5 million contract pending.
[1:01:17] let's cut it. It's invasive.
[1:01:19] it doesn't help us. Cellebrite and pathfinder.
[1:01:21] more digital surveillance. It's also an israeli company.
[1:01:24] these tools make everyone's data vulnerable.
[1:01:26] given mpd's relationship with federal agents, you weren't able
[1:01:28] to get any straight answers from their oversight hearing.
[1:01:30] the best way to make sure that this data doesn't get in the
[1:01:34] hands of the federal government is to not collect it whatsoever.
[1:01:38] in addition, israel is committing genocide, and we
[1:01:41] should not be having contracts with israeli companies.
[1:01:44] the communications department, the mayor's budget wildly calls
[1:01:48] for a 25th mpd communication staff member.
[1:01:51] in the time that we're cutting budgets for food, housing and
[1:01:54] healthcare, I'm going to say we certainly need food, housing and
[1:01:57] health care before they get number 25.
[1:01:59] in fact, let's cut eight positions.
[1:02:01] go back to the 2024 rates where mpd had 16 staff members.
[1:02:05] and finally, overtime, fewer mpd officers equal mpd doing less.
[1:02:11] it does not mean fewer mpd officers, does not mean mpd gets
[1:02:14] to run up 20, 30, 40 million in overtime.
[1:02:17] we need to be serious. When there's fewer teachers.
[1:02:19] those teachers don't get unlimited checks.
[1:02:21] when there's fewer firefighters, those firefighters don't get
[1:02:23] unlimited checks. Mpd needs to really hear from
[1:02:26] council. They don't have an infinite tap
[1:02:27] on money. In fact, they have to stop.
[1:02:29] and what's obscene is that we are you guys are saying they
[1:02:32] have infinite tap because they've they have 40 million.
[1:02:35] now you're saying they get 80 next year.
[1:02:37] it's wild that they get to spend overtime up and then turn around
[1:02:39] and ask for more officers. What needs to happen to make
[1:02:42] that balanced is they do less. For example, stop and frisk, as
[1:02:46] my colleague just said, stop stopping people.
[1:02:48] great. You've just saved hundreds and
[1:02:50] hundreds of hours of mpd time. Pull mpd out of schools.
[1:02:53] we had legislation about that. Great.
[1:02:56] stop participating in federal task forces.
[1:02:58] how much are we paying for mpd officers to collaborate with the
[1:03:01] feds? You have the power.
[1:03:03] council member pinto to say, no, you will not get a single dollar
[1:03:06] to collaborate with the feds. And that's power that you have
[1:03:08] in your hands. And now what do we do with all
[1:03:11] that money? We just had a great list of all
[1:03:13] the things we are going to cut. One, we're going to fund
[1:03:16] emergency rental assistance program because guess what?
[1:03:18] if people are housed, there's fewer crimes happening.
[1:03:21] we're going to fund health care. So many of my friends lost
[1:03:25] medicaid on january 1st because dc dropped their medicaid rates
[1:03:29] from 200% above poverty level to about 180.
[1:03:32] that's obscene. And there's a gap, council added
[1:03:35] some programs, some funding, but there's a set of people in that
[1:03:38] gap that no longer have health care people.
[1:03:40] we need health care, mental illness.
[1:03:42] we need non mpd crisis response, legal services.
[1:03:47] it's obscene that we're giving mpd more money to violate
[1:03:49] people's rights, and we're taking away the very lawyers
[1:03:51] that help those people. When mpd violates those rights
[1:03:54] programing for kids on curfews, you're saying that kids need
[1:03:57] more resources, and yet we're cutting dps budget.
[1:04:00] and finally foia requests. We're supposed to have access to
[1:04:04] mpd disciplinary records. But that bill has never been
[1:04:06] funded before. We get a comms person, I want
[1:04:10] the legislation that we have saying that I should be able to
[1:04:12] foia, mpd officers to be funded. Thank you.
[1:04:19] thank you. Thank you all very much.
[1:04:22] feni gandhi and jt foster. Hi.
[1:04:43] all right. We will begin with feni gandhi,
[1:04:45] public witness. Good morning all.
[1:04:50] my name is feni gandhi. I'm a current second year law
[1:04:53] student at the udc. David, a clark school of law.
[1:04:56] thank you for the opportunity to testify today regarding the mpd
[1:05:00] proposed budget and its relationship to the juvenile
[1:05:02] curfew policy. There are many moments when
[1:05:04] policy sounds convincing convincing in theory, but falls
[1:05:07] apart in practice. The district's juvenile curfew
[1:05:09] is one of those moments in the committee markup.
[1:05:12] you. Council member pinto emphasized
[1:05:14] that no one has been arrested for violating curfew, but that
[1:05:18] framing misses reality. Even if young people are not
[1:05:20] formally charged with curfew violations, they're still being
[1:05:24] stopped, questioned and arrested for related conduct.
[1:05:26] these are unnecessary interactions with law
[1:05:29] enforcement that would not occur otherwise.
[1:05:31] the harm is happening regardless of how it's labeled.
[1:05:34] the logic behind the curfew is deceptively simple.
[1:05:37] fewer young people outside at night means fewer crimes
[1:05:40] involving young people. As one critique explains, the
[1:05:45] assumption. The assumption is that there
[1:05:47] won't be crimes involving juveniles if there are no
[1:05:49] juveniles. But this reasoning ignores the
[1:05:52] root cause of youth crime, poverty, lack of opportunity and
[1:05:56] a limited access to safe, supportive environments.
[1:05:59] a curfew does not solve these problems, it merely pushes them
[1:06:02] out of sight. More importantly, the curfew
[1:06:05] represents a poor use of public resources.
[1:06:08] mpd's proposed budget increase increases by approximately $89
[1:06:12] million, with much of that increase being driven by
[1:06:14] personnel costs and a dramatic rise in overtime spending.
[1:06:19] enforcing curfew zones requires significant police presence at
[1:06:22] night, and the district is relying on overtime to sustain
[1:06:26] that presence. This is a reactive approach, not
[1:06:30] a preventative one. Rather than continuing to invest
[1:06:33] in strategy that has not produced meaningful results, the
[1:06:36] district should reconsider how these funds are allocated,
[1:06:40] redirecting even a portion of these resources towards
[1:06:42] prevention would far greater benefits.
[1:06:45] what young people in the city consistently point to is a lack
[1:06:48] of safe, accessible, safe spaces to gather.
[1:06:51] the problem is not simply that youth are outside, it's that
[1:06:54] they have nowhere else to go. D.c. D.c. Should invest in third
[1:06:58] spaces, community centered environments outside of homes
[1:07:01] and schools where young people can build relationships, access,
[1:07:05] access, support and spend time safely.
[1:07:07] the department of parks and recs rec have already demonstrated
[1:07:11] the value of this approach through structured youth
[1:07:13] programing during school breaks. Expanding these efforts,
[1:07:16] particularly during evening hours, would address the
[1:07:19] underlying conditions that gave rise to the gatherings and
[1:07:22] curfew gatherings. The curfew seeks to control.
[1:07:24] if the district is serious about reducing harm and improving
[1:07:28] public safety, it must move beyond policies that prioritize
[1:07:31] enforcement over investment. The question is not to how to
[1:07:34] how to keep young people off the streets, but how to create a
[1:07:38] city where they have somewhere better to be.
[1:07:39] thank you for your time and consideration.
[1:07:43] thank you, keisha foster, public witness.
[1:07:49] good morning, chairperson pinto and members of the committee.
[1:07:52] my name is jt foster and I am in my second year of law school at
[1:07:55] the university of the district of columbia.
[1:07:57] david, a clark school of law. And I'm here today to ask this
[1:08:01] committee a crucial question. Why are we protecting economic
[1:08:05] convenience by criminalizing our youth?
[1:08:08] because that is exactly what the current juvenile curfew is
[1:08:11] doing. When we implement curfew zones
[1:08:13] in navy yard, noma and u street corridor, the proposed increase
[1:08:18] in patrol funding is directly relevant to the juvenile curfew
[1:08:22] enforcement, because patrol services are often the primary
[1:08:26] mechanism to enforce a curfew, policies, increased patrol
[1:08:31] capacity means the district is responding to young people
[1:08:34] through enforcement rather than engagement.
[1:08:36] and this is why I urge the committee to reconsider the
[1:08:41] proposed $21.5 million increase for patrol services and instead
[1:08:45] direct those funds toward prevention by investing them in
[1:08:48] the youth and family engagement division, more commonly known as
[1:08:51] the yfd. If the council were to
[1:08:55] reallocate the proposed increase to the yfd, the district would
[1:08:58] be able to accomplish the outcomes we say we want, which
[1:09:01] is to reduce of violence the promote of community safety.
[1:09:07] this allocation to the yfd would strengthen relationships between
[1:09:10] young people and public safety systems, rather than expanding
[1:09:14] patrol capacity, the district should strengthen the
[1:09:17] infrastructure that prevents harm before it even occurs.
[1:09:22] a $21.5 million investment in yfd could expand youth
[1:09:26] programing and increase violence prevention, support and create a
[1:09:31] safe space and meaningful engagement opportunities for
[1:09:34] youth across the district. A public safety should not be
[1:09:39] solely defined by enforcement capacity, but should also
[1:09:43] include sustained investments in systems that make communities
[1:09:47] safer. So dc and this committee has a
[1:09:51] choice. Continue funding responses
[1:09:52] centered on overpolicing and criminalization of youth, or
[1:09:56] make deeper investments in prevention and youth development
[1:10:00] to ensure community safety. And I respectfully ask this
[1:10:04] committee to choose the former by redirecting the proposed
[1:10:09] $21.5 million increase in patrols to and redirect them to
[1:10:12] the youth and family engagement division and demonstrate through
[1:10:16] this budget that prevention is a core public safety strategy.
[1:10:20] thank you. Thank you.
[1:10:23] thank you both. Thank you to all of our public
[1:10:26] witnesses who have joined us in person today.
[1:10:28] I appreciate you all being here. We are going to turn to our
[1:10:32] public witnesses who are joining us virtually.
[1:10:35] as a reminder, please accept your invitation to join as a
[1:10:41] panelist, jonah goodman. Dave statter, paula edwards,
[1:10:45] commissioner paul edwards, ty hobson, powell ojeifo anyanwu,
[1:10:51] caroline pryor, scott goldstein, devon montgomery, john payne,
[1:10:59] l'oreal. Hawk.
[1:11:15] jonah goodman, are you here? Great, yes.
[1:11:20] go ahead. Yeah.
[1:11:23] thank you. I have three requests.
[1:11:25] this is for office of unified communications.
[1:11:28] today in 2025, you see hearings. Chairperson pinto, you mentioned
[1:11:32] that usc does not have resources to investigate every unc
[1:11:36] dispatch mistake they made while the mayor and director talk
[1:11:39] about how ouc now answers more calls in the first 15 seconds,
[1:11:41] they don't mention that ouc continues to make significant
[1:11:44] dispatch errors and worse, that they're hiding this claim,
[1:11:47] saying they don't have the resources to investigate.
[1:11:49] and worse, we know that individuals are seriously
[1:11:51] injured, potentially dying as life saving help is sent to
[1:11:54] non-existent addresses or wrong quadrants.
[1:11:57] the problem is so pervasive. I've been emailing this
[1:12:00] committee and director mcgaffin with numerous mistakes every
[1:12:02] week. I've sent you all recordings of
[1:12:05] ouc dispatch traffic showing the mistake, reports sent to ouc of
[1:12:08] the mistake, and ouc responding, saying they've received the
[1:12:12] report yet. Ouc investigates none of these
[1:12:14] and this committee has done nothing about it.
[1:12:16] every 13th since committee recording of error with eight
[1:12:19] minutes last time, february 20th, I sent the confirmation
[1:12:22] dispatch area of cardiac arrest that sent the wrong address.
[1:12:25] february 27th I sent this committee recording of dispatch
[1:12:28] error where they mishandled dispatch and lost 26 minutes.
[1:12:31] every week. There's one of these going on
[1:12:34] trevor's and pinto in your 2025 ouc oversight hearing.
[1:12:38] you admitted that, quote, it's a matter of time and resources to
[1:12:41] investigate these issues. And if they don't have the
[1:12:43] caller's phone number, even when you have a recording of the
[1:12:46] radio traffic, you see make a mistake.
[1:12:48] the report with the time, the date, the location, and ouc has
[1:12:53] confirmed that they have these reports.
[1:12:55] this doesn't get investigated. So asking for budget to give ouc
[1:12:59] ability to actually investigate all this.
[1:13:01] we know how pervasive this this issue is.
[1:13:04] it shouldn't take a citizen like me documenting these issues and
[1:13:06] send them over to the committee to review this.
[1:13:11] director gaffen in january 2026, oversee oversight hearings,
[1:13:14] said, quote, everything we receive is reflected on that
[1:13:18] dashboard, but we know that's absolutely not true, given that
[1:13:22] director, council member pinto and director gaffen, you have
[1:13:25] emails with this documentation of these errors of the radio
[1:13:28] traffic, and nothing gets put in.
[1:13:31] these written response to this committee on april 14th are
[1:13:34] somewhat of a joke. When you ask about mistakes,
[1:13:37] they keep saying, after you hear from a concerned resident, oh,
[1:13:41] uc recommends the committee refer them back to the website
[1:13:43] to ensure details and allegations provided for the
[1:13:45] review. But the director actually has
[1:13:48] all of these in her inbox and is doing nothing about it.
[1:13:50] so our recommendation here get ouc resources or find resources
[1:13:54] outside of usc to independently review continuation of mistakes
[1:13:57] and what's happening so we can learn from them.
[1:14:00] second, request funding for usc to comply with laws around foia
[1:14:04] requests. We know council member pinto,
[1:14:06] I've sent you multiple emails on this.
[1:14:08] uc denies foia requests. The mayor's office legal counsel
[1:14:12] comes back. Ouc refuses to talk with them.
[1:14:15] olc sides with the people assuming foia requests.
[1:14:17] ouc then denies it and says they won't report it.
[1:14:21] I asked for a foia director mcgaffin for records of her
[1:14:26] receiving a confirmation of an error and oucs response, saying
[1:14:28] they had it. We have that documentation.
[1:14:31] councilman pinto, I sent it to you.
[1:14:32] you have it, I have it. And director mcgaffin said they
[1:14:34] cannot find it and they're not going to comply with foi
[1:14:36] requests. So looking for independent
[1:14:39] resources so that we can comply with foia requests.
[1:14:43] and lastly, and again, late on time, just this is adjacent to
[1:14:46] it. But I know officer chief
[1:14:47] technology council, if we can ask them for funds, one of
[1:14:50] things I'm running with this committee a lot is council
[1:14:52] members having a lot of technical issues.
[1:14:54] every time I ask why is there a mistake not being investigated,
[1:14:56] I get answers that, oh, the emails lost, they can't find it.
[1:14:59] council members can't understand a response.
[1:15:01] I know this is never on the council members, so let's get
[1:15:03] octa to come in and help you understand.
[1:15:05] and the committee members, what's happening to your emails
[1:15:07] and why you can't respond to these issues of documented
[1:15:10] mistakes. Thank you so much.
[1:15:12] thank you. Dave statter, staten island one
[1:15:16] communications. Good morning.
[1:15:19] 5:29 a.m. Last december, second engine 11.
[1:15:22] the communications. Did you get anybody on the call
[1:15:25] back? No.
[1:15:26] answer. 530 engine 11 communications.
[1:15:30] no answer. 22 seconds later, engine 11 to
[1:15:34] communications. No answer.
[1:15:37] 532. Engine 11 communications.
[1:15:40] no answer. 14 seconds later.
[1:15:42] engine 11 to communications. No answer.
[1:15:46] 533. Medic 21 to communications.
[1:15:50] no answer. 19 seconds later.
[1:15:53] engine 11 communications. Still no answer.
[1:15:57] seven times in four minutes. Dispatchers didn't answer the
[1:16:00] radio during a cardiac arrest call.
[1:16:03] despite that fact, on april 14th, in her third response to
[1:16:07] you about this call, heather mcgaffin refused to admit that
[1:16:11] her dispatchers didn't answer the radio.
[1:16:14] now, on the positive side, a call taker did a great job
[1:16:17] keeping the phone line open even after the caller home alone
[1:16:22] stopped responding. But this crucial information
[1:16:25] wasn't relayed to fire and ems until 19 minutes into the call.
[1:16:30] so who does? Director mcgaffin blame?
[1:16:32] not her. Dispatchers.
[1:16:34] instead, she wrote, the call taker continued to update the
[1:16:38] dispatch notes, which were apparently not seen by fems.
[1:16:43] so how could the firefighters and medics not see it?
[1:16:46] well, they were outside the apartment door doing their job,
[1:16:49] poised to break in. What she didn't explain is why
[1:16:53] her dispatchers didn't see such an important message, and then
[1:16:56] relay it to those crews. After all, that's their job.
[1:17:01] despite these outrageous and unfortunately, very common dc
[1:17:05] 911 mistakes, the director wrote to you, appropriate action was
[1:17:08] taken by all involved. Oh, you see, personnel.
[1:17:12] and if that's not absurd enough, director mcgaffin also wrote
[1:17:17] fems asked oh, you see, for authorization to breach the
[1:17:20] door. However, the agency does not
[1:17:22] make such decisions. That just didn't happen.
[1:17:25] there's no evidence of it. It's fantasy.
[1:17:28] this mcgaffin had listened to the radio traffic.
[1:17:30] she would have heard the officer of engine 11 say, and I quote,
[1:17:34] I'm prepared to force entry. I'm ready to force entry.
[1:17:37] we just want to make sure we're forcing entry into the correct
[1:17:41] department. It's five months after an
[1:17:44] extremely botched high priority medical call, and after three
[1:17:48] requests, you still can't get straight answers.
[1:17:51] mcgaffin failure to take responsibility and instead point
[1:17:55] fingers tells you all you need to know why the bill to give the
[1:17:58] dc fire and ems medical directory director authority
[1:18:02] over ems protocols and quality assurance must pass.
[1:18:06] as I wrap up, I beg you to ask director mcgaffin these
[1:18:09] questions. What were dispatchers doing?
[1:18:12] instead of answering the radio or reading and relaying the call
[1:18:15] takers priority message, their cameras on the operations floor,
[1:18:18] she can find that answer. Where did mcgaffin get the
[1:18:22] absurd idea that firefighters asked for permission to breach
[1:18:25] the door? And after district dogs director
[1:18:28] mcgaffin said her staff better understands that fire and ems
[1:18:32] aren't always in the unit reading their mdts.
[1:18:35] so why is the director putting it on fire and ems to see these
[1:18:40] messages, and is absolving dispatchers of responsibility?
[1:18:44] please don't let her say she'll respond with responses in
[1:18:47] writing later. Three chances in five months.
[1:18:50] time's up. It's her job to know these
[1:18:52] answers. If she doesn't, she should
[1:18:55] resign. Thank you.
[1:18:58] thank you, commissioner paula edwards.
[1:19:03] hello, chair pinto, thank you for allowing me to testify
[1:19:07] today. I'm the anc chair for commission
[1:19:09] for a and the commissioner for a and c for a zero one.
[1:19:13] I would like to testify in opposition to any cuts to the
[1:19:16] oec budget based on my constituents feedback.
[1:19:19] I do not have experience with the 911 system that other
[1:19:23] witnesses have, but I hardly think it would be improved by a
[1:19:26] budget cut. My experience has mostly been
[1:19:29] with the 311 system. My constituents seem to be
[1:19:33] satisfied with the 311 system overall, but are very critical
[1:19:36] of the way agencies use the system.
[1:19:39] specifically the way requests are closed without action.
[1:19:45] so sorry. Or explanation.
[1:19:49] the majority of requests in my s, m, d are for dpw and ddot.
[1:19:54] I tracked repeated ddo requests for one alley repair in my smd
[1:19:59] back to 2016. The requests were closed with no
[1:20:03] explanation, no indication that the defect had been cured or
[1:20:06] remediated for almost ten years. The alley continued to
[1:20:10] deteriorate until it was finally repaired this spring.
[1:20:13] director mcgaffin and the o. C community outreach team have
[1:20:16] been very helpful to me in understanding the limitations
[1:20:19] and stresses on the system. Similarly, dpw requests often
[1:20:24] involve the same addresses that are closed without correction or
[1:20:27] show repeated incidences of defect.
[1:20:30] this methodology ensures that the system is overtaxed and
[1:20:34] hastens its deterioration and failure.
[1:20:36] I hope we can invest more in improving agency responses and
[1:20:41] transparency in use. Of the 311 system and in helping
[1:20:44] constituents to understand how it works so that we do not
[1:20:48] destroy it. Thank you.
[1:20:49] and I'm available for questions. Thank you commissioner.
[1:20:56] ty hobson. Powell.
[1:21:04] o heffernan, aclu dc. Can you hear me?
[1:21:11] yes. All right.
[1:21:14] hello, chair pinto and members of the committee.
[1:21:15] my name is ahoy, and I present the following on behalf of aclu
[1:21:20] dc. It is more critical than ever
[1:21:23] that dc. S limited resources are invested
[1:21:25] into public safety strategies that respond to the real needs
[1:21:28] of dc residents that center impacted communities and move
[1:21:32] away from carceral centric strategies, strategies that
[1:21:36] decades of observation and research have shown.
[1:21:38] excuse me. Strategies that decades of
[1:21:41] observation and research have made clear do not work.
[1:21:44] do not make the best use of resources, and certainly do not
[1:21:47] make communities safer. My written testimony goes into
[1:21:51] goes into detail about staffing and accountability at mpd, and
[1:21:56] closing loopholes that allow mpd to exploit dc law to engage in
[1:22:00] immigration enforcement. Today, I will focus on how the
[1:22:03] district's response to concerns about youth behavior is setting
[1:22:07] up both young people and the proposed strategies for failure.
[1:22:11] a cdc strongly urges the council to reverse course and reject the
[1:22:15] permanent youth curfew bill. Over the past couple of years,
[1:22:18] multiple youth curfews have been implemented.
[1:22:21] during this time, we have seen that these policies do not
[1:22:24] improve public safety and do not deter young people from
[1:22:27] congregating in large groups. This is not an effective use of
[1:22:31] dc's budget, when it could be used to support and uplift the
[1:22:34] district's youth with the curfew.
[1:22:36] policies have done is provide an excuse for police to racially
[1:22:40] profile, harass and provoke black youth who are the primary
[1:22:44] targets of enforcement. Mpd officers have been observed
[1:22:47] running after young people and stopping those trying to leave
[1:22:51] from getting on the metro. Witnesses have recorded mpd
[1:22:55] officers forcefully grabbing young people, taunting and
[1:22:58] threatening them and yelling aggressively while pointing
[1:23:01] pepper spray guns at them and adults trying to deescalate.
[1:23:04] it must also be noted that although mpd is not formally
[1:23:08] arresting young people in these zones, the experience of being
[1:23:11] placed and transported in a squad car, be it to their home
[1:23:15] or facility, can have the same traumatic impact.
[1:23:19] there are many factors that influence young people's
[1:23:22] behavior. These include the adolescent
[1:23:24] brain being hardwired for risk taking, economic instability,
[1:23:28] feeling unsafe and wanting to belong.
[1:23:30] not only has research shown that addressing these factors is the
[1:23:34] best way to change youth behavior, young people have made
[1:23:37] clear that these are the areas in which they need support.
[1:23:40] young people have come before the council advocating for
[1:23:43] better access to mental health services spaces to engage in
[1:23:47] activities and and viable employment opportunities.
[1:23:51] the response from district leaders has been to invest
[1:23:54] disproportionately in criminalization, while young
[1:23:56] people get cuts to funding. Excuse me.
[1:23:59] while young people get cuts in funding to school based
[1:24:03] behavioral health and recreation police who are already ill
[1:24:07] equipped to handle many of the public safety duties, they are
[1:24:10] tasked with, including interacting with youth, get more
[1:24:14] resources and lower hiring standards.
[1:24:16] to be clear, ac dc is not suggesting that young people who
[1:24:20] cause harm should not be held accountable.
[1:24:22] what we are saying is that the current approaches, which
[1:24:26] overemphasize punitive measures and cast too broad of a net,
[1:24:29] have not. Excuse me, have been proven
[1:24:32] ineffective and more harmful to young people and their
[1:24:35] communities. While curfew policies may be an
[1:24:38] easy strategy for attempting to control the movement of young
[1:24:41] people and might even make certain people feel more
[1:24:45] comfortable, they do not get at the root of the challenges young
[1:24:47] people in the communities are facing.
[1:24:49] they tell young people, particularly black youth, that
[1:24:52] they do not belong in their own city and that their safety and
[1:24:57] well-being comes second to other people's comfort.
[1:24:59] in order to make the best use of dc's tax dollars, aclu, dc
[1:25:03] implores the council to truly listen to young people at
[1:25:08] tomorrow's roundtable and to make policy decisions informed
[1:25:10] by their experiences and what evidence shows us to be
[1:25:14] effective. Thank you, and I'm ready to
[1:25:16] answer any questions you may have.
[1:25:18] okay. Thank you very much.
[1:25:19] I do want to remind all of our public witnesses that we have
[1:25:23] three minutes to present your testimony.
[1:25:24] I always feel badly cutting people off, but I'm going to
[1:25:28] have to. So if you can try to keep
[1:25:31] yourself three minutes, that would be helpful.
[1:25:35] caroline pryor, director of policy and power building and
[1:25:38] power. Hello.
[1:25:42] good morning, chairwoman pinto and staff.
[1:25:45] my name is caroline pryor. I'm the director of policy and
[1:25:47] power building at empower. I will do my best to keep to
[1:25:50] three minutes this year. I've testified before your
[1:25:53] committee on multiple occasions to advocate against two
[1:25:56] intertwined issues the youth curfew and mpd collaboration
[1:25:59] with federal agencies. We have a disturbing
[1:26:03] contradiction consistently displayed in both this committee
[1:26:05] and the committee of the whole. Mpd says that they uphold
[1:26:08] certain guardrails, such as that they are not over complying with
[1:26:12] federal law enforcement, that they are not collaborating with
[1:26:15] ice, that they are not assaulting our young people with
[1:26:17] pepper spray or use of force, claiming that they are not
[1:26:21] arresting any children due to curfew violations.
[1:26:24] while community members affirm through eyewitness testimony
[1:26:27] that this is patently false. On occasion, when video evidence
[1:26:31] goes viral, council members pay lip service.
[1:26:33] but on the whole, and although we are grateful for your recent
[1:26:36] attempts to force transparency in federal law enforcement
[1:26:40] interactions, we are not seeing adequate attention to community
[1:26:42] voices. In many cases, what we're seeing
[1:26:44] is council protecting systems that perpetuate law enforcement
[1:26:47] harm. Despite direct evidence from
[1:26:49] young people and their families that it places them at greater
[1:26:52] risk. I won't extensively rehash my
[1:26:55] comments from the performance oversight hearing, which pointed
[1:26:57] out the vastly disparate impact of mpd's current policies on
[1:27:00] black youth. 94% of reported stops and
[1:27:04] searches, and the removal of 127 young people from curfew zones
[1:27:08] to throw into is since calendar year 2025, we can look at
[1:27:13] testimony from school community members throughout the council
[1:27:16] session documenting terrifying cases of immigration enforcement
[1:27:19] near schools, and I urge you to tune in tomorrow to council
[1:27:23] member parker keith roundtable to hear students echo in his
[1:27:26] committee what they have said here that youth curfew creates
[1:27:29] rather than prevents danger, and that we must invest in systems
[1:27:32] that empower them and their families instead.
[1:27:35] not. In addition, today, I also want
[1:27:37] to urge your committee to probe into the juvenile investigative
[1:27:41] response unit, which I suspect is the mpd unit.
[1:27:44] quote, investigating teen takeovers of deep concern is
[1:27:47] their collaboration with leas and individual schools mentioned
[1:27:49] several times in pre-hearing comments.
[1:27:51] in what capacity is this unit working with schools?
[1:27:54] what student records are they accessing?
[1:27:56] what meaningful oversight is council enforcing over this unit
[1:27:58] to prevent overreach? Each disclosure about this unit
[1:28:02] seems different from the last. Their vague promotional
[1:28:05] literature seems at odds with deputy mayor appiah's
[1:28:08] description of their work. Are they creating, quote,
[1:28:10] success plans for young people? As the deputy mayor testified,
[1:28:14] in what ways are schools expected to comply with this
[1:28:16] work or the units directives? Many of our schools exist in
[1:28:20] neighborhoods where students are violently overpoliced and
[1:28:23] racially profiled, and where community members understand
[1:28:25] what's at stake. Many of those that did trust law
[1:28:28] enforcement after the past year have reevaluated that mindset.
[1:28:31] students and teachers of history have already made connections in
[1:28:34] this committee between policies like the juvenile curfew and
[1:28:37] slave codes, between immigration raids and fascist nationalism.
[1:28:41] in your committee, you control enormous quantities of funding.
[1:28:44] meanwhile, champs has been eliminated.
[1:28:46] school based behavioral health has been slashed, dpr has lost
[1:28:49] millions, community schools has been zeroed out.
[1:28:51] we've lost the child tax credit and millions of dollars from
[1:28:54] tanf. But will council greenlight mpd
[1:28:57] budget? While while social services
[1:28:59] languish, we cannot pump more and more funding into mpd
[1:29:03] without accountability for the harm it funds, not just for us
[1:29:05] adults, but for future generations too.
[1:29:08] thank you. Thank you.
[1:29:26] scott goldstein, executive director, empower ed, good
[1:29:30] morning. I do the work I do because I
[1:29:32] feel a deep injustice and unfairness between the way I was
[1:29:34] able to experience childhood compared to the way young people
[1:29:37] have been treated in my adopted city, where I've now lived most
[1:29:39] of my life. Washington, d.c. Is full of
[1:29:41] amazing young people. I had the incredible privilege
[1:29:44] to teach so many of them for a decade and maintain
[1:29:46] relationships with them since. In the past year especially, it
[1:29:49] has made me incredibly upset to hear the way young people are
[1:29:51] talked about. Faced with efforts to control
[1:29:53] them rather than empower them to hold them accountable without
[1:29:56] ever having provided them what they need to thrive.
[1:29:58] I'm a history teacher by training, so I hope you'll
[1:30:00] indulge me a little bit. The word curfew originates from
[1:30:03] the french words curfew, which literally means cover fire.
[1:30:07] it comes from a time before artificial light when people
[1:30:09] still used campfires to stay up and talk before bedtime.
[1:30:12] at the time when it was time to cover the the fire, all would
[1:30:16] retreat home for their first sleep.
[1:30:17] they would wake after four hours or so for their period of 1 to 3
[1:30:22] hours of being awake before their second sleep.
[1:30:23] but the relevant part here is what they did before the sleep,
[1:30:26] which is to be together. Research finds that at this
[1:30:29] time, 80% of conversation during the day was about work, but 81%
[1:30:33] of conversation by the fire was about fun and brought deeper
[1:30:36] connection. There's probably no time in life
[1:30:38] where we long for connection more than adolescents, and we've
[1:30:41] jammed the lives of young people with long hours of school,
[1:30:43] followed by activities followed by homework.
[1:30:45] and for many young people in d.c., the need to care for
[1:30:48] younger siblings. They see entire neighborhoods
[1:30:50] built up of restaurants that they could never afford.
[1:30:52] yoga studios, dozens of adult gyms, kayak rentals, wineries
[1:30:55] and breweries, the neighborhoods many of them live and have none
[1:30:58] of this, but they also don't have the things that they want
[1:31:01] most a mall just to roam around and hang with friends, laser tag
[1:31:04] teen dance clubs that are safe, fast casual spots like chipotle
[1:31:07] and on and on. They want to be in connection
[1:31:10] with each other and have fun. They want to do it safely.
[1:31:12] our kids are not looking to cause harm, so when they jump on
[1:31:15] a bike, share and ride through navy yard only to have police
[1:31:17] grab them and rip them off their bike for the crime of being
[1:31:20] black while riding a bike through town and then openly
[1:31:22] taunt them. What message does this send to
[1:31:24] them? We owe the residents of dc real
[1:31:26] safety and justice. We do not have real safety when
[1:31:29] our plan for creating safety is banning people from a space, we
[1:31:32] do not have safety. If instead of creating the
[1:31:34] conditions for peace, working with parents, creating the
[1:31:36] needed programing and working with community institutions,
[1:31:39] with real trust, with young people, we simply make it
[1:31:41] illegal to be in a group at a reasonable hour like 8 p.m. This
[1:31:44] is a budget hearing. So this is what should happen
[1:31:45] with the mpd budget. We should move funding from mpd
[1:31:48] signing bonuses which have been ineffective budget policy, and
[1:31:51] prioritize pay for proactive justice staff from safe passage
[1:31:54] workers to educators and paraprofessionals, and reinvest
[1:31:56] much of that in cbos that can actually have relationships with
[1:32:00] young people and give them a sense of identity and
[1:32:02] togetherness. They need to be in safe and
[1:32:03] joyful in our city, working with the education cluster to
[1:32:06] prioritize deep investment in conflict resolution.
[1:32:08] two years ago, we brought a budget proposal for 250,000 and
[1:32:12] incredibly effective conflict resolution curriculum and
[1:32:14] teacher training to the council. There wasn't money for that, but
[1:32:17] there's plenty of money for police signing bonuses and
[1:32:19] overtime. We should transfer safe passage
[1:32:21] out of dmps so it's not associated with mpd.
[1:32:23] we should work to with the executive to increase the safe
[1:32:27] passage budget so safe passage workers can integrate into the
[1:32:29] school day full time. We should fund the mentorship
[1:32:32] bill authored by council member robert white, that passed and
[1:32:34] never received funding and work with dpr to dramatically expand
[1:32:37] programing, both after school, late night and weekends.
[1:32:39] our vision for public safety and justice can't be the absence of
[1:32:42] children in our streets. It must be the presence of real
[1:32:45] peace, opportunity and joy. Children deserve their campfire.
[1:32:48] you can budget to make it so. Thank you.
[1:32:53] thank you, devon montgomery, fellow and dc educator at
[1:32:58] empowered. Good morning, chairperson pinto.
[1:33:01] my name is devon montgomery and I'm the dean of students at
[1:33:04] harmony d.c. Public charter school.
[1:33:06] and empowered fellow and a member of the coalition.
[1:33:09] the mission of mpd is to safeguard the district and
[1:33:12] protect its residents and visitors with the highest regard
[1:33:14] for the entity of human life. I challenge the council in this
[1:33:17] committee to help make this a reality by redirecting proposed
[1:33:20] funding from an already bloated mpd budget to protecting social
[1:33:23] safety nets that truly ensure justice for all.
[1:33:27] I'm here today to ask this committee to fund proactive
[1:33:29] safety measures that invest in our communities, rather than in
[1:33:32] the police department. Safe passage, dpi, youth
[1:33:35] programing, youth mentorship and school based behavioral health
[1:33:38] services are far more effective ways to approach public safety
[1:33:42] than implementing a juvenile curfew.
[1:33:44] social safety net serve to reduce poverty, protect people
[1:33:47] from economic instability, improve health, improve
[1:33:50] employment outcomes, and increase overall well-being of
[1:33:53] all d.c. Residents. Ensuring a basic standard of
[1:33:56] living for those who cannot support themselves.
[1:33:59] the proposed budget increases mpd funding from 599 million in
[1:34:06] fy 26 to 688 million in fy 27. This increase of almost 90
[1:34:09] million includes about 86 million in local funds and
[1:34:12] nearly 4 million in federal funds.
[1:34:14] I would ask that mpd reach out for federal funding to secure
[1:34:18] the desired 86 million increase for overtime.
[1:34:21] I believe that administration would be more than happy to foot
[1:34:24] the bill to secure the nation's capital, as it celebrates its
[1:34:29] 250th anniversary. We can all agree that every
[1:34:31] community is safer when residents are housing, secure,
[1:34:34] food, secure, economically stable, both physically and
[1:34:37] mentally healthy, well educated and have safe spaces to
[1:34:40] congregate. That 86 million in local funds
[1:34:43] dedicated to overtime could then be used to strengthen dc social
[1:34:46] safety net in a variety of ways. 2 million in fy 27 for the youth
[1:34:51] mentorship through community engagement act passed without
[1:34:54] funding. 16.7 million for db, 4 million
[1:35:00] to ozone in dps for teacher retention fund.
[1:35:03] 3 million to dm. Increasing funding for ost
[1:35:05] programing. 4.4 mil to are seen in dc for
[1:35:09] community schools. 6.1 million to db for
[1:35:14] school-based behavioral health through champs.
[1:35:16] 4 million invested in restructuring safe passage under
[1:35:20] either c or d, 400,000 to ozone for educator wellness grants.
[1:35:26] 7 million to dhs for irap. 2.4 million to dhs for dcha.
[1:35:33] permanent support housing vouchers 1.25 million to doe to
[1:35:37] build a ward 8 community food hub.
[1:35:40] two 20.5 million to dhs for temporary.
[1:35:42] for tanf for tanf program. 5.48 million to dpr for site
[1:35:48] based programing and 5.6 million to dpr for recreational services
[1:35:52] and programing. All of these social safety net
[1:35:55] programs add up to 82.58 million, and there are a variety
[1:36:00] of other services that could also keep dc residents safe.
[1:36:03] resources and programing keep residents safe, not law
[1:36:07] enforcement. Thank you for your time and
[1:36:08] consideration of my testimony. Please review my written
[1:36:10] testimony for further elaborations.
[1:36:15] thank you. John payne, public witness.
[1:36:23] good morning. My name is john payne.
[1:36:25] I'm a born and raised washingtonian and I currently
[1:36:28] live in ward four. I'm here today because I'm
[1:36:31] appalled. I'm appalled that we are
[1:36:33] drastically cutting so many life giving services to our city.
[1:36:35] at the same time that we're giving mpd a 15% raise, instead
[1:36:40] of shoveling more tax dollars onto the burning refuse heap
[1:36:43] that is mpd, we should use that money to fund programs that
[1:36:46] truly keep us safe. I'm going to focus on two of
[1:36:49] those programs today. Non-police response to mental
[1:36:52] health and substance abuse crisis and erap dc has had a
[1:36:57] non-police emergency response program for years, but it's
[1:37:00] never been truly funded. I cannot count the times that I
[1:37:03] have called for non-police response, or just for an
[1:37:05] ambulance and gotten a cop instead.
[1:37:08] several years ago, there was a neighbor in crisis in the alley
[1:37:10] behind my house. She was sitting down and
[1:37:12] thrashing around on the pavement, her arms swinging in
[1:37:14] the air wildly. Neither my wife or I felt that
[1:37:17] we could reach her to try and see if she was okay, and talk
[1:37:19] with her safely. I called to get an ambulance,
[1:37:22] but before ems could arrive, multiple mpd cars showed up
[1:37:27] instead. I don't know what the officer
[1:37:29] said to her, but she ran away before the ambulance could get
[1:37:31] there. There are sadly many more
[1:37:34] examples of this because we have not funded non-police response
[1:37:37] team to fully meet our city's needs.
[1:37:40] there are some obvious things that we can cut from mpd's
[1:37:43] bloated budget. Mpd invested millions in
[1:37:46] surveillance technology that does not work, and gives our
[1:37:48] information over to ice from 2016 to 2024, mpd has paid over
[1:37:54] 6.6 million to shotspotter to try and dispatch police to the
[1:37:57] sound of gunfire. This is despite the fact that
[1:37:59] their contract with the city of chicago and other major cities
[1:38:02] has been canceled after learning that 86% of their dispatchers
[1:38:05] were not related to any crime at all.
[1:38:08] we've spent another 6 million on flock and celebrate, despite the
[1:38:11] fact that the data from these companies goes to databases
[1:38:14] that's accessed by ice and other agencies, these tools do not
[1:38:18] make us safe. They make our data vulnerable
[1:38:21] and given mpd's relationship to federal agencies, the only way
[1:38:24] we guarantee that our data does not end up in the hands of ice
[1:38:27] or the big, beautiful task force, is to not gather it in
[1:38:29] the first place. Non-police emergency response
[1:38:34] and emergency rental assistance program are the perfect places
[1:38:37] for this money. The city is already investing in
[1:38:40] narcan training and distribution sites, as well as public health
[1:38:43] vending machines. These types of non-police
[1:38:45] programs have helped significantly lower dcs overdose
[1:38:49] numbers. We need to keep investing in
[1:38:51] non-police responses to mental health and substance abuse, so
[1:38:53] that anyone in crisis can get the assistance they need without
[1:38:57] interacting with law enforcement, without being
[1:38:59] harmed by a police officer, or being put into the carceral
[1:39:02] system. Similarly, investments in the
[1:39:04] program will keep many of our neighbors from becoming
[1:39:07] unhoused, staying in their homes and apartments is what will keep
[1:39:10] people safe, not more police. And this is especially true
[1:39:13] given that our unhoused neighbors are now being harassed
[1:39:16] and assaulted by mpd and the federal task force to close.
[1:39:20] the past year has shown an agonizing detail.
[1:39:22] the problems that come with just shoveling money at mpd and
[1:39:26] expecting them to solve all of our problems, instead of
[1:39:29] rewarding violent thugs who want nothing more than to keep their
[1:39:31] jackboots on our neck. Let's use this moment as an
[1:39:34] opportunity to spend our city's resources and our tax dollars on
[1:39:37] the things that truly matter. Thank you.
[1:39:42] thank you, l'oreal hawk. Bianca palmisano.
[1:39:57] okay. All right.
[1:39:57] thank you all very much for your testimony.
[1:40:00] I'm going to call the next group.
[1:40:03] as a reminder, please accept your invitation to join as a
[1:40:09] panelist. Jackie, carol.
[1:40:11] jenny wilson, abel. Amin.
[1:40:16] kimberly clisby, christine corey and cheryl k.
[1:40:25] we will begin with jackie, carol.
[1:40:30] public witness. Okay.
[1:40:41] jenny wilson, crisis response team director from dc safe.
[1:40:50] good afternoon, chairperson pinto and members of the
[1:40:53] committee. My name is jenny wilson and I'm
[1:40:54] the crisis response team director for dc safe.
[1:40:57] we value our long standing partnership with the
[1:40:59] metropolitan police department and recognize the critical role
[1:41:02] officers play in responding to domestic violence.
[1:41:04] mpd officers are often the first point of contact for survivors
[1:41:08] in a moment of crisis and through officer referrals.
[1:41:11] more than 13,000 survivors have connected with dc safe crisis
[1:41:14] response line in fiscal year 26. Their participation in
[1:41:18] initiatives like the lethality assessment project has
[1:41:20] strengthened coordination and improved safety outcomes.
[1:41:23] we acknowledge the difficulty of their work and support fair
[1:41:25] compensation for officers. However, this year's proposed
[1:41:28] budget raises important questions about whether our
[1:41:30] current approach is the most effective way to improve public
[1:41:33] safety. The proposed increase nearly 92
[1:41:36] million more than last year, including a 100% increase in
[1:41:38] their overtime budget, continues a pattern of expanding
[1:41:42] investment in policing and at a time of tight budgets and
[1:41:45] limited city funds. We must ask, is this trajectory
[1:41:49] producing better outcomes, particularly for victims of
[1:41:52] domestic violence? Dc has been successful in
[1:41:54] driving down community violence, and we applaud those efforts.
[1:41:57] but success did not come with policing alone.
[1:41:59] success came with investments across innovative programing and
[1:42:03] agencies. One example is the
[1:42:05] multidisciplinary work we do with city agencies through the
[1:42:08] domestic violence systems review team.
[1:42:10] we see every day that we cannot police our way out of domestic
[1:42:13] violence. Officers are often responding to
[1:42:15] situations where underlying needs housing, financial
[1:42:18] stability, access to services are beyond what policing alone
[1:42:21] can address. Many officers recognize this and
[1:42:23] are frustrated by the limitations of their role.
[1:42:26] these increases. While we also see cuts in victim
[1:42:30] services, access to justice, dhs and other social safety nets are
[1:42:34] troubling. We see we are seeing an
[1:42:36] increasing severity in domestic violence cases, and we think mpd
[1:42:39] has a critical role. But we must consider whether
[1:42:42] broader disinvestment in the social safety net is adding fuel
[1:42:44] to the fire. When communities become more
[1:42:46] vulnerable, the risk of violence increases.
[1:42:48] we must also acknowledge growing barriers to the trust between
[1:42:51] survivors and law enforcement challenges around immigration
[1:42:54] enforcement and visa certification are discouraging
[1:42:57] some survivors from coming forward.
[1:42:58] I spoke with someone just this weekend who feared reporting the
[1:43:01] full extent of the violence he experienced to mpd because of
[1:43:04] their partner's status. Trust is foundational to the
[1:43:07] public safety, but it will take time to rebuild investments in
[1:43:10] strengthening entry points outside of the police, such as
[1:43:12] our crisis intervention center, developed with the support of
[1:43:15] obs. Jg, provide relief in a critical
[1:43:17] moment. We will continue encouraging the
[1:43:19] council and agencies within the public safety cluster to think
[1:43:21] about how to work smarter in a time of fiscal scarcity.
[1:43:24] there are practical opportunities to strengthen mpd
[1:43:27] response, including improvements in data collection,
[1:43:30] transparency, coordination and communication.
[1:43:32] these improvements have been discussed at length during past
[1:43:34] performance hearing testimony, but these are not solely
[1:43:36] resource issues. They're also about
[1:43:38] prioritization. As a council evaluates this
[1:43:40] budget, we urge a balanced approach.
[1:43:43] increase funding to mpd does not necessarily address root causes
[1:43:45] or system gaps. We must consider whether
[1:43:48] continued increases are producing long, long standing
[1:43:51] and sustainable improvements. Public safety requires a
[1:43:54] coordinated, community wide approach, like the high risk
[1:43:56] domestic violence initiative. While mpd is a critical partner,
[1:43:59] they cannot do this work alone. Investment in social services
[1:44:02] and prevention are essential to reducing domestic violence and
[1:44:05] improving safety across the district.
[1:44:06] thank you for your time and I look forward to answering any
[1:44:09] questions. Thank you.
[1:44:14] abul amin, policy fellow, fair budget coalition.
[1:44:19] thank you. My name is bella meany.
[1:44:21] I am a ward 4 resident and I also work at fair budget
[1:44:25] coalition as the policy fellow. And in preparation for the fy 27
[1:44:29] budget, fair budget coalition has worked over the past year,
[1:44:32] as we do every year, to develop a set of recommendations that
[1:44:36] ensure our communities have the resources and investments that
[1:44:39] they so justly deserve. As it relates to mpd, our
[1:44:43] primary recommendation is for $100 million to be reallocated
[1:44:48] from the mpd budget to dhs to fund the emergency rental
[1:44:53] assistance program. Of course, instead of heating
[1:44:55] this recommendation from dc residents, mayor bowser has
[1:44:58] proposed a $688 million budget for mpd that includes more than
[1:45:03] 89 million in additional funding compared to fy 26 fair budget
[1:45:08] coalition calls on this committee to not only reverse
[1:45:11] the mayor's increased funding for mpd, but to also cut an
[1:45:16] additional $100 million. Dc residents have made clear
[1:45:18] that they do not want or need more cops.
[1:45:20] we need housing and care. Housing security is an integral
[1:45:25] component of public safety. Moreover, programs addressing
[1:45:29] housing insecurity and other investments in community
[1:45:32] building simply have much higher returns on investment than
[1:45:35] throwing money at the police. This is exactly why we make the
[1:45:39] very reasonable recommendation of reallocating funds from mpd
[1:45:42] to fund erap. I know from personal experience
[1:45:45] that erap is an important mechanism for preventing
[1:45:50] evictions, homelessness and ensuring housing stability among
[1:45:52] community members with low income.
[1:45:55] nonetheless, while mpd budget has expanded year after year,
[1:45:58] the annual budget has been slashed each year since the
[1:46:02] pandemic. Even while the eviction rate,
[1:46:04] housing insecurity generally and rents have been on the rise, the
[1:46:08] council should increase increase funding for erap and that money
[1:46:12] should be reallocated from the very hefty mpd budget for
[1:46:16] overtime, as well as vacant and unfilled positions.
[1:46:18] I note also that the mayor has increased mpd overtime budget
[1:46:23] alone by 42 million above the fy26 budget.
[1:46:28] like trump, the mayor is disconnected from reality.
[1:46:31] since this is an arbitrary and capricious increase in police
[1:46:35] overtime spending, which the council should reverse with no
[1:46:39] debate, investment in safety net programs like erap have a better
[1:46:42] chance at reducing harm and violence in our communities by
[1:46:47] providing dc residents with housing, real safety and care.
[1:46:52] because true community safety comes from investing in the
[1:46:56] people. Thank you very much.
[1:47:01] thank you. Taleb kareem, executive director
[1:47:05] of stem. For us.
[1:47:33] mr. Muhammad, you're welcome to testify, but you cannot promote
[1:47:38] a political campaign in the wilson building at this public
[1:47:42] hearing. So if you're you want to
[1:47:45] testify, you need to take that background off of the screen.
[1:47:56] with all due respect, I, I am a candidate for mayor.
[1:48:00] I am, you know, going to try to remove my my background.
[1:48:05] but, you know, you are promoting your political campaign every
[1:48:08] time you, you know, speak at this dais.
[1:48:11] so I don't think that it's, you know, I need to cut you off
[1:48:16] right there. I need you to take your
[1:48:17] background. I need you to take your
[1:48:18] background as someone I just told you.
[1:48:21] I'm working to try to take it off, councilman.
[1:48:24] but again, for you to try to silence what I say is, again,
[1:48:27] I'm not silencing what you say, but I'm going to I'm going to
[1:48:31] remove you. I'm going to remove you from
[1:48:33] the. Okay.
[1:48:33] so focus on that. I'll come unconstitutional.
[1:48:37] I'll come back to you if you're able to, to remove that from the
[1:48:42] screen. Christine corey, public witness.
[1:48:51] hello. So good morning.
[1:48:52] my name is christine corey and I was born and raised in dc.
[1:48:57] I'm here today to draw attention to the egregious amount of money
[1:49:00] that mpd allocates to surveillance technologies that
[1:49:04] put all of our privacy at risk and are not effective at
[1:49:06] reducing crime. For example, between 2016 and
[1:49:11] 2024, mpd spent $6.6 million to sound thinking inc., formerly
[1:49:16] shotspotter inc. This technology is supposed to detect where
[1:49:18] shots are fired and dispatch officers to these locations, but
[1:49:22] has an extremely poor track record of accuracy.
[1:49:26] between 2019 and 2021. In chicago.
[1:49:27] 86% of deployments by shotspotter turned up.
[1:49:30] no report of any crime at all. In total, the use of shotspotter
[1:49:33] there led to 40,000 dead end employment deployments in a 21
[1:49:38] month period. In houston, only 5% of the 4400
[1:49:42] alerts in less than two years resulted in any arrest, which
[1:49:45] led the mayor to end the use of the technology, calling it a
[1:49:47] gimmick. Unsurprisingly, given the lack
[1:49:50] of accuracy, research has shown no association between the use
[1:49:53] of this technology and reduced crime, nor any increased
[1:49:57] likelihood that crimes will be solved.
[1:49:59] not only is this technology expensive, but it also increases
[1:50:02] the burden on the neighborhoods. It is present by causing
[1:50:05] excessive deployments of police when there is no crime.
[1:50:08] given that one of mpd's main expenditures is over time, it
[1:50:11] seems unwise to invest millions of technology in a system that
[1:50:15] routinely and systematically wastes officers time without
[1:50:19] making community safer. Additionally, mpd spent $4
[1:50:23] million on automated license plate readers technology between
[1:50:28] 2016 and 2024, and intends to spend between 1 and 5 million to
[1:50:32] expand flock alpr cameras in the downtown corridor.
[1:50:35] not only are these systems costly, they pose major privacy
[1:50:39] risks for d.c. Residents. They collect data about all of
[1:50:42] our movement without any guarantees or protections in
[1:50:45] place to ensure that it is not misused.
[1:50:47] these cameras are connected to a national network where law
[1:50:50] enforcement, including federal agencies, can query the data,
[1:50:53] and flock has a track record of collaborating with ice.
[1:50:57] since 2023, mpd has also spent over $1.7 million to celebrate a
[1:51:03] surveillance company with contracts with ice, namely on
[1:51:05] its pathfinder ai software. Pathfinder is used to analyze
[1:51:09] data extracted from phones to track locations, interpret slang
[1:51:12] and coded language, and analyze images and videos, including
[1:51:16] facial recognition data. Access to this data allows mpd
[1:51:19] and their collaborators to identify and surveil anyone
[1:51:23] whose cell phone they had scraped, whether they had a
[1:51:25] legitimate reason to do so or not, as well as those in their
[1:51:28] proximity. Putting d.c. Residents privacy
[1:51:30] at risk. The safest communities are not
[1:51:33] the most surveilled communities. They are the communities with
[1:51:35] the most resources. We need to stop wanton spending
[1:51:38] on flashy technologies that invade our privacy and
[1:51:42] needlessly increase police presence.
[1:51:44] we should instead redirect funds to our social safety net.
[1:51:47] I do not have time to list all of the underfunded programs
[1:51:50] where this money would be better spent, but I will close by
[1:51:52] highlighting the emergency rental assistance program, which
[1:51:55] provides an important mechanism for preventing evictions and
[1:51:59] homelessness and providing housing stability for low income
[1:52:02] community members. Stable housing is one of many
[1:52:04] things that makes our community safer and more secure.
[1:52:07] thank you for your time. Thank you.
[1:52:14] okay, to leave kareem muhammad, are we gonna follow the rules?
[1:52:21] madam chair, I again, I, I want to reject your position about me
[1:52:26] following rules. I don't think you follow the
[1:52:27] rules as reported by, you know, some of the recent comments you
[1:52:31] made about your opponent. But I mean, you talking about me
[1:52:35] following mr. Mohammed. We we run these first of all,
[1:52:39] show me a rule concerning political expression.
[1:52:43] okay. And I would like to see that I
[1:52:45] don't I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm not going to let you testify if
[1:52:50] you're going to continue on this way.
[1:52:52] we treat every person with respect in this committee.
[1:52:54] you are not allowed to promote a campaign.
[1:52:57] we would welcome to hear your testimony on ouk or mpd, which
[1:53:00] are the topics of today's hearing.
[1:53:02] I'd like to give you your time to do that now, if that's what
[1:53:05] you're here to talk about. I am here to talk about it.
[1:53:07] but I reject your position. I, I reject your attempting to
[1:53:14] again stifle my expression. And if you're going to allow me
[1:53:17] to testify, I'm happy to do so. But I will not allow you to
[1:53:23] basically characterize what I'm doing as being against the
[1:53:26] rules. And if you.
[1:53:26] and if there are rules that, again, suggest that a person can
[1:53:32] have a particular background that like for you to show that
[1:53:35] to me, I've never heard again. I've worked for the council,
[1:53:37] I've served as counsel to the mayor.
[1:53:39] and I know what you're saying is patently not true, but I'm happy
[1:53:43] to, you know, again, be corrected if you if you have
[1:53:45] such rules. Your time is is moving down.
[1:53:51] do you have any testimony you'd like to share?
[1:53:54] oh, hold on for excuse me, I would like to reclaim my full
[1:53:58] amount of time because we were talking about the rules.
[1:54:00] and I told you a minute ago we were starting your testimony.
[1:54:04] please go ahead with your testimony.
[1:54:06] okay. If I can I be given a full
[1:54:09] amount of time because I, I have my my testimony that I'd like
[1:54:13] to, to give. We were talking about the rules
[1:54:16] concerning my background, and I think that it would be, again, a
[1:54:21] disservice if the committee did not allow me the full amount of
[1:54:25] time to discuss my recommendations for mpd, as
[1:54:29] opposed to discussing. Please, please stop continuing
[1:54:32] this conversation. Please go ahead with your
[1:54:35] testimony. So will I be allowed to give my
[1:54:38] full testimony? That's my question.
[1:54:40] you have taken more than double your time at this point.
[1:54:43] I will allow you to go for three minutes, but please begin.
[1:54:47] no problem. Thank you very much.
[1:54:49] are you able to see me? Let me just make sure.
[1:54:55] I'm sorry. You've disabled my my video.
[1:54:58] can you re-enable it? We disabled your video because
[1:55:01] you would not take off your political background.
[1:55:05] please go ahead. I'm not going to give you extra
[1:55:07] time. Again.
[1:55:07] please go ahead with your testimony.
[1:55:10] all due respect. I just asked you to turn back on
[1:55:12] my video so I could be seen. I took down, first of all, the
[1:55:16] political background as I told you I would.
[1:55:18] but again, as I just told you, I think that what you're saying
[1:55:21] is, is not legal as a lawyer and as a former counsel to this to
[1:55:26] this body of the dc council, I know this to be a fact, but
[1:55:29] nevertheless, I am complying with your request.
[1:55:31] can you please turn on the video so I can give my presentation,
[1:55:35] as everybody else has been given an opportunity?
[1:55:47] I'm still not able to do so. Video is on our screen.
[1:55:49] we can see it. All right, but it says.
[1:55:58] right. Thank you.
[1:56:03] so as was stated, my name is taleb kareem muhammad.
[1:56:07] I'm the executive director for stem.
[1:56:09] for us, I am a former counsel to the dc council, former special
[1:56:16] counsel to the past mayor, former chief of staff to the
[1:56:20] largest dc government agency and a former chief counsel for a
[1:56:25] member of the house judiciary committee, which oversees both
[1:56:30] the department of justice as well as the district's
[1:56:34] application for statehood, stem. For us, as an organization
[1:56:39] that's dedicated to empowering our communities, particularly
[1:56:41] our youth, through providing quality relationships with
[1:56:47] mentors and increasing funding or advocating for increased
[1:56:52] funding for such, particularly in the dc government.
[1:56:56] we are here to discuss the mayor's fiscal year 2027 dc
[1:57:01] budget, specifically, the 674. 674,000,674.5 million.
[1:57:08] allocation for mpd. As for us, we deeply believe
[1:57:13] that the districts the district should be a safe, affordable and
[1:57:18] free place to live. We understand that our
[1:57:20] residents, our seniors, our small businesses demand safety.
[1:57:23] however, when we analyze the data in the $21.2 billion
[1:57:28] budget, we see critical misalignment.
[1:57:30] we're investing heavily in our reactive system that closing
[1:57:34] cases, for example, after the trauma has already occurred
[1:57:39] while simultaneously gutting the preventive systems that stop
[1:57:42] violence before it starts. This is not a blueprint for long
[1:57:45] term safety. It's a blueprint for managing
[1:57:48] failure. The the data, specifically in
[1:57:51] fiscal year 2027, the budget proposes massive funding for
[1:57:57] recruitment and capital upgrades, but it slashes
[1:58:03] violence into intervention and also victim support is basically
[1:58:09] gutted. The budget proposes a $5.5
[1:58:13] million cut to victim services, grants.
[1:58:17] from a us perspective, you cannot police your way out of
[1:58:23] violence, but you can invest in the types of preventative
[1:58:27] measures such as strengthening parenting and addressing some of
[1:58:31] the underlying causes of violence within the home.
[1:58:35] to prevent that violence from being spread outside the house.
[1:58:39] we would recommend reallocating funds to restore victim
[1:58:45] services, restore access to tech prevention grants, and we
[1:58:50] believe that stem for us would be a partner, particularly in
[1:58:54] exciting our young people, particularly about ways that
[1:58:57] they can prevent violence through using technology.
[1:59:00] the surveillance technology that is out there, that is being,
[1:59:03] again, run by companies like palantir that are totally
[1:59:07] invasive and against our youth would be reversed by
[1:59:11] partnerships with young people to actually show them how
[1:59:15] technology can be a value added partner, both in keeping them
[1:59:20] safe, their families safe, and their community safe, without
[1:59:24] any further ado, I'd like to again make myself available for
[1:59:28] any questions that this committee might have.
[1:59:30] thank you. Thank you for your testimony.
[1:59:37] that concludes our public testimony for today.
[1:59:40] thank you to everybody for your time and your insights on these
[1:59:43] very important budgets. We are going to turn now to our
[1:59:48] government witnesses. We'll be beginning with the
[1:59:50] office of unified communications, where we'll hear
[1:59:53] from director heather mcgaffin and anyone on her team who will
[1:59:57] be joining. Hi.
[2:00:09] welcome to you all. I can ask that everybody turn
[2:00:17] your microphone on and state your name and your position.
[2:00:20] for the record, please. Heather mcgaffin, director,
[2:00:23] office of unified communications.
[2:00:26] gavin suarez, chief information officer, kipling ross, program
[2:00:29] manager. Doug.
[2:00:31] excuse me. Douglas kemp, agency fiscal
[2:00:33] officer. Wonderful.
[2:00:34] well, welcome. I'm going to swear everybody in
[2:00:37] who'll be testifying. Do you swear or affirm under
[2:00:41] penalty of law, that the testimony you're about to
[2:00:43] provide before this committee and the council of the district
[2:00:46] of columbia is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
[2:00:48] truth, I do, yes. Thank you, director markoff.
[2:00:52] I'd now like to invite you to make any opening statement.
[2:00:54] you have. Thank you, chairperson pinto.
[2:01:01] good afternoon, chairperson pinto.
[2:01:03] members of the committee, committee staff and council
[2:01:05] members. My name is heather mcgaffin and
[2:01:07] I'm the proud director of the office of unified
[2:01:10] communications. Mayor bowser's proposed fy 27
[2:01:14] budget grow dc was formulated with three key considerations in
[2:01:18] mind how to drive growth in our economy to fund the services and
[2:01:23] programs residents count on, how to keep families in d.c. And
[2:01:26] attract new residents, and how to create a business environment
[2:01:29] that draws new investment and creates new jobs.
[2:01:31] we are navigating a pivotal moment that demands more
[2:01:34] deliberate approach to growth. The federal dollars that once
[2:01:38] expanded our programs and unprecedented ways have been
[2:01:41] exhausted, and the federal workforce reductions have
[2:01:44] introduced new pressures on our economy and commercial
[2:01:47] corridors. That being said, it is important
[2:01:49] to be clear dc is still growing. Revenues have slowed, but the
[2:01:54] city maintains a strong financial foundation on which we
[2:01:58] can build by making the kinds of strategic and targeted decisions
[2:02:01] that will allow d.c. To continue to grow while delivering the
[2:02:04] high quality services our residents depend on, dc
[2:02:08] acknowledges the economic realities we face by
[2:02:11] prioritizing the most critical investments needed to ensure
[2:02:14] that our city continues to be a place where people want to call
[2:02:17] home, visit and do business in. I'm immensely grateful to mayor
[2:02:22] bowser for providing me with the resources needed to execute its
[2:02:26] role at the highest level in providing efficient emergency
[2:02:29] and non-emergency communications and reliable access to city
[2:02:32] services and information. I want to take a moment, like I
[2:02:36] always do, and recognize the employees of ouc who demonstrate
[2:02:39] their dedication to serving the public by answering the calls.
[2:02:42] to put this commitment in perspective, last year, our 911
[2:02:45] call takers and dispatchers managed 1.4 million 911 calls
[2:02:49] and dispatched first responders from the metropolitan police
[2:02:52] department and d.c. Fire and ems.
[2:02:55] approximately 9000 times, making the d.c. 901 center one of the
[2:02:59] busiest in the country. Historically, it continues to
[2:03:01] rank as one of the fourth busiest centers behind the large
[2:03:05] cities of new york, chicago and la.
[2:03:07] in addition to processing tens of thousands of non-emergency
[2:03:10] police reports, professionals at ouc provide life saving care.
[2:03:15] they provide first aid, cpr, and deliver babies, and by hosting
[2:03:20] text to 911 sessions with thousands of callers.
[2:03:23] the entire ouc workforce understands the tremendous
[2:03:26] responsibility of this workload, and they take their role in
[2:03:29] helping to maintain safe, clean and engaged communities across
[2:03:33] the city seriously. Last year, our 311 customer
[2:03:37] service reps handled over 850,000 calls and facilitated
[2:03:41] the processing of nearly 900,000 city service requests in
[2:03:45] coordination with dozens of our d.c. Government agency partners.
[2:03:49] additionally, our 311 social media team processed tens of
[2:03:52] thousands of requests posted on x.
[2:03:55] I also want to take a moment to acknowledge the feedback we've
[2:03:57] received about the 311 mobile app and the web portal.
[2:04:01] we understand how frustrating it is when the user experience does
[2:04:04] not meet expectations. Since these issues were flagged,
[2:04:07] we've been collaborating with the developer on fixes, and I
[2:04:10] want to assure you that updates are on the way.
[2:04:13] in the meantime, if you're willing, we ask that you use and
[2:04:16] share our feedback form, which you can find on the bottom left
[2:04:18] corner of the 311 online portal, or at 311.dc.gov, so we can
[2:04:24] understand exactly what you're seeing.
[2:04:26] this will help us conduct additional testing more
[2:04:28] thoroughly and make sure the updates truly solve the issues.
[2:04:31] patients and insight are appreciated and crucial to
[2:04:35] making improvements to the app and the web portal.
[2:04:37] I'm also pleased to announce that we will invite a group of
[2:04:40] residents from across all eight wards to serve as beta testers
[2:04:43] of the enhanced platforms before launch.
[2:04:46] lastly, as always, you can submit a service request by
[2:04:49] calling 311, alerting us via ecs or visiting the online
[2:04:56] portal@311.dc.gov. At uc, we are committed to
[2:04:58] giving each resident and visitor the peace of mind that we are
[2:05:01] here when they need us most. Whether this is for
[2:05:04] non-emergency help or in the most dire of times, with
[2:05:08] investments in recruitment and retention, technology and
[2:05:11] training, we have achieved 97% of 901 calls being answered in
[2:05:15] 20s or less. This performance exceeds the
[2:05:18] national 911 call processing standard, which mandates that
[2:05:22] 90% of all 911 calls arriving at the app shall be answered within
[2:05:27] 15 seconds. Also, that 95% of the 911 calls
[2:05:29] should be answered within 20s. Notably, we also saw a 31%
[2:05:34] increase in the number of agency held records requests and are
[2:05:37] proud to share that we fulfilled 100% of them within legislative
[2:05:41] time frames in fiscal year 26, major investments were made in
[2:05:45] technology and capital projects. For uc.
[2:05:47] it's important to note that the ucs budget doesn't just fund
[2:05:50] three, one, one and 911 call processing and dispatch, but it
[2:05:54] also funds the radios, mobile data terminals and other public
[2:05:58] safety communications tools used across the city by mpd and fms
[2:06:02] and other government agencies, including the upkeep of all ten
[2:06:05] radio tower sites across the city.
[2:06:07] this is an immense and necessary part of public safety that
[2:06:11] ultimately ensures the responder safety.
[2:06:15] I'd like to take a moment to mention the renovation of the
[2:06:18] public safety communications center, or psc.
[2:06:22] ouc secondary operations site. This project represents the
[2:06:25] critical capital investment mayor bowser made in public
[2:06:28] safety through the years. That helps ensure long term
[2:06:31] operational continuity and resilience for the district's
[2:06:34] emergency communications infrastructure.
[2:06:37] this multi-phased project modernized and expanded the
[2:06:40] facility to fully support 911311 and the radio and mobile data
[2:06:45] computing operations addressing urgent needs in mechanical
[2:06:48] systems, spatial planning and technology infrastructure.
[2:06:51] the project truly exemplifies the district's commitment to
[2:06:55] delivering resilient, modernized infrastructure for public safety
[2:06:59] operations by providing enhanced operational operational
[2:07:03] capacity, workforce flexibility and technological infrastructure
[2:07:06] aligned with the evolving demands of first in class
[2:07:10] emergency communications. The mayor's proposed fy 27
[2:07:14] budget for ouc enables us to meet the demand of a growing and
[2:07:18] thriving dc with the resources it needs to do just that.
[2:07:21] the proposed operating budget for ouc for fiscal year 27 is
[2:07:29] $60,186,154, a 6.9% decrease from fiscal year 26 approved
[2:07:34] budget and supports 413 fte. Last year, the strategic
[2:07:39] investments made by mayor bowser and our workforce not only
[2:07:42] enabled ouc to reduce the speed of answer for 911 calls from 15
[2:07:47] seconds to an average of four seconds.
[2:07:48] it also enabled the attainment of apco's agency training
[2:07:52] program accreditation. This accreditation confirms scs
[2:07:55] training program aligns with apco's.
[2:07:59] american national standards, or ansi, in its curriculum
[2:08:01] materials and documentations, which meet rigorous, nationally
[2:08:05] recognized benchmarks. It also ensures our 911
[2:08:08] professionals receive effective initial and ongoing training and
[2:08:13] certifications aligned with best practices, so we deliver
[2:08:16] consistent, reliable and professional service, especially
[2:08:19] as technology evolves in call volume increases.
[2:08:23] additionally, investments in the workforce allowed for pay parity
[2:08:26] for three, one, one and 911 employees whose salaries were
[2:08:29] disparate within the division as well.
[2:08:31] an increased pay for 911 call takers so that they are now paid
[2:08:34] at a starting rate of $61,313, which is higher than their
[2:08:39] counterparts across the national capital region.
[2:08:41] funding the entry level call taking position in this manner
[2:08:45] provides the means for us to build a solid foundation that
[2:08:47] allows for career ladder growth for the individual employee,
[2:08:50] while remaining competitive in the in the region.
[2:08:53] to attract and retain the best talent.
[2:08:55] if you're interested in a position, please go to
[2:08:57] careers.dc.gov and look for the telecommunications equipment
[2:09:01] operator position posting, which is live because we'd love to
[2:09:03] have you join our team. The proposed fy 27 budget
[2:09:10] includes $20.3 million in operating funds to support 41
[2:09:13] fts of the it division and maintenance support and
[2:09:16] equipment costs for these different facets of the public
[2:09:19] safety system in the district. Additionally, in fiscal year 27,
[2:09:24] the 9.44 million capital budget will fund uninterrupted power
[2:09:27] supply replacements at the unified communications center.
[2:09:30] upgrades to the three one service platform, computer aided
[2:09:34] dispatch enhancements, deployment of 160 emergency
[2:09:38] communications consulates, replacement of 500 portable
[2:09:41] radios for d.c. Government agencies, upgrades to radio
[2:09:45] tower sites across the city, and the replacement of aging fleet
[2:09:49] vehicles. Additionally, the proposed 9.4
[2:09:52] million in fiscal year 27 capital funding will be used to
[2:09:55] address several critical needs across our emergency
[2:09:59] communications and support infrastructure.
[2:10:01] this funding will go towards replacing aging radio and
[2:10:04] dispatch equipment, upgrading our cad system and our three one
[2:10:09] system platforms, making needed improvements to the electrical
[2:10:11] and communication system that keeps services running reliably.
[2:10:15] it will also support the replacing fleet and system
[2:10:20] upgrades. Together, these investments help
[2:10:22] maintain reliable service and strengthen the systems we rely
[2:10:25] on each and every day to support the ongoing operating costs of
[2:10:29] public safety, including personnel and administration of
[2:10:32] 901 and the technology and infrastructure and
[2:10:35] interoperability and enabling 911 call handling and dispatch
[2:10:38] the public services hotel occupancy fee amendment act of
[2:10:42] 2026 is also proposed in grow dc.
[2:10:45] annual costs have outpaced 901 fee revenue collections since
[2:10:50] 2016, causing the agency to rely on the fund balance and an
[2:10:53] infusion of revenue from events dc to cover operating costs.
[2:10:58] fy 2027 budget fully depletes the fund balance and the annual
[2:11:01] shortfall in revenue versus expenditures is estimated to be
[2:11:05] $7 million. The subtitle assesses an 80 cent
[2:11:07] per night fee for occupied hotel rooms.
[2:11:11] it recognizes visitors to our city, use our emergency and
[2:11:14] non-emergency systems, and will fully close the $7 million gap
[2:11:17] without imposing the full burden on the residents of the
[2:11:20] district. As we continue to welcome record
[2:11:22] numbers of visitors. Not only will this fee help us
[2:11:25] to thrive as a world class city, but it will also ensure that we
[2:11:27] are able to continue to provide world class services as an
[2:11:31] agency. Ouc remains committed to being
[2:11:34] innovative, resilient and steadfast in serving the
[2:11:36] residents and visitors of this incredible city.
[2:11:38] we are proud. Our center is one other
[2:11:41] jurisdictions look to in reference when they're upgrading
[2:11:44] technology, implementing new programs, and collaborating
[2:11:47] about new ideas. I look forward to answering any
[2:11:49] questions you may have at this time.
[2:11:51] thank you. Great.
[2:11:55] thank you very much. Director mcgaffin.
[2:11:58] and as always, I want to thank you.
[2:11:59] and everybody who works at ouc, who is here today and who is
[2:12:03] hard at work in the agency because it never shuts down and
[2:12:08] is operating 24 over seven. Appreciate all you do.
[2:12:11] behalf of the district. I want to begin also, as always
[2:12:18] today around staffing, because as we look at this budget,
[2:12:22] supporting our workforce and making sure that all of our
[2:12:25] agencies have the personnel that you need to carry out, your
[2:12:29] mission is really paramount to our responsibility as a
[2:12:34] government. And as I look at.
[2:12:37] ouc's budget, I'm worried about what looks like a proposed
[2:12:43] reduction in. Ftes and with staffing.
[2:12:46] and so can you explain the kind of rationale there and what this
[2:12:51] would mean for personnel jobs that you currently have
[2:12:55] vacancies and your ability to fulfill your mission?
[2:12:57] sure. So currently we have 18
[2:12:59] vacancies for customer service representatives on three one,
[2:13:05] one, 11 of those we're going to keep.
[2:13:06] and we are hiring into that. They are we are working through
[2:13:11] pay parity. A lot of our customer service
[2:13:13] representatives came to us through doe s programs, so we
[2:13:18] have been working with them over the last several weeks to, to do
[2:13:21] their resumes and things like that.
[2:13:22] they'll be competing for a full time job for the first time as
[2:13:26] part of the pay parity. And then we will back pay them
[2:13:30] through october 5th, which was the first full pay period of
[2:13:33] this paycheck. We've they know about this.
[2:13:35] we've been educating them on that.
[2:13:38] and so we will be cutting seven positions.
[2:13:41] we are doing that because folks are using the portal and the app
[2:13:48] more. And so we are going to say,
[2:13:52] folks, you mean residents, residents.
[2:13:54] I'm sorry. Yes.
[2:13:55] residents and visitors are using the portal more.
[2:13:58] they're not calling as much. So historically, we've had calls
[2:14:04] over 1 million to 3 one one. We're seeing high call volume
[2:14:07] during snowstorms, after snowstorms, when trash needs to
[2:14:10] be picked up or during slides. But on a day to day basis, most
[2:14:15] people are are using the app they're using, the portal,
[2:14:20] they're talking to us on x, and we can take the seven people.
[2:14:27] we're also going to be we've also introduced an element of ai
[2:14:32] with octo into three one, one that has had really positive
[2:14:35] feedback. So we are going to pilot with
[2:14:40] the residents that that I talked about with the beta testing
[2:14:43] group. And overnight ai.
[2:14:49] solution where you wouldn't talk to anybody between the hours of
[2:14:55] 11 p.m. And 6 a.m., most government agencies are closed.
[2:14:59] if you do have an emergency situation, you're talking to a
[2:15:02] police non-emergency dispatcher anyway, which is on the 911
[2:15:05] side. And so we are comfortable with
[2:15:09] those seven positions. No one would be losing their
[2:15:11] job. They are vacant at this time,
[2:15:14] and we would still be hiring 11 people on in addition to who we
[2:15:17] have. Okay.
[2:15:18] and for the 11 positions, what are you expecting those to be
[2:15:21] filled? We are working with d s laheeb
[2:15:26] other programs throughout the city.
[2:15:28] we've always used 311 as a program for returning citizens
[2:15:35] and things like that. A program to give people a
[2:15:38] second chance at a career in district government.
[2:15:40] so we'll be working with our counterparts across the the
[2:15:44] government to fill those 11 positions.
[2:15:47] so we don't have a timeline that we think june.
[2:15:51] this june. June.
[2:15:52] yes. Thank you.
[2:15:54] and for the seven positions that are proposed to be cut, just to
[2:15:56] make sure I understand this, these will all be from 311.
[2:16:00] yes. Services will.
[2:16:01] so there will be no call takers or dispatch positions.
[2:16:03] correct. We are not proposing any cuts to
[2:16:08] 911 okay at all. Are there any technical support
[2:16:10] positions being reduced? No.
[2:16:13] the only other positions that are being reduced are in hr and.
[2:16:21] the chief, the chief of 911 operations, and I will say about
[2:16:26] the chief of 911 operations when I got here, there were shift
[2:16:35] supervisors, assistant shift supervisors, operations
[2:16:38] managers, a chief of 911 ops, a deputy director and director.
[2:16:42] and what we have found over time and through some outside
[2:16:47] analysis is we just had too many people in supervisory and
[2:16:50] leadership roles and things were getting lost.
[2:16:52] so what we have been able to do is take some of the funding that
[2:16:56] funded that chief of 911 operations role and make more of
[2:16:59] the assistant watch commander positions.
[2:17:02] so now we're just taking this position off of our role.
[2:17:05] so now we have on each shift four assistant watch commanders,
[2:17:10] two in call, taking, one in police, one in fire, and a watch
[2:17:15] commander on each shift. Two operations managers that
[2:17:18] report directly to the deputy director.
[2:17:21] it has really made things go more smoothly without a lot of
[2:17:26] layers of supervision. Can you say a little bit more
[2:17:32] about the ai? Advancements that you all are
[2:17:35] focused on? Sure.
[2:17:37] so we're using ai in a couple of different capacities, one on
[2:17:40] three, one one, we're asking you what's going on.
[2:17:44] you're telling us maybe it's parking overnight.
[2:17:46] it's mostly parking. It's putting in the call for
[2:17:50] service and it's sending it directly to dpw rapid response
[2:17:54] team for a response out. If a person would like to talk
[2:17:58] to somebody right now, it's still transferring them over for
[2:18:01] a police dispatch. So the 311 customer service
[2:18:07] representatives, on average overnight together, there's two
[2:18:11] of them typically are taking about seven calls between them.
[2:18:17] so they're they're not really doing a lot of work.
[2:18:21] and they're really happy and willing to, to go to a daytime
[2:18:25] shift. So that's how we're using ai.
[2:18:28] again, if somebody calls and needs to speak to somebody,
[2:18:31] they'll just push one and they'll go right over to the
[2:18:35] police non-emergency line and the 911 call takers that are in
[2:18:39] the non-emergency role can help them and get them assistance.
[2:18:43] and then, of course, we're using ai for quality assurance on
[2:18:47] three, one, one and 911. Okay, great.
[2:18:50] and in the first example you used, how much cost savings are
[2:18:53] we anticipating over the next fiscal year because of those
[2:18:57] developments? I'm going to have to consult
[2:19:00] here. It's yeah, go ahead.
[2:19:04] so in terms of cost savings, so it's the seven csr that will be
[2:19:09] reduced. They start at a salary of I
[2:19:12] believe 47,000. So seven by 47, approximately
[2:19:17] 300,000. Okay.
[2:19:25] are you looking to expand those functionalities to other uses.
[2:19:30] and are you how are you considering to do that without
[2:19:34] replacing jobs, but to support the jobs that are already there?
[2:19:38] so on 311 I should also mention this.
[2:19:42] when you call 311 now and you say, maybe I'm calling about a
[2:19:48] tree, an overgrown tree, when you get to the customer service
[2:19:53] representative and you've already said that what you're
[2:19:54] calling about when they are answering your call, when
[2:19:57] they're being connected to you, there's a screen that comes up
[2:20:01] that says, this is heather. She's calling from this address,
[2:20:06] and she's calling about a tree. And here are all the resources
[2:20:09] you might need to answer her question more effectively.
[2:20:12] so we are using ai in that capacity on the three on one
[2:20:15] side, so that they're not trying to find it themselves based on
[2:20:20] what the caller is telling the customer service representative,
[2:20:24] it's giving them options of what what resources on dc.gov they
[2:20:29] might be using, or what resources in different platforms
[2:20:32] they might be using. Okay, great.
[2:20:34] thank you. So there was a recent oig report
[2:20:38] that I want to ask you about, particularly it commented around
[2:20:44] leave usage that came out that identified absenteeism as a real
[2:20:48] operational risk at ouc. The report indicated that 30% of
[2:20:53] scheduled shifts fell below minimum staffing requirements,
[2:20:56] and that in fy 2024, ou c recorded 2785 unscheduled leave
[2:21:04] instances and 1763 leave without pay instances.
[2:21:10] what is this attributable to, and do we have updated leave
[2:21:13] usage data for fy 25 to 26? Yes.
[2:21:16] so the oig report started collecting data in 2020 through
[2:21:21] 20. The first part of 2025.
[2:21:24] one of the things that we did separate from that oig report
[2:21:30] was a. A public safety exercise with,
[2:21:35] with our other agencies in our cluster to look at pfl usage,
[2:21:42] fmla usage, sick leave usage, bereavement usage, and we
[2:21:47] realized that we had people that had been out for thousands of
[2:21:52] hours on leave and were outside of their protected status.
[2:21:56] and so we did a few things at the ou.
[2:21:59] c to really drive down that those numbers, about 80%.
[2:22:04] actually, the first thing we did is we took an hr specialist job,
[2:22:08] and we designated that person as a fmla and ada coordinator.
[2:22:13] that's their only role. They work with folks to
[2:22:18] understand what pfl is, what fmla is.
[2:22:20] they stay on top of when a person goes out, when a person
[2:22:23] needs to come back and what return to work looks like.
[2:22:26] we also contacted those people directly who had been out for a
[2:22:30] long periods of time. Some of them honestly for a year
[2:22:35] plus, and said, we have to have a plan here.
[2:22:37] you can't just be on the rolls. How do we get you to come back?
[2:22:41] several people we were able to bring back in a real way, and
[2:22:45] some people we had to separate from the agency because there
[2:22:49] wasn't a path forward for them. And so we were able to open
[2:22:54] those positions up. And so I'm happy to report that
[2:22:59] since doing that, those numbers of of shifts that are short are,
[2:23:04] have drastically decreased. And when I looked back in
[2:23:08] preparation for this conversation, what I found was
[2:23:13] most of the time it's just by 1 or 2 people.
[2:23:16] but that in april, out of 64 shifts, only eight were short
[2:23:22] and only one was short by two people, and the other seven were
[2:23:27] short by one. So we've really made headway
[2:23:30] there. But it's really just holding
[2:23:33] people accountable and having a plan and individualized plan
[2:23:38] when people are not using protected leave in the way it
[2:23:41] was meant to be used, and do you think this budget makes it takes
[2:23:47] any steps to protect those types of vulnerabilities going
[2:23:51] forward? I do, and and I think one of the
[2:23:54] things that we what we have done as an agency, and I can
[2:23:58] certainly speak for for ou c because that's that's what I
[2:24:01] know. And that's what I'm where I'm
[2:24:04] the director of is that if we start to see growing absences
[2:24:09] individually, we're really having conversations.
[2:24:12] we're really taking a holistic approach, bringing in
[2:24:16] supervisors, we're bringing in training, we're bringing in
[2:24:18] well, our wellness coordinator to say, why aren't you coming to
[2:24:21] work? Is there something we can do to
[2:24:23] help you? And we have had success there
[2:24:26] too, because we've found that maybe I'm not coming to work
[2:24:28] because it's a childcare issue. Maybe I'm not coming to work
[2:24:30] because I'm responsible to take care of somebody else, and I
[2:24:33] don't really know how to navigate this or what what my
[2:24:37] rights are as an employee. So we have a great working
[2:24:40] relationship with our union. We have a great wellness
[2:24:44] coordinator. And what I know is that when we
[2:24:47] started taking this holistic approach, we drove down numbers
[2:24:51] incredibly and increased productivity, productivity
[2:24:54] incredibly. Okay.
[2:24:56] and are you still using attendance incentives?
[2:24:59] yes we are. This month actually was the
[2:25:02] first time we used it, and we did that because we have more
[2:25:05] people. So maybe it was the first time
[2:25:07] you used it. So we april was the first time
[2:25:10] we used it. It was put into the budget for
[2:25:14] october, but because of the cease order, we had to still get
[2:25:18] permission for bonuses. And so we were able to do that.
[2:25:21] but you were using it in fy 25, right?
[2:25:24] yes, yes. So I'm sorry I should clarify
[2:25:27] that in this budget cycle. Okay.
[2:25:29] attendance was really great throughout the holidays.
[2:25:33] in january, attendance was good. We started to see a shift in
[2:25:39] february, march. It was back up.
[2:25:42] and as we're getting into the warmer months, people were
[2:25:45] starting to ask about the incentive.
[2:25:47] and so we're approaching it a little bit differently.
[2:25:51] this month it was $800 may it might be a little bit more
[2:25:54] because we have more people. One of the recommendations that
[2:25:58] we took is it shouldn't always just be $800.
[2:26:02] maybe in months where it's really busy, we should up that a
[2:26:06] little bit more. And so those are things that
[2:26:09] we've taken into consideration because come june, july and
[2:26:13] august, when we have a lot of events for the america 250 and
[2:26:17] different things, it'll be really, really important that we
[2:26:21] have people there all the time. So we are using it.
[2:26:25] it does seem to be helping and it's not just about showing up,
[2:26:30] it's about being on time and and how much was budgeted for fy 26
[2:26:36] for those incentives? 1.6.
[2:26:42] excuse me, 1,000,056 okay. Thank you.
[2:26:51] okay. I want to recognize we've been
[2:26:53] joined by my at large colleague, councilor christina henderson,
[2:26:57] and I will turn to you now for a ten minute round.
[2:26:59] thank you. Thank you, chair pinto.
[2:27:03] and good afternoon, director, to you and your team.
[2:27:07] I just have a few questions for you all.
[2:27:10] I want to follow up on a question that council member
[2:27:13] pinto had asked about 311. You know, 311 is it's not
[2:27:19] they're not first responders. They're not necessarily part of
[2:27:23] the public safety apparatus. And yet three, one, one is super
[2:27:27] important. I just talking to someone today
[2:27:28] who says like, they have to put in a request to three, one, one
[2:27:34] literally every week about a particular trash can that has
[2:27:37] not been picked up. So when I see your budget,
[2:27:42] knowing that people are now using the service more, or maybe
[2:27:45] not, I'm not sure I'm going to ask that question, but
[2:27:49] eliminating ten fte, I'm curious why you all are confident that
[2:27:55] you'll still be able to keep up with user demand, and also
[2:28:02] timeliness of responses? Sure.
[2:28:05] good afternoon. We've become really efficient on
[2:28:10] 311. When I started here we had
[2:28:12] really long hold times. In fact, if you remember, we
[2:28:15] implemented the go go music because people were complaining
[2:28:18] about, yes, the terrible hold music that they were sitting on
[2:28:21] forever. And now they barely hear that.
[2:28:24] yeah, people are also using the app more.
[2:28:28] they're using the portal more and they're using x more.
[2:28:32] and when they're using x, they're not just tagging us.
[2:28:37] we want you to, but they're also tagging dpw dot the responding
[2:28:42] agencies. And so I think the workflow
[2:28:44] we've really perfected the workflow and those we've cut
[2:28:48] back on our overnight. People aren't calling at night
[2:28:51] like they were okay. They're just going to the app.
[2:28:55] I mean, honestly, I work there. I can't remember the last time I
[2:28:58] called 311, but I used that app a lot.
[2:29:01] yep. So it's just a change in how
[2:29:04] people are interacting with us. That's allowing for us to, to
[2:29:10] cut those positions and still feel confident about the
[2:29:12] service. So what, what's the percentage
[2:29:14] breakdown in terms of method of how somebody reaches out to
[2:29:16] three one, one? I don't have that offhand.
[2:29:20] we can certainly get that to you.
[2:29:21] but what I'm curious is about when I started here, I think we
[2:29:27] took 1.5311 out, paste 911 on call volume.
[2:29:29] so it was about 1.5 million calls.
[2:29:32] and last year we took 800,000. So people are really using the
[2:29:37] app more than the phone calls. Yeah.
[2:29:39] I mean, look, I think that the app and also social, although
[2:29:44] the agencies don't always like when I do that, but because I
[2:29:46] can include a picture so I could be as specific as humanly
[2:29:49] possible about what I'm talking about.
[2:29:50] I think that helps a lot, as opposed to when I just make a
[2:29:55] phone call and you kind of feel like it's out sort of in the
[2:29:59] ether, if you will. But I know that some agencies
[2:30:02] have also made adjustments. So for instance, at d dot, when
[2:30:05] we changed all of the street lighting over to led smart
[2:30:08] lighting, now you shouldn't be receiving 311 requests around
[2:30:11] street lights being out because there's an automatic going back
[2:30:16] to dot around that needing to be to, to be fixed.
[2:30:20] but okay, I understand the change on there in terms of
[2:30:27] other things within the budget, there's a 671 000 decrease in
[2:30:33] radio engineering. Now, the budget books don't
[2:30:36] provide an explanation. So I'm curious, are we
[2:30:39] decreasing on the operations side.
[2:30:40] and that will be made up on the capital side.
[2:30:43] or was there an equipment refresh that we don't need in fy
[2:30:47] 27? So that reduction reflects a
[2:30:51] redistribution of cost to our partner agencies that support
[2:30:54] the radio system maintenance contract.
[2:30:56] oh, we are doling out to other people.
[2:31:00] so which agencies are is it femmes mpd?
[2:31:05] so there's a 21 agencies that are supported by the radio
[2:31:10] system. 21 agencies.
[2:31:11] okay. So is I mean, will it be
[2:31:14] executed via mous? Yes.
[2:31:16] okay. So citywide mou.
[2:31:21] okay. And so what we're seeing
[2:31:24] remaining is just the portion that you all would be
[2:31:26] responsible for. That's correct.
[2:31:29] okay. All right.
[2:31:31] okay. I want to ask a question about
[2:31:35] overtime. There's a whole hearing on
[2:31:37] overtime with the city administrator a little bit ago.
[2:31:41] okay. Your ou si budget.
[2:31:49] it is proposing. Oh, no, I don't have that.
[2:31:54] yep. Okay.
[2:31:55] 3.6 million for overtime for fy 27.
[2:31:58] this would actually be less than 2025.
[2:32:03] how much are you guys. How much have you spent to date
[2:32:05] on overtime? This current year?
[2:32:17] a year to date overtime is 2.1 million.
[2:32:27] okay. Now.
[2:32:30] this year you are budgeted for 2.7.
[2:32:33] so let's see, it's april. We haven't reached the summer.
[2:32:37] you're going to exceed your budget.
[2:32:39] so how do we feel confident about the proposal for 3.6 for
[2:32:43] next year with our hiring plan, we're as we're bringing on more
[2:32:49] people, I will tell you the one thing that we did not plan for,
[2:32:54] but we have planned for moving forward is we have two police
[2:33:01] dispatchers that are at the joint operations center every
[2:33:04] single day. Now, we had never had that
[2:33:07] before. August of 25.
[2:33:13] so we, you know, we staff that 24 over seven.
[2:33:15] that's four people every day. At the beginning of that, it was
[2:33:19] over time until we got more dispatchers in place.
[2:33:21] so as our. As we have been able to bring
[2:33:27] staff in, get call takers, dispatchers and more supervisors
[2:33:31] in place, our day to day over time is decreasing.
[2:33:36] so special events over time is really what we have budgeted
[2:33:39] for, and I think it will start to level out because we always
[2:33:43] will have over time. Like for july 4th.
[2:33:45] yeah. No, I mean, those events, the
[2:33:47] number of things that are going on in the city over the summer,
[2:33:50] you're going to have overtime. But I'm just trying to ensure
[2:33:54] that we're. The whole point is we just need
[2:33:56] to be a bit more realistic. Sure.
[2:33:58] right. Obviously, I want everybody to
[2:34:00] hire more because if you hired more, I wouldn't be paying all
[2:34:02] this overtime on all of these additional people in the absence
[2:34:05] of being able to do that. But if you feel very confident
[2:34:08] in your hiring plan, I mean, where are we at in vacancies
[2:34:11] this current year? So right now I have 24to
[2:34:15] vacancies. I have nine starting.
[2:34:18] oh, I'm sorry. 911 call taker.
[2:34:21] thank you, thank you. I'm sorry, but I have nine
[2:34:24] starting on may 18th. I have a second.
[2:34:27] nine starting on june 15th I have six dispatcher vacancies
[2:34:33] because they were all pretty much promoted and zero
[2:34:38] supervisor vacancies. So we have a hiring position out
[2:34:44] for the six dispatchers. And we also have a position out
[2:34:50] currently for 911 call takers. And we've worked with d.c. Hr
[2:34:55] that we've we have more positions out than we know we'll
[2:34:59] need because we're going to promote people.
[2:35:01] and so it will just keep flowing.
[2:35:03] okay. But I also feel like the nature
[2:35:05] of your work or the nature of the work that you're both call
[2:35:07] takers and dispatchers are doing, some people might feel
[2:35:10] gung ho about it, and then they spend like a month and they're
[2:35:13] like, this is not for me. And I would hate for you guys to
[2:35:16] have to essentially, I mean, you're gonna have to start from
[2:35:18] scratch, but to start the recruitment process all over
[2:35:21] again, it might just be helpful to continuously for this type
[2:35:24] for certain roles, just have continuous recruitment and
[2:35:28] hiring because eventually someone is going to quit.
[2:35:33] like in there. Okay, yes, we want everybody to
[2:35:36] stay, but we just kind of know, historically speaking, that is
[2:35:39] just not the case. Okay, so this is good.
[2:35:41] I mean, in terms of making progress on, on, on the vacancy
[2:35:45] front. And I heard the back and forth
[2:35:49] that you had with council member pinto about the leave situation.
[2:35:51] so I'm not going to ask about that.
[2:35:54] I am going to ask, though, about the hotel sub hotel fee subtitle
[2:35:59] has reappeared from the dead. Now, the spr would essentially
[2:36:06] would in theory would be allocated to ouc.
[2:36:11] but I recall learning last year during your budget oversight
[2:36:15] hearing that the funds actually weren't going to your budget.
[2:36:17] they would go to the general fund and then allocate.
[2:36:22] so right then they would allocate for the the technology
[2:36:26] piece to cover the $7 million that we would need to, to keep
[2:36:31] the, the fun gap. Okay.
[2:36:35] I'm going to have, but it would be specifically for tech.
[2:36:38] that's right. Next generation 911 is very
[2:36:41] expensive. Yeah.
[2:36:44] okay. I don't have enough time to get
[2:36:46] another question off. And I want to be respectful.
[2:36:48] thank you. Council member pinto thank you.
[2:36:50] director thank you. Councilmember.
[2:36:52] thank you, councilmember henderson.
[2:36:53] we've also been joined by my ward three colleague,
[2:36:56] councilmember matthew frumin. I'll turn to you now for ten
[2:36:58] minute round. Thank you very much, chairperson
[2:37:02] pinto. So just want to understand some
[2:37:04] of the numbers that you just talked about.
[2:37:06] so, 24 vacancies, nine coming on in may, nine coming on in june,
[2:37:11] so. 18 so then six vacancies in the
[2:37:14] call taker, and then six vacancies in the dispatcher.
[2:37:17] so you could be down to 12 vacancies, which is
[2:37:22] congratulations. That's a real accomplishment.
[2:37:24] it does raise the question that council member henderson was
[2:37:27] raising of, okay, if we're there over time, we shouldn't have
[2:37:33] very high levels. I hear about special events, but
[2:37:35] we shouldn't have very high levels if we're achieving our
[2:37:40] staffing goals, unless our staffing goals are not ambitious
[2:37:43] enough. So are our staffing goals
[2:37:46] ambitious enough? At this point in time?
[2:37:48] I'm really confident in them, councilmember, and good
[2:37:51] afternoon. I'm really confident in them
[2:37:54] because not only are am I confident in them, but with the
[2:37:59] incentive and how we're using it and how we've are really holding
[2:38:03] people accountable for coming to work.
[2:38:05] and, and the wellness programs that we've upped.
[2:38:09] people are coming, they're showing up on a pretty regular
[2:38:14] basis. And that was half the battle.
[2:38:16] honestly. So you, you feel like the
[2:38:19] wellness programs that you put in place have had an impact and
[2:38:22] are not just having the number of staff, but having them come
[2:38:28] every day is up significantly. Yes, absolutely.
[2:38:34] okay. We we passed legislation to
[2:38:38] allow former retired f f e, ems and police to be able to be
[2:38:44] called to serve with you and not lose their retirement benefits.
[2:38:48] what's the uptake from that looked like?
[2:38:50] has that been successful? Yes, highly successful for dc
[2:38:53] fire and ems employees. I don't have anybody from
[2:38:57] metropolitan police department that has come to work for us,
[2:39:01] but. Six dc fire and ems and two of
[2:39:04] our newest supervisors are retired battalion chief and
[2:39:10] captain. Okay.
[2:39:12] and then I think it budget oversight at performance
[2:39:15] oversight, we talked a little about ai and what role ai might
[2:39:19] play. I wonder if you can talk a
[2:39:20] little bit about how the potential use of ai is fitting
[2:39:26] into this budget. Yes.
[2:39:29] so the the reduction of seven staff members, specifically in
[2:39:35] three one, one, we are going to be piloting ai overnight.
[2:39:41] we don't take enough calls overnight in 311 to justify
[2:39:48] humans. At this point.
[2:39:50] we've talked to the overnight staff.
[2:39:52] they are really excited to to move to day work.
[2:39:56] and so the calls that come in are for parking that can be done
[2:40:01] through automation, using the ai tools that we have in place.
[2:40:05] so we're going to test that out. And then we also are going to
[2:40:10] there's always going to be an option if you need to talk to a
[2:40:12] person that you can certainly get to a police non-emergency
[2:40:16] and talk to a call taker that that's on the nine one side.
[2:40:20] and of course, there will always be people there to, to take
[2:40:24] emergencies. 247 and so that's how this
[2:40:28] really plays into the budget. It also is allowing us to do
[2:40:34] things like 100% of quality assurance without having to ask
[2:40:39] for additional fte. It allows for us to use
[2:40:45] programing at half the cost of one fte and get the results that
[2:40:52] literally are 50% more than than what a person could could do.
[2:40:57] so when you say that you've looked at it, you've you've
[2:41:02] analyzed the data and you're seeing that in fact that is
[2:41:05] happening. Or is that an advertisement that
[2:41:07] this is what you could do? No, this is what we're doing.
[2:41:09] so I ran numbers this morning on the quality assurance just for
[2:41:13] 901 in in 20, in all of 2025, we were able to evaluate 35,911
[2:41:23] calls. We did quality assurance on
[2:41:26] 35,901 calls, which is not meeting the national standard of
[2:41:30] 2%. Since we've implemented ai from
[2:41:34] january 1st until today, when I ran these numbers about two
[2:41:38] hours ago, the system has analyzed 90,761 call, 911 calls,
[2:41:47] and it's given objective scores. It doesn't know the person that
[2:41:51] took the call. It just knows.
[2:41:53] did they ask the question? Did they answer it yes or no and
[2:41:57] provided them with feedback on how they did with the call.
[2:42:02] so three times as many calls already in four months than it
[2:42:06] did for the entire year last year with with quality assurance
[2:42:10] staff. So it's, it's proof.
[2:42:15] okay, exciting. You saw $1.3 million reduction
[2:42:20] in the supplemental, and it looks like it's related to ftes.
[2:42:24] what's what is that about? Is that because they're
[2:42:28] vacancies that you've yet to fill.
[2:42:29] and so the dollars weren't necessary or what why why a 1.3
[2:42:34] reduction here. I mean I'll talk about that.
[2:42:36] so it's a combination of two things.
[2:42:38] first, the eliminated positions for fy 27.
[2:42:41] they're currently vacant. So that funding is part of the
[2:42:45] supplemental as well as when we did the pay parity as we went to
[2:42:49] execute the actual salaries that folks would or our staff would
[2:42:53] increase to, it was as it compared to the budget amount,
[2:43:00] there was a $260,000 savings there.
[2:43:02] so that coupled with the eliminated positions for 27,
[2:43:06] gives us the 1.3 million and leaves you in a place where you
[2:43:09] feel like your staffing is going to is adequate.
[2:43:13] and perhaps the support from ai helps you keep your staffing
[2:43:17] down, but you're able to do things leaner and meaner.
[2:43:20] that's correct. I'm very confident in that.
[2:43:23] okay. I asked you about the uptake for
[2:43:27] the retirees from dc fire and emergency services, and the
[2:43:31] police and fire and emergency services.
[2:43:33] it sounds like significant uptake and fairly senior people.
[2:43:37] one of the things that we hear about and and chairperson pinto
[2:43:41] has legislation on is the medical director position.
[2:43:46] and I'm curious to get your view on what role the fire and ems
[2:43:53] should play in the medical director position and the
[2:43:57] management of medical decisions that are happening inside of the
[2:44:01] agency. They are the front line folks
[2:44:05] delivering emergency medical care.
[2:44:08] how are you seeing that issue? Sure.
[2:44:11] so obviously, we're two separate agencies.
[2:44:13] I work very closely with with chief donnelly, but I very much
[2:44:17] work closely with with all of the agencies that we support.
[2:44:23] you know, doctor morgan is a great partner and he signs off
[2:44:28] on all of the response plans for medical chief donnelly signs off
[2:44:35] on all of the response plans for fire and rescue.
[2:44:39] chief carroll signs off on all of them.
[2:44:43] for police and law enforcement responses.
[2:44:46] the ou c should have its own medical director because we need
[2:44:53] someone to educate us to take the mental health crisis, the
[2:44:58] physical health crisis, and be able to educate, to understand
[2:45:03] how someone responding to an emergency of any kind looks
[2:45:08] different in the field than it looks sitting behind a console.
[2:45:11] and I always tell the story about how I've done both.
[2:45:14] I was an emt, I was an emt, an emergency medical dispatcher.
[2:45:19] I've delivered babies on the back of the ambulance, and I've
[2:45:22] given someone instructions over the phone, and it was a
[2:45:25] different experience on both sides.
[2:45:27] and so just because you're an emt and you must love saying
[2:45:32] that, but go ahead. Just because you're an emt and
[2:45:35] you know how to do something in the field when you're walking a
[2:45:39] parent through how or someone how to deliver a baby and
[2:45:44] sometimes their own baby, just like one of our call takers did
[2:45:46] just a few weeks ago. As you may have seen on the
[2:45:50] news, it's very different. You don't have the same
[2:45:53] resources. Most people don't have an ob
[2:45:55] delivery kit in their hall closet.
[2:45:56] you're using sheets, towels, shoestrings and things like
[2:45:59] that. And so having a medical director
[2:46:01] who really understands that and can be there to educate, come to
[2:46:07] our roll calls to, to do the things that we need them to do
[2:46:12] firsthand and work with doctor morgan as the medical director,
[2:46:16] to work with doctor basran on the mental health crisis
[2:46:21] responses. That's what I'm looking for.
[2:46:23] I'm looking for a partner. Those folks will all still sign
[2:46:27] off on the response plans that that we dispatch out.
[2:46:30] I'm not looking to take that away from anybody, but I think
[2:46:33] we need to have somebody in-house who can help to
[2:46:37] educate, certify and make sure that we're staying up on all the
[2:46:39] things that we need to be staying up on so we can remain
[2:46:42] in accredited first class 901 center.
[2:46:46] all right. Well, thank you for that and
[2:46:48] nicely done. And that you used up all of my
[2:46:50] time, but I was already done with my question.
[2:46:52] so thank you very much. Thank you.
[2:46:54] chairperson pinto. Great.
[2:46:56] thank you, councilmember frumin. And I do just want to note on on
[2:47:01] this topic that you had raised this, and I think it's a fair
[2:47:04] concern around limitations of resources.
[2:47:07] and I think if we move forward in this in this way, providing
[2:47:11] an additional set of resources for an assistant medical
[2:47:14] director or things to help out will be important.
[2:47:17] I also just want to note, I have no problem with the word folks.
[2:47:20] I just I just wanted to be clear, if we're referring to
[2:47:24] residents calling in or your own staff, thank you, but thank you.
[2:47:31] okay, so back to the oig report. One of the things they talked
[2:47:37] about was the use of overtime. What is the current rate of
[2:47:41] overtime spending that you're using in this fiscal year?
[2:47:43] and what's the anticipated cost for overtime for fy 27?
[2:47:48] I'm gonna let doug give you the numbers.
[2:47:49] and then we'll talk about kind of how we're using it, if that's
[2:47:52] what you're looking for. Great.
[2:47:54] okay. Year to date, we are at 79% of
[2:47:58] the line item budget for overtime and average pay period,
[2:48:03] average overtime per pay period is about 52% above the budgeted
[2:48:08] rate. But sorry, what are what are the
[2:48:11] budgeted rates? The budgeted amount for overtime
[2:48:15] this year is 200. I'm sorry 2 million 662.
[2:48:24] and we're currently at about 2.1 million in terms of the
[2:48:29] expenditure year to date. Okay.
[2:48:35] so 2,000,062 like 2,000,002 000. No.
[2:48:43] 2,662,000 got it. Is the budget.
[2:48:46] the year to date is 22.15 7 million.
[2:48:52] and the year to date. Year to date.
[2:49:02] expenditure. Know that that's you want the
[2:49:06] projected year end, the projected year end I believe is
[2:49:12] about 3.1, 3.1, 3.1. Yes.
[2:49:16] 3.1. And historically, how have we
[2:49:19] been on track with overtime, actual spending versus projected
[2:49:26] projected again, as far as the pay period, we're averaging
[2:49:33] about 52% over the amount of the budgeted payroll per pay period
[2:49:39] for overtime, a little bit higher this year than we have
[2:49:43] historically. So.
[2:49:45] and a lot of that is because of the special events or needing
[2:49:50] extra people because of those special events.
[2:49:52] if we have to. Like I said, we have the two,
[2:49:55] two people that are at the dock every day.
[2:49:58] and so we we've taken that into account now and we have more
[2:50:02] police dispatchers that we've put through training, but also
[2:50:07] anytime there's a major event where we set the where we do the
[2:50:10] perimeter that we've kind of talked about, where we might do
[2:50:13] a perimeter around the national mall and femmes has a special
[2:50:17] response that's just going to go there.
[2:50:19] we have to give them a dispatcher for that, because
[2:50:21] that's an extra dispatcher. They're separate from the rest
[2:50:25] of ems dispatch. We give them special mpd
[2:50:28] dispatchers for that, separate from what's at the dock.
[2:50:31] they might go to the dock, but that's a third and fourth
[2:50:34] dispatcher. And so that's what's driving
[2:50:39] that up. But I'm sorry, just before we
[2:50:40] get to the why. So I understand these numbers.
[2:50:44] the 2.6 million projected for fy 26.
[2:50:47] right. But you said.
[2:50:50] I'm sorry, 2.6 is the budget. 3.1 is the projected year end.
[2:50:57] okay. And then 2.1 is the actual
[2:51:01] spend. Okay.
[2:51:02] but that delta between the 2.1 and the 2.6, how do we reconcile
[2:51:07] that with the 52% overage for each pay period?
[2:51:13] as far as the that is concerned? Because of the the number that
[2:51:21] we're over in terms of the monthly, I'm sorry, the the pay
[2:51:29] period number. That will that is is causing us
[2:51:36] to exceed the overtime. And at this point, it's driving
[2:51:44] the cost and we're. And please let me yeah, maybe
[2:51:48] let me ask this a different way, a different question.
[2:51:50] okay, so we're six months into the fiscal year.
[2:51:52] yes. We have $2.6 million budgeted,
[2:51:56] right, for overtime spending. But we've spent 2.1 million.
[2:52:03] so we're under budget, right? We're under budget currently.
[2:52:08] yes. Okay.
[2:52:09] we're under budget by about half $1 million.
[2:52:12] right. Okay.
[2:52:13] for 50% of the year expended. But then at the same separately,
[2:52:18] you're saying that within each pay period, we've been 50% over
[2:52:23] the amount of allocated budget. So how are we both half $1
[2:52:30] million or $500,000 under the projected for the first half of
[2:52:34] the year and 52% over for each pay period?
[2:52:38] okay. From that perspective, we the
[2:52:43] 50, 52% that were over. If you extract that, extrapolate
[2:52:47] that for the year. Okay, that would give us the
[2:52:51] projection of the 3.1 of overage as we are at the.
[2:53:01] current position, we burned a lot of the overtime early and.
[2:53:08] it's based on the amount and it's, it's, yeah, it's a little
[2:53:14] difficult to, to explain from that standpoint, but the
[2:53:20] overtime that we are experiencing, it's an average
[2:53:26] based on the pay periods. When you take the full number
[2:53:30] and extrapolate that over the number of pay periods.
[2:53:36] because at this point in the game, we should only be at 1.3
[2:53:38] because our total is 2.6. So for the year, we should be at
[2:53:45] okay, there it is. There it is.
[2:53:46] thank you. Yeah.
[2:53:47] okay. So we are not under by 500,000.
[2:53:50] we are over. We're over projected to be over
[2:53:53] by. We're under the total for the
[2:53:55] whole year, but we're only halfway through.
[2:53:57] but we're only halfway through. Okay.
[2:53:58] that was my miss. Thank you.
[2:54:00] that makes much more sense. Okay, so we're over where we
[2:54:03] are. So looking back at the last
[2:54:05] several years, is that typical for this time of year?
[2:54:10] it's a little more than where we usually are.
[2:54:12] I think usually we're actuals are more than the actuals are a
[2:54:15] little more than what we usually are.
[2:54:22] and now then getting into the qualitative piece of this, what
[2:54:26] do you attribute that to? Kip just mentioned.
[2:54:30] it's very true. The snowstorm was a big one
[2:54:34] because we staffed and then we, you know, we used that overtime
[2:54:38] budget for people. We housed people there.
[2:54:42] so people were working longer when other folks couldn't get in
[2:54:45] and things like that, that over time, that week alone was
[2:54:49] probably our biggest overtime budget pull in the three years
[2:54:54] that I've, I've been here. Wow.
[2:54:58] okay. So then looking at all the other
[2:55:01] shifts outside of that two week period, are we.
[2:55:05] and then in february, I there we had like two weeks where shifts
[2:55:11] were, were really down because people got sick.
[2:55:14] and so 19 of the 60 shifts were understaffed.
[2:55:18] so we had to pull in people for that.
[2:55:20] and so I think it's just those types of things coupled with
[2:55:23] these special events that we just hadn't budgeted for when we
[2:55:28] made the 26 budget. But we certainly have taken it
[2:55:31] into account in the 27 budget and have the the staff for we
[2:55:36] have not used overtime for training in this fiscal year.
[2:55:43] okay. What happens if you run out of
[2:55:47] overtime spend like you have a shift, there's an emergency.
[2:55:50] you need people, but you don't have any money left in the
[2:55:54] overtime budget. What happens then?
[2:55:55] we work with the executive to to identify funds to make it
[2:56:01] happen, honestly, because we can't.
[2:56:03] I mean, it's just a detriment to the whole city and the public
[2:56:07] safety ecosystem. If we just don't bring people in
[2:56:10] to to work the shifts. Okay.
[2:56:11] so then in terms of bringing people in to work, the shifts
[2:56:15] who are currently planned and scheduled and paid to be there,
[2:56:20] tell me a little bit more about our, your paid leave policy.
[2:56:26] this individual that you mentioned, who had been out for
[2:56:29] a year, how does that happen? So they were out.
[2:56:34] they were out leave without pay was one of our biggest numbers.
[2:56:39] and that information was in that oig report.
[2:56:43] you know, I'll come back. They were bringing in doctor's
[2:56:47] notes. And so what we really had to do.
[2:56:51] I think previously, trying to work with people to get a return
[2:56:55] to work, where now we're just really having to be stringent.
[2:56:58] if, if you can't come back, you have to have another
[2:57:04] alternative. And it can't be at the expense
[2:57:07] of the agency's performance. And so that's kind of what was
[2:57:13] happening is, is that all eventually come back or I'll
[2:57:16] come back in a few months or I've exhausted all my leave and,
[2:57:20] you know, I'll just go in and I'll leave without pay status.
[2:57:23] but what is the authority to go on leave without pay for a year?
[2:57:30] it's as people were bringing in doctor's notes and, and, you
[2:57:34] know, promises of coming back, it was something that I think
[2:57:38] was a past practice that was being allowed.
[2:57:42] and quite frankly, maybe even being done in a vacuum or, you
[2:57:48] know, through workarounds of like, I'm going to come back
[2:57:50] next week. Okay, great.
[2:57:51] you'll come back next week and then next week comes and then I
[2:57:54] have a different, you know, a different set of circumstances
[2:57:58] and things like that. And so we really just had to get
[2:58:02] that under control. And like I said, we, we got to a
[2:58:07] point where once you look at it holistically, you really realize
[2:58:11] like, this is a huge problem that is affecting not just one
[2:58:16] shift. It's affecting everybody.
[2:58:17] it's affecting the public safety system as a whole.
[2:58:20] and we've got to do something about this.
[2:58:21] and so we really just clamped down and said, we're not doing
[2:58:26] this anymore. There will be no more leave
[2:58:27] without pay. So you don't offer leave without
[2:58:31] pay at all and not okay. And what are the leave
[2:58:36] parameters for medical leave? Parental leave for ouc.
[2:58:40] so we follow the district's guidance from d.c.
[2:58:43] so the pfl, the the 12 weeks of fmla, the parental leave, things
[2:58:48] like that. But outside of that, if you have
[2:58:50] leave that you have accumulated that you can use, we're happy to
[2:58:55] let you use that. We do have a policy that only
[2:59:00] two people per shift can be off on scheduled leave.
[2:59:03] so only two people from each shift on police, fire and ems.
[2:59:06] of course, call outs are different.
[2:59:07] if you call out on sick unscheduled leave.
[2:59:10] and then also if you're calling out on unscheduled leave like
[2:59:16] sick leave and you don't have it, then we're holding you a
[2:59:19] wall and you have to bring in a doctor's note and we're putting
[2:59:22] you, we're referring you to the union for attendance counseling.
[2:59:27] and if it becomes problematic, 40 hours of of awol, then.
[2:59:34] we are separating you because it's not important.
[2:59:38] 12 weeks of paid leave for different purposes, whatever
[2:59:43] purposes the the dpm allows for. Yes, whatever those purposes.
[2:59:48] however that is done because that's done through dc.
[2:59:52] so however that's allowed. Have you seen that, donna.
[2:59:55] oh, you see, we have I have how many cases of that have you
[2:59:58] seen? Numerous.
[3:00:02] probably too many to tell you. Right off hand.
[3:00:06] but I mean, we had there were some people that had like three
[3:00:11] and four different leave packets.
[3:00:14] and so really just getting to the bottom of it about like,
[3:00:18] what is actually allowable or how did this, this get to be?
[3:00:24] what is your policy around use it or lose it for or if at all,
[3:00:29] for accumulated leave, earned leave.
[3:00:31] so. We have people that are in use
[3:00:35] that have used it or lose it status.
[3:00:37] usually at the end of the summer, around september, we
[3:00:39] start to tell supervisors, hey, you've got folks that you have
[3:00:42] people that are going to use leave or going to either lose
[3:00:46] their leave if they don't use it.
[3:00:47] it used to be the position of the agency that we would just
[3:00:51] ask for a rollover. I, we don't do that anymore.
[3:00:55] this is this will be the third year that I will say to
[3:01:00] employees, you're not rolling that leave over.
[3:01:03] so please, let's come up with a game plan so that you can use
[3:01:06] that leave because there are some employees that have worked
[3:01:11] at ouc for 40 plus years, and they have hundreds and hundreds
[3:01:15] of hours of leave because they, they get a lot of leave every
[3:01:19] pay period. And so we've gotten to a place
[3:01:24] after the pandemic where a lot of leave that wasn't used was
[3:01:27] allowed to be rolled. And it just makes it hard to do
[3:01:33] day to day operations and really affects things.
[3:01:36] so my goal and what I feel that I have done successfully is
[3:01:41] really just talk to people about what the expectation is.
[3:01:44] this system doesn't work if you're not here.
[3:01:46] so how do we get you here? And how do we make sure that you
[3:01:48] can still use your leave and. The calls get answer, the calls
[3:01:54] get dispatched. And so we do not I have not
[3:01:57] asked for rollover leave for use or lose.
[3:02:01] what do you mean not have asked for?
[3:02:03] you can ask to give exemptions and let people roll over their
[3:02:07] leave and I. I have not done that for the
[3:02:09] last two years. Every year it is use it or lose
[3:02:12] it. That's correct.
[3:02:14] and over the last two years that you've been implementing that
[3:02:16] new policy, have you seen staffing levels increase per
[3:02:20] shift as a result of that? Yes, because, I mean, people
[3:02:24] you've got to come to work. I mean, we can get creative.
[3:02:29] we can let people leave early. You know, if you want to leave
[3:02:32] early or use a couple hours here, a couple hours there when
[3:02:37] things aren't as busy on an overnight shift, we'll let
[3:02:40] people do that so that they don't lose it.
[3:02:42] they don't have to take the whole 12 hours in a chunk in an
[3:02:46] effort so that they don't lose it, but they know to use that
[3:02:49] leave first so that they don't lose it.
[3:02:53] all right. So I'm glad you mentioned 12
[3:02:57] hours. Has there been any efforts over
[3:03:00] the last year to move the optionality for eight hour
[3:03:04] shifts? We've had the discussions and
[3:03:08] people really like the 12 hours, because it is the shift that
[3:03:11] offers them the every other weekend off.
[3:03:15] there's not another shift out there that allows every other
[3:03:20] weekend off. A lot of the shifts are sliding
[3:03:23] shifts, so they might get one full weekend every 3 to 4
[3:03:29] months. So we continue to ask people, we
[3:03:34] continue to take the temperature on that.
[3:03:38] they see our conversations at this, these hearings, and when I
[3:03:40] get back, they'll be like, please, we love the 12 hours.
[3:03:46] we I'm always open to the discussions of eights and tens
[3:03:53] and often reminded that the tens didn't work previously when they
[3:03:57] had them. But certainly I'm always open
[3:04:00] to, to it. What about a combo pilot of some
[3:04:05] people with an eight hour shift and some people with a 12 hour
[3:04:08] shift or multiple shifts, so that if you're on an eight hour,
[3:04:12] you still get, you know, weekends off in, in time.
[3:04:19] we can we can look at that. The, the problem, I'll just be
[3:04:24] really transparent with you is what, what happens is we have
[3:04:28] this workforce of everything is done by seniority at uc.
[3:04:35] so we have a workforce that has this like big divide in the
[3:04:37] middle. People that I've worked there
[3:04:38] for like 25 plus years and people that have are newer,
[3:04:41] probably five or less years. The five or less years will
[3:04:45] always work friday, saturday, sunday, monday, tuesday and have
[3:04:51] like wednesday and thursday off because their lowest in
[3:04:53] seniority. And they're the bigger group who
[3:04:57] doesn't want they're the ones saying, we don't want that
[3:04:59] because they want the weekends. They don't want the random
[3:05:03] tuesday and wednesday off. So I'm open to that.
[3:05:06] I can certainly take that back and work with our union
[3:05:08] leadership to, to see what that looks like.
[3:05:11] and again, like, you know, I, I trust that you are having these
[3:05:15] conversations and that, you know, that people are telling
[3:05:18] you that I guess I would still say one, I have heard from other
[3:05:23] members who work at ou si about a concern about this, but two,
[3:05:28] it is just such a long time period to be sitting and be
[3:05:34] attentive and be fully focused on what you and I are in
[3:05:38] agreement with is vital. Life or death work, and so I'm
[3:05:44] totally sensitive to the reality that people want a weekend off.
[3:05:49] that makes total sense. But is there another way then to
[3:05:54] reshift it so that it's alternating, maybe smaller
[3:05:57] cohorts doing each shift on a rotating basis, so that there's
[3:06:03] still access to that time off? I just don't want to I
[3:06:07] understand the weekend off concern, but it feels like there
[3:06:10] might be a resolution that still accommodates for that and
[3:06:13] recognizes that as human beings, we want people to be attentive
[3:06:18] and handling this really, really important work that asking them
[3:06:21] to do it for 12 hours at a time might not be.
[3:06:26] the most sustainable. Absolutely agree.
[3:06:29] and coming in at 5:00 in the morning or 530 in the morning
[3:06:34] also too. So absolutely, I get it.
[3:06:39] okay. I just feel as though we have
[3:06:41] had this conversation for several years, and it feels like
[3:06:46] it might not be the right answer, but I don't know that it
[3:06:49] feels like any action has actually been taken around
[3:06:54] trying something out that might lead to more attendance.
[3:06:57] because again, I'm really focused on the attendance and
[3:07:01] even these overtime costs, like in ways that we can reduce that.
[3:07:06] so, you know, I think, you know, earlier when we, when staffing
[3:07:10] was critically low, it's really hard to, to staff an 8 or 10
[3:07:14] hour shift when you don't have staffing.
[3:07:16] and so that was really a roadblock there.
[3:07:20] now it's just seems like this is what, what people like, like
[3:07:23] that's the feedback we're getting.
[3:07:24] but what I can certainly do is make a commitment to, to work
[3:07:29] with, with president knox from our union and get a survey out.
[3:07:35] and we'll gladly share that with, with you as oversight and
[3:07:38] say, here's what the people have said and will propose, you know,
[3:07:43] we'll propose some things and look at the fiscal impact of
[3:07:45] that, too. Okay.
[3:07:48] thank you. Yes, absolutely.
[3:07:50] okay. So one of the other pieces that
[3:07:52] the oig reported was they said the agency lacks a comprehensive
[3:07:57] risk management framework. What is your response to that
[3:08:02] and what are the costs of our current quality assurance and
[3:08:05] risk management tools? Yes.
[3:08:07] so we have a risk manager. I'm just gonna look here.
[3:08:17] where is that? On the page 12.
[3:08:24] okay. The risk management.
[3:08:27] okay. So right now the the risk
[3:08:32] management framework, the quality assurance and risk
[3:08:35] management. Right now we this is what I was
[3:08:38] talking to councilmember frumin about.
[3:08:39] we were only able to do about 30,000 of our total quality
[3:08:46] assurance reviews on 911 and only about a about a third of
[3:08:49] what we were doing on 311. So now that we have ai involved
[3:08:55] and we're doing 100%, the cost of that is about $1.8 million.
[3:09:01] and the risk management activity is about $38,000.
[3:09:05] the framework was around like the physical risks.
[3:09:12] and now what we can do with the with the ai system that we're
[3:09:16] using comms coach through govworks is provide our risk
[3:09:20] manager a comprehensive report to show like what the risk is.
[3:09:26] so this morning I ran like a risk report based on all of the
[3:09:30] calls that we've taken. And the risk was less than 1%
[3:09:37] that people are compliant. They're doing things that we've
[3:09:40] been able to flag individuals who are struggling.
[3:09:45] and those are things that we weren't able to do.
[3:09:47] when oig ran their report, because we weren't evaluating
[3:09:50] all of our calls. So we've you know, we've
[3:09:55] provided oig with with what we have now with the reporting from
[3:09:59] the ai tool that we're using. And so I think that we've helped
[3:10:04] to, to mitigate that and kind of build that framework out based
[3:10:07] on the feedback that we're getting from, from the tools
[3:10:10] that we have implemented. Thank you.
[3:10:15] in terms of the technology and cad reliability, how much does
[3:10:20] the capital budget for fy 27 dedicate to replacing or
[3:10:24] upgrading the nine one, one and 311 hardware, software, radios,
[3:10:29] servers, other firewall needs for the infrastructure of the
[3:10:33] communications? Okay, that is.
[3:10:40] $1,251,238. And that is for the upgrades to
[3:10:45] 911 and 311. And specifically the cad system.
[3:10:51] the 311 system, the the 3111 upgrade, the 911 call routing
[3:10:57] dashboard and the cad on call upgrade, which will allow us to
[3:11:01] interconnect with the federal partners that we need to
[3:11:08] integrate with, as well as like the folks that we take calls
[3:11:11] for, but then send out to. So like us park police think us
[3:11:15] park police, if you're in a crash on the rock creek parkway,
[3:11:18] we take that, we dispatch out fims, but not mpd.
[3:11:22] we send the call over to their dispatch so that they can send
[3:11:26] out park police officers, as well as our neighbors.
[3:11:32] arlington 911 has just gone to the cad, the on call, so we'll
[3:11:37] be able to see their calls and the dispatch like as soon as we
[3:11:40] put it in or they put it in, it'll go instantaneously for the
[3:11:43] bridge responses. Okay, great.
[3:11:46] and when are you anticipating that upgrade to be complete?
[3:11:50] that is next year in 27. It's in 27.
[3:11:55] right. But do we know when.
[3:11:58] so we actually have a meeting with our vendor next month to
[3:12:01] talk about roadmap for it. So we have to look at the, the
[3:12:08] framework, how cad is set up. And so once we do that, so we
[3:12:10] have a meeting next month. And then we come up with a
[3:12:13] timeline to go with the upgrade. Okay.
[3:12:16] but all of the money you need to carry out that upgrade is
[3:12:20] included in this budget. Yes, yes.
[3:12:23] okay. Okay.
[3:12:25] it looks like you had some underspending across some of the
[3:12:29] programs and divisions last year.
[3:12:31] can you provide some clarity there of where from your
[3:12:35] numbers, you see, has underspent and why you think that is?
[3:12:42] so? A couple of things.
[3:12:43] first, in fy 25, there was a spending freeze and also just
[3:12:49] the implementation of some contracts, technology contracts
[3:12:52] that are actually budgeted for fy 26 that we're working on now.
[3:12:57] so those two items made up for most of the spending in fy 25.
[3:13:02] okay. And which divisions were those
[3:13:04] in in technology, both in technology?
[3:13:08] yes. Yeah.
[3:13:10] I think the other important thing too is we're still, as an
[3:13:15] industry, suffering a little bit from supply chain issues.
[3:13:21] and especially now with the tariffs and things happening
[3:13:24] around that. So getting things in on time, or
[3:13:28] when we had hoped we would get them in or being pushed out.
[3:13:32] so and then now that they're coming in, it's costing more
[3:13:36] than it would have it had they come in.
[3:13:38] okay then. Okay, that makes sense.
[3:13:40] but sorry, you said that there are two divisions that you had
[3:13:44] underspending in, and then it was due to technology.
[3:13:46] are those technology divisions or.
[3:13:48] I'm sorry, I misspoke. Not two divisions, but two, two.
[3:13:55] reasons why there was underspending was the in part,
[3:13:58] the freeze and then implementation of I.t.
[3:14:01] contracts. Understood.
[3:14:03] thank you. Okay.
[3:14:05] so you were not anticipating that type of underspending next
[3:14:09] year, assuming congress allows us to spend our own budget?
[3:14:11] no. That's correct.
[3:14:13] okay. And things cost more, so.
[3:14:15] yeah. Right.
[3:14:17] okay. So our good old hotel occupancy
[3:14:22] fee has risen again. Talk to me about this fee and
[3:14:30] the special purpose revenue fund, how you've used those
[3:14:35] funds over the last year. And if the use of those funds
[3:14:39] are outpacing the revenue that you're yielding, why why you
[3:14:41] think this is important? Sure.
[3:14:45] so the ou see in washington, d.c., in this whole region has
[3:14:48] always been a leader in next generation 911.
[3:14:53] we we estimated just this week that since we started talking
[3:14:58] about next gen in this region, that washington, d.c., has spent
[3:15:04] about $10 million. I'm sorry, 50, $50 million in
[3:15:08] ten years on the planning, implementation, and upkeep of
[3:15:13] next generation 911. We are at a point right now
[3:15:18] where we're on a regional esi net, which is the core services
[3:15:23] that allows us to get location, transfer calls with location,
[3:15:26] all the things that people have come accustomed to here.
[3:15:33] we the region is recommitting that right now the contract is
[3:15:37] is coming up. And so we have to recompete that
[3:15:39] with the vendors. We're going to spend at least $2
[3:15:44] million to enter into a new contract in the initial year,
[3:15:49] and probably 2 to 5 each year after that, just for the
[3:15:54] technology. And so and that doesn't include
[3:15:58] any other newer technology that comes that we might have to
[3:16:02] implement as cell phones expand their capabilities.
[3:16:06] and so it's a very, very expensive endeavor.
[3:16:10] and we're at a place right now where we're, we're getting down
[3:16:14] to zero. And so if we don't do something,
[3:16:18] we're going to be in a place where we're going to be looking
[3:16:23] for money or having to make decisions between, do we have
[3:16:27] people here to answer the call, or do we have the technology to
[3:16:31] process the call? And that's where no.
[3:16:34] 911 center ever wants to be. So that's why it's really
[3:16:39] important to us. That's why the $0.80 per night
[3:16:44] of occupied rooms is important. I know that hotels pay a pbx,
[3:16:51] but they they don't pay it in a way that every phone is paying
[3:16:58] their. It's like it's, it's 8 to 1
[3:17:02] ratio. So they're paying one fee for
[3:17:04] every eight rooms right now. That's not sustainable.
[3:17:10] I don't know specifically about individual hotels in washington,
[3:17:14] dc, but nationwide hotels are starting to take phones out of
[3:17:17] the room because carrie's law, which is a federal law, requires
[3:17:23] that 911 has to be able to be dialed directly from a hotel
[3:17:28] phone. That change over from having to
[3:17:32] push nine and then 911 to get an outside line is very, very
[3:17:37] expensive undertaking. And so a lot of hotels are just
[3:17:40] taking the phones out so that they don't have to meet that
[3:17:44] that law. And so one of two things is
[3:17:48] going to have to happen. You know, a couple of things
[3:17:51] have to happen here. Folks are are going to have to
[3:17:55] make these big fundamental changes to their public exchange
[3:18:01] systems in the hotels so that their carriers, law compliant,
[3:18:05] or they're going to have to pay fines or I think we do this
[3:18:11] because we have to be able to fund the 911 system.
[3:18:16] those are that's kind of where we're at, and that's where a lot
[3:18:21] of states are across the nation. We haven't had an increase in
[3:18:24] our 911 fee in over 20 years, and we're we're stand alone at
[3:18:30] this point. Are you nervous about hotels as
[3:18:33] a result of this fee removing their phone lines and then that
[3:18:37] ultimately decreasing the amount available to you in the special
[3:18:40] purpose fund? I am, I am I'm nervous about it
[3:18:45] because of the law. Because as the law starts to get
[3:18:50] enforced, I think they will start to remove those phones.
[3:18:56] also, as the fcc has ruled that copper lines can start to come
[3:19:00] out, people are going to start getting rid of their landlines
[3:19:05] because the fcc has just ruled that people who have the old
[3:19:11] copper lines like that, verizon and at&t, those vendors, those
[3:19:17] providers are those those telcos have been since march able to
[3:19:22] now send out letters to people, letting them know that they they
[3:19:27] are either going to have to switch to a cable provider like
[3:19:31] fios or comcast, or, and the landline that they're accustomed
[3:19:37] to is going to be gone because it's just incredibly expensive
[3:19:41] to upkeep copper. So how does the fund work or how
[3:19:49] will it change? So the fund would change in that
[3:19:54] the hotels would have to remit $0.80 for every booked night
[3:20:00] quarterly, just like the telephone companies have to
[3:20:02] remit to us on a quarterly basis based on the fees that they
[3:20:07] collect from the landlines. We would put that into a fund.
[3:20:11] we would use that fund first and foremost to pay for the
[3:20:16] technologies for next generation 901.
[3:20:20] I know there's concern about there are allowable expenses
[3:20:24] through the fcc. It does say that you can pay for
[3:20:27] personnel and things of those nature.
[3:20:29] but what we really see it as paying for is the technology
[3:20:32] piece. It will be enough to cover the
[3:20:35] technology at the ook. Is there a cap on the fund?
[3:20:40] no, there's no cap with what the fcc says is that if you divert
[3:20:47] funds, if you use funds for something that is not an
[3:20:51] allowable expense, then you become ineligible for federal
[3:20:55] grant funding. The last time that we received
[3:20:57] federal grant funding was 2016. That was the last time that they
[3:21:01] had federal grant funding for. For next generation 911.
[3:21:05] it was from spectrum sale. So how much have you projected
[3:21:10] to generate from the 80 cent? Seven.
[3:21:14] it's about 7 million annually, about 7 million.
[3:21:17] but in theory, if more is generated, that would still all
[3:21:20] go to uc for a set of permitted uses.
[3:21:24] that's it should correct. Okay.
[3:21:28] and without that, 7 million, you were going to have to find 7
[3:21:34] million somewhere to pay for the cost of next generation.
[3:21:38] I want because. So we had a legacy 911 system in
[3:21:43] washington dc. And then we moved to a next
[3:21:46] generation 911 system. And at one point in time, we had
[3:21:49] to keep both up, because that was the rule that the fcc said,
[3:21:51] you have to keep both up to make sure that if next gen doesn't
[3:21:55] take the call, the legacy system routes it to your center.
[3:21:58] so we did that. And then we got to a point where
[3:22:00] we were able to get rid of legacy.
[3:22:02] so the cost went down a little bit, but not a lot.
[3:22:06] now we have this next gen system.
[3:22:09] we can't go back to legacy system because they're not
[3:22:12] supported. Verizon was the provider that
[3:22:16] provided that. And they don't provide 911
[3:22:19] services anymore. So it's not like we can trade in
[3:22:23] the new for something old that costs less.
[3:22:26] we're we have what we have and this is what it costs.
[3:22:32] and so what happens if that fund is does not reach 7 million.
[3:22:38] we'll have to find it from other sources.
[3:22:42] we'll have to to, to get it from the general fund would would be
[3:22:47] the the crux of it, I guess. I mean, like, I'm always worried
[3:22:51] about the hotel tax as is because I think that we are not
[3:22:56] competitive where we need to be in the region, and especially
[3:22:58] for group bookings, that is oftentimes cheaper.
[3:23:01] and other locations. We're missing out on a lot of
[3:23:05] that traffic here, but separately, my concern for uc
[3:23:09] and you all having the budget that you need, why not just
[3:23:15] budget through the general fund of what you need, as opposed to
[3:23:18] relying on the special purpose fund?
[3:23:20] that is a bit unpredictable. Those are certainly
[3:23:25] conversations that that we can have, you know, with I don't
[3:23:29] want to get ahead of the executive, but certainly
[3:23:31] conversations we can have. But we each state has a special
[3:23:36] purpose fund. Some fund it through a fee on
[3:23:40] phone, some fund it through through a hotel occupancy tax.
[3:23:47] so this is very common. This is common.
[3:23:49] this is this is common in areas where there's tourism.
[3:23:56] okay. Okay.
[3:23:57] well thank you director. That concludes my questions for
[3:24:00] you today. As always, I want to give you a
[3:24:02] chance. If you want to highlight
[3:24:03] anything about the budget that we didn't get a chance to talk
[3:24:05] about or any closing thoughts. You know, I would just say that
[3:24:10] our commitment remains to the residents and visitors of
[3:24:15] washington, dc, to the people who show up each and every day
[3:24:17] at the office of unified communications to do good work
[3:24:21] for the public safety ecosystem. And I would just like to thank
[3:24:24] mayor bowser for her commitment to ook deputy mayor pia, chief
[3:24:29] carol and chief donnelly for their continued support.
[3:24:31] thank you to you, council member pinto, to aloy and to your staff
[3:24:35] for all their support. Thank you.
[3:24:37] great. Thank you very much.
[3:24:39] right back at you. Appreciate you all and look
[3:24:42] forward to staying in close contact over the next couple of
[3:24:44] weeks as we move through this will do.
[3:24:47] thank you so much. Thank you.
[3:24:50] all right. That concludes our portion of
[3:24:53] the hearing today discussing the office of unified
[3:24:57] communications. We are now turning to the
[3:24:59] metropolitan police department, or mpd, where we will hear from
[3:25:02] our interim chief of police, jeffrey carroll.
[3:26:11] hi, everybody. Welcome.
[3:26:15] if I could ask that everybody state their name and position
[3:26:17] for the record, please start with you.
[3:26:22] good afternoon. I'm jeff carroll, interim chief
[3:26:24] of police. Metropolitan police department.
[3:26:28] I'm an agency fiscal officer, metropolitan police department.
[3:26:33] patricia campbell, director of resource accountability, mpd.
[3:26:36] great. Well, welcome to you all.
[3:26:38] thank you for being here. If I can ask that everybody turn
[3:26:41] their microphones on, we're going to swear everybody in.
[3:26:45] do you swear or affirm under penalty of law that the
[3:26:48] testimony you're about to provide before this committee
[3:26:50] and the council of the district of columbia is the truth, the
[3:26:53] whole truth, and nothing but the truth, I do, I do thank you,
[3:26:57] thank you all, chief carroll, welcome.
[3:26:59] and I'd like to invite you to make any opening statement you
[3:27:02] have. All right.
[3:27:04] well, thank you, council councilman pinto.
[3:27:06] good afternoon. My name is jeff carroll.
[3:27:08] I'm the interim chief of police for the metropolitan police
[3:27:11] department. I'm pleased to be here today to
[3:27:13] discuss mpd's budget for fiscal year 2027 or fy 27.
[3:27:18] I'm going to summarize my testimony to stay within the
[3:27:21] time limit, but the full testimony is available on our
[3:27:23] website at mpdc.dc.gov. Mayor bowser, steadfast
[3:27:28] commitment to public safety into mpd is evident now in her 12th
[3:27:32] budget, as it was in her first. A safe city is essential to
[3:27:35] maintaining a strong dc, a principle that has guided mayor
[3:27:39] bowser's administration over the past 12 years.
[3:27:42] at a time when difficult decisions are being made, I
[3:27:44] appreciate the mayor's budget ensures that mpd will be able to
[3:27:47] continue full operations, including recruiting and hiring
[3:27:51] new officers, and deploying technology to help combat crime.
[3:27:56] first, I'll give you a brief overview of the budget mpd's fy
[3:28:00] 27 operating budget provides funding of approximately $688
[3:28:05] million, an increase of 14% from the approved fy 26 budget.
[3:28:10] as always, about nine out of every $10 in this budget is for
[3:28:14] people, including salaries, benefits and overtime of the
[3:28:18] local budget. Less than $2 million, or just
[3:28:21] one third of 1%, is not already committed to salaries, benefits,
[3:28:26] major contracts such as the police and fire clinic, and
[3:28:29] vital programmatic spending. This fraction of a percent
[3:28:32] covers a wide variety of small but necessary operating
[3:28:36] expenditures, such as language access, interpretation,
[3:28:39] translation, promotional testing, and subscriptions to
[3:28:42] legal databases. In the mayor's fy 27 budget, it
[3:28:46] supports mpd's mission with critical investments in people
[3:28:49] and crime fighting technology. Mpd's top priority remains its
[3:28:54] employees, especially hiring and retaining dedicated and talented
[3:28:57] sworn officers. With 3157 sworn members right
[3:29:01] now, mpd. Sworn staffing continues to
[3:29:03] decline in the past five years. Mpd.
[3:29:06] sworn staffing is down the equivalent of two police
[3:29:08] districts, reaching the lowest level in more than 50 years.
[3:29:12] mayor bowser's budget will enable mpd to hire as many
[3:29:14] officers as we believe we can, but based on our current trends,
[3:29:18] that is projected to be below 3100 officers by september 2027,
[3:29:24] mpd struggle with staffing mirrors national trends in
[3:29:27] december 2025, the national policing institute identified
[3:29:30] the workforce crisis as the top high stakes trend impacting us
[3:29:35] policing. Mpi also broadened, broadly
[3:29:38] outlined the solution. The winning strategy will shift
[3:29:40] from a singular focus on recruitment to a holistic one on
[3:29:44] retention, wellness, job satisfaction and workforce
[3:29:47] modernization. Mpd is focused on these issues
[3:29:49] for years, so there aren't many low hanging fruit left to grab.
[3:29:53] we have a nationally recognized recruiting and hiring program,
[3:29:56] and we were one of the first local agencies to offer a hiring
[3:29:59] bonus. The fy 27 budget continues to
[3:30:02] fund the hiring bonus, along with short term housing
[3:30:05] assistance for recruits moving into the city, and mayor
[3:30:08] bowser's commitment to innovative technology helps keep
[3:30:11] pace with emerging crime trends and innovative criminals.
[3:30:14] so what else can we do? We know we can't outspend all
[3:30:17] the agencies that we're competing against.
[3:30:20] given that we looked at our top challenges and our competitive
[3:30:23] advantages to identify low or no cost proposals to broaden our
[3:30:26] recruiting pool, the budget support act, or bsa, includes
[3:30:30] includes proposals to support hiring and retention.
[3:30:33] first, I urge the council to reconsider the proposal from
[3:30:36] last year to allow new recruits to be hired with no college
[3:30:40] credits, and earn the 60 college credits through an mpd
[3:30:43] partnership with an accredited college.
[3:30:46] frederick community college has evaluated the mpd recruit
[3:30:48] training program and agreed to grant 41 credits for successful
[3:30:51] completion of a coursework. Under the proposed program, fcc
[3:30:55] will provide 19 credits of classroom training at mpd for
[3:30:59] each cohort. This change is absolutely
[3:31:01] essential because in this region, only mpd and arlington
[3:31:05] county police still require college credits for new
[3:31:07] recruits. This leaves mpd at a significant
[3:31:10] disadvantage in recruiting new officers.
[3:31:13] our proposal does not eliminate the college credit requirement,
[3:31:16] but it provides a different path for achieving it.
[3:31:18] we appreciate that. Last year, the council approved
[3:31:21] the compromise legislation by reducing the pre hiring
[3:31:24] requirement from 60 to 40 credits.
[3:31:26] however, since then we've not had any applicants applying
[3:31:29] under it. One key reason is likely that
[3:31:31] most college students who drop out of school do so in the first
[3:31:34] academic year, according to recent data, 22% of all first
[3:31:38] time, full time freshmen drop out of college.
[3:31:40] this is more likely to impact first generation college
[3:31:44] students. This proposal will give more
[3:31:46] young adults a fair shot, while helping mpd to begin to rebuild
[3:31:49] its sworn force. I urge the council to to pass
[3:31:53] this amendment. If the 60 college.
[3:31:56] excuse me if the 60 college credit requirement is one of the
[3:31:59] top hurdles in hiring mpd cadet program is one of our strengths.
[3:32:04] the cadet program allows mpd to bring in young adults to earn a
[3:32:07] good salary for part time work, while completing college
[3:32:10] coursework at udc. The program provides not just a
[3:32:14] scholarship, but also life skills and lessons.
[3:32:16] it can help keep young people on a positive path to success so
[3:32:20] they'll be able to they'll be still be eligible to be hired as
[3:32:23] recruit by the time they reach the necessary age.
[3:32:27] the bsa expands mpd cadet eligibility while mpd may not be
[3:32:30] the only cadet program in the region, it is one of the most
[3:32:34] strongest and most established. We can use this competitive
[3:32:37] advantage to recruit young adults graduating from high
[3:32:40] school in the region, who may also want to become a police
[3:32:42] officer. Our program harnesses that early
[3:32:44] interest in law enforcement and keeps them employed and engaged
[3:32:48] until they're eligible to apply to become recruits.
[3:32:51] I recognize the cadet program has been, by design, a pathway
[3:32:54] for d.c. Students and residents. I agree that it's important for
[3:32:57] d.c. Students to have top priority, but mpd has been
[3:33:00] authorized for 150 cadets for years.
[3:33:02] yet actual cadet staffing has consistently hovered around 120
[3:33:06] to 130 cadets. As we hire more cadets, others
[3:33:10] graduate and transition into recruits.
[3:33:12] under the proposal, d.c. Residents would still have a
[3:33:14] hiring preference, but up to 25 slots could be filled by cadets
[3:33:18] from jurisdictions within the metro.
[3:33:20] washington council of governments area.
[3:33:22] we think this pool of applicants is a good prospect for the
[3:33:25] department and for the city. While the proposals regarding
[3:33:29] college credit requirements and the cadet program would expand
[3:33:31] the hiring pool, it's also important to consider retention
[3:33:34] efforts. Mpd has strong pension plan is,
[3:33:37] on the one hand, helpful for recruitment and on the other
[3:33:41] makes retirement a financially sound decision.
[3:33:43] swarm members are able to retire, collect their pension
[3:33:46] and take another job or career. Impedes long standing senior
[3:33:50] police officer program has provided an option to allow
[3:33:52] members to apply to return to mpd after retirement, at a rate
[3:33:56] of pay no more than the middle step of an officer's pay scale.
[3:34:00] through this program, mpd and the city have been able to
[3:34:03] retain trained and experienced members at a lower salary.
[3:34:07] it's important to note that mpd retains the discretion of
[3:34:10] whether to rehire the member. Poor performers are not.
[3:34:12] welcome back. Unfortunately, legislation
[3:34:15] passed by the council in 2022 had what we think was an
[3:34:19] unintended impact on the program.
[3:34:21] the council codified mpd practice by prohibiting hiring
[3:34:24] any sworn members who had previously committed serious
[3:34:27] misconduct to ensure that poor performers from other
[3:34:29] departments did not get a job within mpd.
[3:34:32] mpd supported this change as it was already our practice.
[3:34:35] however, because our pspos are rehired, members with serious
[3:34:39] misconduct in their history are no longer eligible.
[3:34:41] this includes members who may have violated policy 10 or 20
[3:34:44] years ago, but then have continued to serve mpd in the
[3:34:46] city very well. After that, the bsa would modify
[3:34:50] this prohibition for the sbu program.
[3:34:52] they would be prohibited from being rehired only if a member
[3:34:55] received a suspension of ten or more days in the five years
[3:34:58] prior to retirement. To be clear, mpd would still
[3:35:02] maintain the discretion not to rehire someone as an fto if they
[3:35:05] would not be a valuable member. But the amendment would
[3:35:09] acknowledge that discipline has been.
[3:35:11] the discipline is intended to be rehabilitative, and mpd is in a
[3:35:15] position to determine whether a retired mpd member can continue
[3:35:18] to have a positive impact. Moving on from the staffing
[3:35:23] discussion, strategic investments in technology make
[3:35:25] our crime fighting efforts more effective and efficient.
[3:35:29] technology can be a force multiplier, which is essential
[3:35:32] given our current staffing levels.
[3:35:34] mayor bowser's fy 27 budget continues to make strategic
[3:35:38] investments to make our communities safer.
[3:35:41] cctvs and license plate readers are proven technology that can
[3:35:44] provide real time information to responding officers.
[3:35:47] they support better investigations and prosecutions
[3:35:50] that ultimately deter crime and help inform the deployment of
[3:35:53] resources. Lpr have been valuable in
[3:35:56] locating missing persons, carjack vehicles and vehicles
[3:35:59] used in violent crime. Mpd has been able to leverage
[3:36:03] these tools to even greater effect in our real time crime
[3:36:06] center. Their use has contributed to
[3:36:08] high closure rates for violent crime er closure rates.
[3:36:12] currently and historically exceed the average for
[3:36:14] comparable sized cities, as reported to the fbi.
[3:36:18] closing cases is especially difficult for shootings in
[3:36:21] public space, which has long driven dc's violent crime.
[3:36:24] for instance. There is rarely dna in these
[3:36:26] cases, and it can be harder to identify any relationship
[3:36:29] between the victim and the suspect.
[3:36:31] increased use of cameras helps to bridge this gap.
[3:36:34] mayor bowser's fy 27 budget continues.
[3:36:37] investment in this vital technology, with 145 cctvs and
[3:36:41] 50 lprs. In addition, the budget funds an
[3:36:45] expansion of mpd's drone program with the purchase of six indoor
[3:36:49] and eight outdoor drones. The indoor drones are needed for
[3:36:52] use in barricades and other life safety missions.
[3:36:55] the additional outdoor drones are needed to ensure equipment
[3:36:57] is available for operations and training, even when some are
[3:37:01] undergoing routine maintenance. Lastly, the budget includes an
[3:37:05] annual planned investment in replacement vehicles with 240
[3:37:09] marked and unmarked cruisers and 23 motorcycles and scooters.
[3:37:14] in addition to the funding I've highlighted, the bsa includes a
[3:37:17] provision to support greater efficiency in handling
[3:37:20] fingerprinting and the fbi background checks.
[3:37:22] this bsa provision will enable mpd to apply to the fbi for
[3:37:27] authority to contract with a channeler.
[3:37:29] to address this challenge. A channeler is an fbi approved
[3:37:33] private contractor that acts as a liaison to submit fingerprints
[3:37:36] to the fbi. Dc must be must be identified in
[3:37:40] the law enforcement categories of individuals, subject to the
[3:37:43] background check. And the fbi must approve the
[3:37:46] legislation before mpd can contract with the chandler.
[3:37:49] however, the fbi will not review proposed legislation or provide
[3:37:52] feedback unless it's enacted. The language approved in the fy
[3:37:56] 26 bsa was deemed insufficient by the fbi, underscoring the
[3:38:00] uncertainty of federal approval. This proposed revision is
[3:38:03] informed by some feedback that the fbi did provide on the fy 26
[3:38:08] bsa. Multiple agencies and industries
[3:38:10] have asked for this opportunity to help streamline their
[3:38:13] administrative processes. Last week, the committee of the
[3:38:16] whole approved similar legislation.
[3:38:17] the background check adjustment amendment act of 2025.
[3:38:22] however, that bill focuses just on just one industry background
[3:38:25] checks for entities providing services to children and youth.
[3:38:29] I encourage the council to support the more expansive
[3:38:32] program provision in the bsa. Lastly, I'd like to address the
[3:38:35] use of overtime, a significant cost driver in mpd's budget.
[3:38:39] first, let me reassure the council and our residents that
[3:38:42] I'm committed to being a trustworthy, worthy steward of
[3:38:45] dc resources. Since being named interim chief,
[3:38:47] I've been working with my team to identify efficiencies and
[3:38:50] overtime usage while maintaining a positive public safety impact
[3:38:54] all over time. Must be approved by a
[3:38:56] supervisor. In addition, overtime is
[3:38:58] reviewed each pay period across the agency and by managers in
[3:39:02] each bureau. There have been some initial
[3:39:04] successes, with a 14% reduction almost 50,000 hours in non-court
[3:39:08] local overtime hours when compared to the same period last
[3:39:11] year. Drivers of overtime correlate
[3:39:16] with historically low staffing. Mpd must be able to respond to
[3:39:19] calls for service while continuing proactive crime
[3:39:22] deterrent efforts and meeting the unique needs of the nation's
[3:39:25] capital. Although the city has enjoyed a
[3:39:27] positive start to 2026, with historic lows and serious
[3:39:30] violent crime over the first three months, violence has
[3:39:33] ticked up in april. Combating this upturn may
[3:39:36] require local overtime. Other factors, such as the
[3:39:40] continued prevalence of teen takeovers, will also draw a
[3:39:42] line, will also draw on limited local resources.
[3:39:46] in addition, as the country celebrates its 250th birthday,
[3:39:50] d.c. Is expected to host numerous large scale events,
[3:39:54] including a two week grand great america state fair, the grand
[3:39:57] prix race and more. The district may be hosting
[3:40:01] record breaking crowds throughout the summer.
[3:40:03] mpd will certainly need to use additional overtime to staff
[3:40:06] these events and maintain response to residents and a
[3:40:09] presence in our neighborhoods. While most of this overtime will
[3:40:12] likely be reimbursed by federal dollars, there may be some
[3:40:14] impact on local overtime. Lastly, even if overtime
[3:40:18] decreases, the costs will increase in fy 26.
[3:40:22] this is the first year with a higher pay scale under a new
[3:40:25] collective bargaining agreement for sworn members, the new pay
[3:40:28] scale incorporates cumulative rates of 13% for fy 24 through
[3:40:33] fy 26. In closing, I'd like to thank
[3:40:36] you for the opportunity to present mayor bowser's fy 27
[3:40:39] budget for mpd. Like several recent years, in
[3:40:43] recent years, the fy 27 budget will require difficult choices.
[3:40:46] this year started out very strong, with levels of lower
[3:40:49] crime than d.c. Has experienced since perhaps the 1960s.
[3:40:52] however, the violence the past month has been a stark reminder
[3:40:55] that we still have far to go to ensure all of our neighborhoods
[3:40:58] and residents are safe. In short, we cannot take our
[3:41:00] foot off the gas. The funding for mpd and the
[3:41:03] mayor's budget is critical so that we can continue the
[3:41:06] significant progress. We've made.
[3:41:07] a safe city makes all other progress possible.
[3:41:10] therefore, I strongly urge this committee and the council to
[3:41:13] fully fund mpd's fy 27 budget. Thank you.
[3:41:20] great. Well, thank you very much, chief
[3:41:23] carroll and team. And I want to thank everybody
[3:41:25] who works at mpd who's here today.
[3:41:30] and patrolling our streets and handling every position in a
[3:41:34] very difficult year and environment, and appreciate all
[3:41:37] of your service to the district and in keeping everybody safe.
[3:41:41] yes, ma'am. Thank you.
[3:41:43] so I want to start with a discussion around staffing, and
[3:41:49] I appreciate that there's been a recognition in this budget that
[3:41:52] we need to focus on hiring and building back up our our force
[3:41:57] that is now facing, as you mentioned, a 50 year staffing
[3:42:01] low. How does this budget
[3:42:04] specifically focus on hiring so that it is not an inevitability
[3:42:09] of what you said in october or september of 2027, that we are
[3:42:14] still at 3000 officers. Yes.
[3:42:17] the budget supports hiring 216 ftes.
[3:42:21] it also maintains the hiring bonuses that we already have for
[3:42:24] our members. It maintains the housing
[3:42:27] allowance that we provide to new folks that join the department,
[3:42:29] as well, and it also fully funds the the police officer retention
[3:42:34] program, which helps to retain officers.
[3:42:36] but outside of that, the real area, I think that can open up
[3:42:39] the aperture is the the amendments in the budget support
[3:42:42] act, like I mentioned inside my testimony, only mpd and
[3:42:45] arlington county have. The 60 college credit
[3:42:48] requirement. So the proposal in the bsa is to
[3:42:51] allow folks to to join the department with no credits go
[3:42:53] through the academy, which opens up a wider pool of applicants
[3:42:56] than we currently have. And this is a limitation, like I
[3:42:59] said, that we only we have in arlington, even places like
[3:43:03] montgomery county have lowered that.
[3:43:04] so what it does is it only lowers it to come in.
[3:43:06] you still gain those credits and you still leave the police
[3:43:10] academy with the required 60 college credits.
[3:43:12] so it's just another way to, to actually get to that same goal
[3:43:15] of everyone having 60 credits before they leave the police
[3:43:18] academy actually hit the streets, but it opens up an
[3:43:21] applicant pool to an area that we have not been able to, to
[3:43:24] touch in some time. Okay.
[3:43:25] and talk about what goes on at the police academy.
[3:43:29] we've seen a change in requirements as a point of entry
[3:43:34] for some of our federal agencies.
[3:43:37] talk about why this would be different because of what goes
[3:43:40] on at the police academy. Sure.
[3:43:40] so there's no change other than the initial entry into the to be
[3:43:45] hired into the credits. There is no change to any of the
[3:43:47] other requirements. So the same requirements in the
[3:43:51] police academy, physical requirements, educational
[3:43:53] requirements are there. And actually they would get
[3:43:55] additional credits. So they would finish the police
[3:43:58] academy. There's still 19 credits.
[3:43:59] they'd have to have to get to the 60.
[3:44:01] so they received additional classes as a cohort from
[3:44:05] frederick community college before they actually graduate.
[3:44:07] so they would actually spend about an extra month or so in
[3:44:09] the police academy to make sure they have all that.
[3:44:11] so they go through all the regular things that police
[3:44:14] officers get as far as dc code, you know, report writing,
[3:44:18] driving emergency vehicles, firearms, and the different less
[3:44:21] than lethal weapons that we use. Also, how to interact with
[3:44:23] different types of community members, how to interact with
[3:44:26] juveniles, all the things that we do as far as first aid and
[3:44:29] those types of things, how to handle first demonstrations.
[3:44:32] but on top of that, they would get additional coursework that
[3:44:35] would also support that. So there's no lowering of any
[3:44:38] standards of the academy. There's actually additional
[3:44:40] education that this would provide.
[3:44:42] great. Thank you for that clarity.
[3:44:45] how many officers are we losing a month of for?
[3:44:48] let's start with five. Six.
[3:44:52] approximately 20 a month. Okay.
[3:44:58] so we're losing about 240 officers a year.
[3:45:00] yeah. We assume that we'll lose about
[3:45:03] 240 to 245 a year. Okay, so you just said that this
[3:45:07] budget accounts for 216 new hires.
[3:45:09] yes. We believe this budget will
[3:45:12] support 216 new hires. So if that level of attrition
[3:45:17] continues, this budget is still. There's still the no no, the
[3:45:23] number is going to lead to a reduced force size.
[3:45:26] no, it absolutely would. And so that's why we talk so
[3:45:28] much about the budget support act and the need to open that
[3:45:31] aperture. We believe we can fund.
[3:45:32] we'll be able to make up the difference if we are able to get
[3:45:35] more people in. But we didn't want to come in
[3:45:37] with an unrealistic expectation. If those those amendments are
[3:45:41] passed through there, we basically will sit in the same
[3:45:43] the same boat that we're in right now.
[3:45:44] as far as the applicant pool of who's there.
[3:45:47] so really passing, that would allow us to go above that.
[3:45:50] but we didn't want to, you know, underestimate what actually
[3:45:53] would be there. So that's why it's so important
[3:45:55] for me with some of the provisions that the budget
[3:45:56] support act, as well as the spo portion of that, where we talk
[3:45:59] about changing the requirements before that requirement was put
[3:46:03] into place, we were maintaining a much higher number of senior
[3:46:07] police officers in the agency. And that year we had had a big
[3:46:09] drop. We have not really picked back
[3:46:12] up that number of senior police officers since then.
[3:46:15] which requirement? Sure.
[3:46:16] so the sba requirement regarding the the serious misconduct.
[3:46:19] so I referenced it in the testimony.
[3:46:20] so under the the comprehensive police reform act, if you have
[3:46:23] any serious misconduct, you cannot be hired.
[3:46:26] the unintended consequence with that is you could be an mpd
[3:46:28] officer who, you know, 28 years ago, you had sustained serious
[3:46:33] misconduct. But for the prior 26 years,
[3:46:36] since then, you've been a model employee.
[3:46:37] you've done great things. You've had no other
[3:46:40] reoccurrences. However, currently the law does
[3:46:42] not does not allow us to rehire because technically it's a hire
[3:46:46] that person back to as an employee, so they can't be a
[3:46:49] senior police officer. So every year we rehire our
[3:46:52] senior police officers. The year that was enacted came
[3:46:54] through, we had a big drop in senior police officers because
[3:46:57] of that new requirement. So this legislation would it
[3:47:00] would still leave a requirement in there as it relates to
[3:47:03] serious misconduct within the past five years, you cannot have
[3:47:06] a suspension of more than ten days.
[3:47:08] and it still allows mpd to make the determination if the person
[3:47:12] should be an employee or not. And that authority still lies
[3:47:16] with you. Yes.
[3:47:17] so would lie with you under this proposed language.
[3:47:19] exactly. It would still lie with us.
[3:47:21] however, if you did have a more than a ten day suspension within
[3:47:23] the past five years, you would not be eligible to come back.
[3:47:26] so it really addresses that concern of folks who, you know,
[3:47:29] more than five years ago may have had serious misconduct.
[3:47:32] it would allow them to apply. It doesn't mean they would be
[3:47:34] hired, but it would allow them to be considered for the
[3:47:39] process. And how many officers do you
[3:47:41] think that expanded authority for you would yield in the
[3:47:45] senior officer program a year, let's say?
[3:47:47] let me see if I know the year that we that it got implemented.
[3:47:51] we had a fairly sizable drop in error in our spo numbers.
[3:47:56] I don't know if I have that number right on hand right now,
[3:47:58] but I can get back to you what it would look like.
[3:48:00] but it's just a rehire designation.
[3:48:03] so it's these are officers who already work at mpd, but they
[3:48:07] wouldn't be able to become senior officers.
[3:48:09] as a result, we're losing them entirely from the department.
[3:48:12] so it's back to the retention portion of it.
[3:48:14] so we would be able to retain because remember, to get our
[3:48:16] numbers up, we need not only to get new people in the door, but
[3:48:18] we need to retain the folks that we have now that's here.
[3:48:21] so it's a two fold system. Are there any other ways that we
[3:48:24] can get more folks into the senior officer program?
[3:48:29] I know there have been conversations about a drop
[3:48:31] program. I don't know where we're at with
[3:48:32] that. I know that's another area that
[3:48:34] folks that have interest in, you know, the things that we do
[3:48:38] right now as far as the police officer retention program, the
[3:48:41] educational incentives both towards the end of their career
[3:48:44] and that period between 3 and 8 years, that's been successful as
[3:48:47] well. This budget does continue to to
[3:48:49] fund that as well. So if we passed the portion of
[3:49:00] the bsa that did what we tried to do last year as part of our
[3:49:08] piece, d.c. Bill, we tried to change the standards for the
[3:49:12] point of entry under recognition that a lot of people don't and
[3:49:16] will not have a college degree in a traditional way moving
[3:49:20] forward, and that we want that training to go through the mpd
[3:49:22] academy. There were changes made to the
[3:49:24] bill as we went through the legislative process, but if that
[3:49:29] passed in this budget and the the spigot, so to speak, turned
[3:49:34] on to allow for more applicants, then where would we find the
[3:49:39] funding from to ensure that we can actually hire them?
[3:49:42] if we've only accommodated for 216 officers and are losing 240?
[3:49:47] absolutely. That's a great question.
[3:49:49] so if we're able to bring in more officers, then we can start
[3:49:52] shifting that money from the overtime expenditures, which
[3:49:54] have gone up to the new officers, which have a much
[3:49:57] lower salary. Same thing with their senior
[3:49:59] police officer program, an officer who's got 25 years on as
[3:50:02] an officer, or maybe even a sergeant or whatever, they make
[3:50:04] a much higher salary than a senior police officer who comes
[3:50:07] in a mid range of the officer scale.
[3:50:09] so those are ways that getting new people in actually would,
[3:50:12] over time would come down. So the money could start to
[3:50:15] shift like that. Okay.
[3:50:19] you mentioned that actually, I'm going to come back to that to
[3:50:21] make sure I can ask about something else.
[3:50:25] I'll return. So for overtime funding, you
[3:50:30] know, I appreciate the agency's effort to more accurately,
[3:50:36] accurately reflect what the overtime needs will be, which I
[3:50:39] think has been misrepresented to some in the public that this is
[3:50:45] an increase in the budget, when really it is an accurate
[3:50:48] reflect, more accurate reflection of the projections
[3:50:51] that we've seen. But.
[3:50:59] I guess tell me about how decisions are made with
[3:51:03] overtime. You mentioned that you found
[3:51:05] some efficiencies in overtime spending.
[3:51:07] what were those efficiencies and what types of events warrant
[3:51:13] absolutely needed overtime versus events that may be able
[3:51:16] to be handled a different way without reliance on overtime?
[3:51:19] yeah. So overtime is a very
[3:51:22] complicated issue. So there's certain things
[3:51:24] overtime we talk about special events.
[3:51:26] think about five keys marathons, things like that.
[3:51:29] those are in most cases, unless it's, you know, like a july 4th
[3:51:32] or something. Those are those are funded by
[3:51:34] whatever entity is putting that on.
[3:51:35] so that's a reimbursable detail. So of course that's overtime
[3:51:39] that's funded through them. Members are paid that way.
[3:51:42] then you have other overtime that we have to handle.
[3:51:44] things like the president, united states, when he moves,
[3:51:47] the vice president moves every day.
[3:51:49] those members aren't on duty. And that's insertion of overtime
[3:51:51] that comes with that. I think to the the
[3:51:54] correspondents dinner this weekend, the staffing that we
[3:51:56] had on the outside of that, that's mandatory overtime that
[3:51:59] we have to staff to make sure the perimeter of those things
[3:52:02] are are safe in coordination with the secret service.
[3:52:04] there's overtime that's associated with that.
[3:52:06] the same is true when the king is here in town.
[3:52:08] the king is a high level dignitary.
[3:52:10] so in order to staff the motorcade routes with that,
[3:52:13] those are overtime that we have to staff.
[3:52:14] so there's kind of that that bucket of overtime that's over
[3:52:16] there. And then you have things like
[3:52:18] our different sporting venues. So think about, you know, nats
[3:52:21] park, capital one arena, audi field officers that provide
[3:52:25] enhanced visibility around on the outside of those facilities
[3:52:27] because the inside is handled by the organization.
[3:52:30] but the city has an obligation on the outside of those areas to
[3:52:33] provide enhanced presence, traffic closures and controls.
[3:52:36] you can think about the officers that help to get the vehicles
[3:52:39] out of there at the end of the games and the end of the
[3:52:41] concerts and things like that. So that's another area of
[3:52:45] overtime, we would say. And then you have court, you
[3:52:47] know, when officers make an arrest, they have to go to
[3:52:50] court. In many cases, unless the
[3:52:52] officer is assigned to work day work.
[3:52:53] a lot of times there's overtime that's incurred as it relates to
[3:52:56] going to court to to testify, as well as going to the dmv.
[3:53:00] if there's dmv hearings that are related with that.
[3:53:02] and then we have, you know, overtime as it relates to just
[3:53:07] operational activities. So what does that mean?
[3:53:08] maybe you have an arrest at the end of your shift.
[3:53:11] you can't just stop the arrest and go home.
[3:53:13] you have to stay incur overtime to make sure the arrest is fully
[3:53:16] processed. The paperwork is completed, and
[3:53:19] to move on like that, then we may have crime trends, right?
[3:53:21] we may have an uptick in violent crime that may require
[3:53:24] additional resources to be deployed, maybe because we're
[3:53:27] low on staffing, maybe because we've seen an uptick in crime in
[3:53:30] a specific area. So we, the watch commanders,
[3:53:33] along with the district commanders to look at that.
[3:53:35] and they would use overtime to backfill to make sure we have
[3:53:38] the appropriate resources that are on the street or to address,
[3:53:41] and maybe an increase, for example, in violent crime inside
[3:53:43] an area. So it's kind of a long answer,
[3:53:46] but there's different buckets that are looked at at all over
[3:53:49] time, has to be approved by a supervisor beforehand.
[3:53:52] if overtime is used for an operational plan, like a thing
[3:53:55] like I spoke about, whereas maybe there's an increase in
[3:53:57] violent crime in the area, then the commanders would develop a
[3:54:00] plan of how they're going to use that overtime to deploy those
[3:54:03] resources in that area. And then we would evaluate that
[3:54:05] to see, is it something how long do we need to continue that?
[3:54:07] okay. All right.
[3:54:08] thank you. I'm going to return to this, but
[3:54:11] we've been joined by my at large colleague, councilmember robert
[3:54:13] white. And I will turn to you now for a
[3:54:15] ten minute round. Thank you very much, chairperson
[3:54:19] pinto chief and miss mcgaffin, I thank you for being with us
[3:54:23] today. I'm currently chairing my own
[3:54:25] hearing, so I will be in and out and just want to touch on a
[3:54:30] couple of issues. A a constituent recently reached
[3:54:35] out after noticing what they believe may be a pattern
[3:54:39] involving their clients. In one case, an individual
[3:54:42] stopped near north capitol street and rhode island avenue
[3:54:45] on march 2nd was arrested by mpd for an alleged expired tag
[3:54:51] released from the second district station and then
[3:54:53] detained by ice outside of the station.
[3:54:56] in a second case. On march 25th, an uber driver
[3:55:00] stopped near children's hospital for speeding, was arrested by
[3:55:04] mpd, held overnight, transported to d.c. Superior court and later
[3:55:08] taken into ice custody. What policies govern mpd
[3:55:13] coordination or information sharing with federal immigration
[3:55:17] authorities and situations like these?
[3:55:19] yeah, so, I mean, there's a lot d.c. Code that discusses
[3:55:23] specifically what information we can and can't share basically
[3:55:25] kind of comes down to is once you're inside custody, you can't
[3:55:28] share any information as it relates to that.
[3:55:30] on the mpd side, the two instances that you refer to
[3:55:34] specifically, I'm not familiar with, but that's kind of the
[3:55:37] outline of what the law is. So mpd does not engage in civil
[3:55:41] immigration enforcement. We shouldn't we're not asking
[3:55:43] people. We're prohibited by law from
[3:55:45] inquiring about their immigration status.
[3:55:47] with that, is there a way for federal immigration authorities
[3:55:51] to know whether someone that may be on their radar has been
[3:55:56] arrested or is being released from a police station?
[3:55:59] I would imagine there's a way for them to, to to know when I
[3:56:02] say that, you know, when a person is arrested, they get
[3:56:04] booked and then it goes into the correction system.
[3:56:07] I don't know what kind of visibility they have, but I do
[3:56:09] know, for example, when you get arrested, you know, if you're
[3:56:12] held, you go from a dock custody to the us marshals, which is
[3:56:16] obviously a federal agency. So there is information that in
[3:56:19] those systems you get on the lockup list inside superior
[3:56:22] court, which is part of the federal government as well.
[3:56:24] so there's definitely information that goes across
[3:56:27] those areas there. Okay.
[3:56:32] the obviously we've seen I know you've seen it as well, videos
[3:56:35] of of officers. What one video of officers
[3:56:39] dragging two youth off bikes. Other videos of taunting youth
[3:56:45] at metro stations, which has raised questions among residents
[3:56:49] about whether these approaches. And improve public safety,
[3:56:55] particularly with respect to to young people.
[3:56:58] some young people from black swan academy told me that they
[3:57:01] need what they need most are trusted, adult mentors, and the
[3:57:06] council passed the youth mentorship through a community
[3:57:09] engagement act in december of 2024, and these concerns
[3:57:13] underscore why we need to identify funding in this budget
[3:57:17] to implement the solutions young people themselves have
[3:57:20] requested. So I'll be looking for
[3:57:22] opportunities in this budget to work with my colleagues to fund
[3:57:26] this and other similar measures. But while we work to fund these
[3:57:30] prevention strategies, residents also deserve clarity about how
[3:57:33] youth are treated when multiple law enforcement agencies are
[3:57:37] present, when federal officers are operating alongside mpd in
[3:57:41] areas with large youth gatherings, are they required to
[3:57:44] follow mpd protocols for interacting with youth,
[3:57:49] including de-escalation standards?
[3:57:51] so mpd policy does not apply to any federal agency.
[3:57:54] they're guided by whatever their home agency policies are.
[3:57:58] so what does that mean? That means if you work for
[3:58:00] united states marshal service, you're bound by the policies of
[3:58:03] the marshal service. They don't have to follow air,
[3:58:06] air rules and procedures. Obviously, mpd officers that are
[3:58:09] assigned to the metropolitan police department, they received
[3:58:11] training as it relates to juveniles and how to interact
[3:58:13] with them. And then, as you mentioned,
[3:58:15] there was, you know, an incident that gained some attention that
[3:58:18] that incident is being investigated as well.
[3:58:22] if they are not required to follow the same protocols as
[3:58:26] mpd, do you think that runs the risk of creating safety issues
[3:58:31] and. Creating distrust with with our
[3:58:35] law enforcement? I don't know if it runs the risk
[3:58:37] of that. What I would say is most law
[3:58:39] enforcement agencies that I'm aware of do have a requirement
[3:58:41] to, to de-escalate, but what their specific training is or
[3:58:44] what that looks like, I can't really comment on.
[3:58:47] I do know, you know, what we've seen in a lot of these large
[3:58:50] scale teen takeovers are, you know, a lot of lot of folks that
[3:58:53] are out there. And it takes a lot of resources,
[3:58:54] as you alluded to, to, to try to get those things under control.
[3:58:57] for us, the main thing is to let everyone, the young people,
[3:59:01] community members, folks that are out there be in a safe
[3:59:03] environment to be out and enjoy the evening or the nighttime,
[3:59:06] whatever it may be. But that way everyone can be
[3:59:08] safe. The young people and the other
[3:59:10] folks that are out there in those different areas, the the
[3:59:13] majority of young people in these large groups are not doing
[3:59:16] anything illegal, aside from whether or not there may be a
[3:59:19] curfew in place. But when there are a couple that
[3:59:22] that may do something, does that create a safety issue for the
[3:59:28] city? It definitely does.
[3:59:29] I mean, unfortunately, we saw the incident where the young
[3:59:32] person, you know, juvenile discharged a firearm in the navy
[3:59:35] yard about last month when there was one of these large
[3:59:38] takeovers, another another young person, juvenile, was seen
[3:59:40] running from the scene. A firearm was recovered.
[3:59:42] so, you know, things like that. I mean, it puts the safety of
[3:59:44] all the young people and not just young people, but other
[3:59:47] adults and folks that are out there.
[3:59:48] in those cases, as you mentioned there, there is usually when
[3:59:51] there is issues, a small group of individuals that are there.
[3:59:54] so that's why even, for example, with the emergency legislation
[3:59:58] and now the mayor's order as it relates to curfew, there's so
[4:00:01] many things that are built into, as it relates to the size of the
[4:00:03] group to be in violation. The information that we need to
[4:00:06] designate the area, as well as the warnings that we give,
[4:00:09] because the goal is not to bring someone as an a curfew violator,
[4:00:12] it's to try to break the groups up so they're not so large to
[4:00:15] make it more manageable and to make sure it's safe for
[4:00:17] everyone. Now, obviously, people are
[4:00:19] shooting guns off or carrying firearms or assaulting each
[4:00:22] other. Then the appropriate police
[4:00:24] action needs to be taken. But we want to make sure that
[4:00:26] everyone's safe in those areas. Right?
[4:00:28] and so yeah, so even if there are a lot of young people, the
[4:00:32] few people doing very wrong things is still wrong with the
[4:00:37] federal officers. If the majority of them are
[4:00:38] doing something right. This incident with the federal
[4:00:42] officer grabbing two young girls off the bike, was that wrong?
[4:00:45] I think that that my understanding is that was not a
[4:00:47] federal officer. That's an mpd officer that's
[4:00:49] being investigated. Okay.
[4:00:52] so we agree that's not okay. Absolutely.
[4:00:54] that's why we're investigating to see exactly what happened and
[4:00:57] look into that. How many officers are being
[4:01:00] deployed to curfew zones. So it depends.
[4:01:03] it depends on what information we have.
[4:01:05] so it depends on how many curfew zones we have.
[4:01:08] and then if we don't have curfew zones, we still deploy officers
[4:01:11] inside certain areas where we've seen issues at.
[4:01:14] so what does that mean. There's certain areas, for
[4:01:16] example, the navy yard, where we see pretty much every weekend
[4:01:19] some some level of juvenile activity, either based on on
[4:01:23] fliers that are posted online. A lot of these things go on
[4:01:25] social media, go around. So kind of the areas that we've
[4:01:28] seen have also kind of shifted sometimes to as we've deployed
[4:01:32] resources in areas, there's other areas where we start to
[4:01:34] see the teen takeovers happen. Example would be the shift we
[4:01:38] saw over noma and lithia tanner park.
[4:01:40] we had issues that moved over there.
[4:01:42] so putting resources in those areas to try to mitigate that.
[4:01:45] if we have a juvenile curfew zone or not, it has been
[4:01:49] successful to help tamp down those things, but it does take a
[4:01:52] lot of resources. And of course, we have to have
[4:01:55] the ability to shift those resources because, you know,
[4:01:58] since, you know, young people may see officers over here, they
[4:02:01] may go to another location. So we're going to have to have
[4:02:03] the ability to shift those folks to address those issues.
[4:02:06] so. That the curfew zones have an
[4:02:10] impact on police coverage in other parts of the city.
[4:02:13] no, no. So we're staffing those with
[4:02:15] overtime. So it has an effect on our
[4:02:17] overtime usage is what it really does.
[4:02:20] and then we have to shift resources to address that.
[4:02:22] so for example, you know we're using overtime resources in the
[4:02:25] navy yard to have increased staffing over there because of
[4:02:28] what we're seeing inside that area.
[4:02:30] with the uptick in visitation, more, more young people that are
[4:02:33] there in those time frames. Okay.
[4:02:40] the. There's one issue I want to make
[4:02:47] sure I have time to, to get to. So let me go there now.
[4:02:52] residents sometimes report to me that after a shooting or other
[4:02:55] violent incident, police response ends quickly.
[4:02:59] while communities continue to deal with trauma and disruption.
[4:03:05] I recently spoke with the families of tio coates and milo
[4:03:09] young. The two children killed near a
[4:03:12] food truck during spring break. Their families and community
[4:03:15] members said that they had received no outreach or support
[4:03:18] after facing what is unimaginable loss after a
[4:03:23] violent incident occurs. What role does mpd or partner
[4:03:29] agencies play in coordinating with violence interruption
[4:03:33] trauma services? Community and family support?
[4:03:36] yes. So on that aspect, in those
[4:03:38] cases, especially in homicide cases, we have a victim support
[4:03:41] section within an era or homicide unit that does outreach
[4:03:44] and connects those families. So I'll follow up and look and
[4:03:46] see what that looks like there. Also, you know, in those areas,
[4:03:51] we have put an increased presence over there, working
[4:03:53] with the violence interrupters to try to get information.
[4:03:55] you know, we continue to investigate those those deaths
[4:03:59] intensely. And it's one of the highest
[4:04:01] priorities that we have. So working with the community to
[4:04:03] get information with that, but also the deployment of resources
[4:04:06] in, in those areas is something that we work with other agencies
[4:04:10] for, especially when we come to the juvenile area and pushing
[4:04:12] that out to for awareness, not only to our partner agencies,
[4:04:15] but to see what else they can do in those situations.
[4:04:17] thank you. If we could work together on
[4:04:19] that, and with my colleague councilmember felder, just, you
[4:04:24] know, the impact on the other young people and the families
[4:04:26] there is is tough to process. I know you and your team know
[4:04:29] about that. So.
[4:04:30] absolutely. Yes, sir.
[4:04:31] thank you. Thank you very much.
[4:04:33] thank you. Chairman, chairperson pinto.
[4:04:37] absolutely. And thank you so much for
[4:04:38] joining us. Good luck in your hearing.
[4:04:41] and I think what that conversation lends itself to
[4:04:44] another area of the budget that is concerning around the cut of
[4:04:49] family services, out of the one's office.
[4:04:51] and so if we're reducing another agency's ability to provide
[4:04:55] those wraparound supports and grief counseling and funeral
[4:04:59] expenses, which is now cut across all of our agencies, that
[4:05:03] were supportive in that way. You know, a lot of people are
[4:05:06] going to be relying on mpd to do even more and, you know, needs
[4:05:13] to be we're working to resolve in the budget.
[4:05:15] I do want to just clarify something about the conversation
[4:05:18] you just had with councilmember white as it relates to the
[4:05:21] juvenile curfew. Without this tool, can you speak
[4:05:29] about what that would mean for the staffing strains and
[4:05:34] overtime strains in order to respond to the large teen
[4:05:39] takeovers? If you weren't able to say in
[4:05:44] this specific area, we're going to use this as a preventative
[4:05:47] tool to have an earlier curfew. Yes.
[4:05:49] so more likely than not, what we'd have to do is we'd have to
[4:05:51] deploy even more resources in the area, because then they
[4:05:54] would come to the area. And now we have the ability, if
[4:05:56] they're in those zones, to have them break into smaller groups,
[4:05:59] which are more manageable, or they can go outside the
[4:06:01] boundaries, it kind of thins out the crowd.
[4:06:04] but without that, we'd have more people.
[4:06:05] so just like when we have a large crowd anywhere, maybe
[4:06:09] downtown or wherever, we need more resources and more officers
[4:06:12] and more folks to be out there to ensure that they can monitor
[4:06:15] the crowd. And if there are any issues or
[4:06:17] if a fight breaks out, they can immediately intercede.
[4:06:19] so it doesn't turn into a complete melee.
[4:06:22] okay. So if we don't have the juvenile
[4:06:27] curfew in place, we can expect more strain on officer staffing
[4:06:31] and overtime. That's correct.
[4:06:32] okay. Thank you.
[4:06:36] okay, so just to make sure I have these these numbers again
[4:06:41] for fy 2027, we're anticipating that we can bring on 216 new
[4:06:47] recruits based on our current requirements.
[4:06:49] as far as the spos and with the college requirement.
[4:06:53] yes. Okay.
[4:06:54] and how about new cadets? So with that, we we think
[4:06:58] there'll be about 20 cadet conversions into that.
[4:07:00] the cadet numbers, the cadet numbers really depends on how
[4:07:04] many roll over. As I mentioned in my testimony,
[4:07:08] as we talked about the the provision about the cadets, we
[4:07:10] hover in that area about 120 and 1 to 130 with the cadet numbers,
[4:07:15] we're authorized up to 150. That's why we're interested in
[4:07:18] in the expansion of it to the immediate area around the city,
[4:07:21] to see if we can fill those additional 20 spots with other
[4:07:25] folks. If we do not get to that level
[4:07:27] with folks from the city itself. But the reason why it's kind of
[4:07:30] nuanced is you have some cadets that are in high school in their
[4:07:34] last year, and they roll out. You have some that are that are
[4:07:37] older, that have, you know, joined the program, but they
[4:07:39] don't have the credits. And then you have some that are
[4:07:42] kind of in that mid range where they hit 21, they'll be able to
[4:07:44] come and officer. So depending on where they're at
[4:07:47] as it relates to age and college credits, that's where it kind of
[4:07:51] because some of them could have started inside high school and
[4:07:54] be done earlier and could theoretically be just about
[4:07:57] there to be 21 in some cases. You have folks that are over.
[4:08:00] 21. So they're not waiting to get to
[4:08:03] 21. They're just waiting to get the
[4:08:05] appropriate college credits. So it comes back to kind of back
[4:08:07] to the conversation about the college credits, but it's been a
[4:08:10] very steady pipeline. Well, not many roads lead to
[4:08:14] college credits, but it has been one of our best pipelines.
[4:08:17] the cadet program has been as far as getting young people
[4:08:20] inside the door, you know, giving them familiarity not only
[4:08:23] with the agency, but how things work, but letting them get their
[4:08:26] education, enrolling in. So it has been a very good
[4:08:29] pipeline for us. So those 20 recruits expected
[4:08:33] are part of the 217. Yes.
[4:08:36] 216 yes. So right now, what we we
[4:08:38] estimate is 148 new recruits. 20 cadet conversions, and
[4:08:43] potentially 48 senior officers is there.
[4:08:44] that's our estimate. Of course, things could change
[4:08:47] based on the bsa and what that would look like.
[4:08:53] okay. And that does not include what
[4:08:57] hopefully will be an increase if drop is finally passed.
[4:08:59] that's correct. We wanted to make our estimate
[4:09:02] as realistic as possible. Okay.
[4:09:08] all right. So back to overtime.
[4:09:13] so last year there was $39 million budgeted for overtime in
[4:09:20] fy 26, the current year. But the actual amount spent on
[4:09:24] overtime in fy 25 was 95 million.
[4:09:27] in the proposed fy 27 budget, the mayor is allocated 81
[4:09:31] million to overtime. But you spoke about earlier that
[4:09:36] this year is going to be even more reliant on overtime because
[4:09:39] of all of these federal events. And so while I appreciate this
[4:09:43] budget moves towards more accurate reflection, is it an
[4:09:47] accurate reflection? I do believe it's an accurate
[4:09:51] reflection. But as you mentioned, there's a
[4:09:52] lot of variables that are in there, including we talk about
[4:09:55] the america 250 in a different funding sources.
[4:09:57] so I'll let dan talk a little bit about kind of what that
[4:10:00] breakdown looks like and kind of where we think that we will be
[4:10:02] at with that. That would be great.
[4:10:03] and as you do that, can you also talk about where the epsf
[4:10:10] funding went to and how that changed our own local budget
[4:10:13] allocations? With the increase in federal
[4:10:16] funding, reimbursement? Sure.
[4:10:19] so can you clarify the fund that we usually get reimbursed from
[4:10:23] the federal government? That was usually about 50
[4:10:26] million, that we got $90 million this year?
[4:10:28] correct. Much of that hopefully will go
[4:10:31] to reimbursement of expenses to cover federal.
[4:10:34] but I'm curious exactly how much mpd received from that bucket of
[4:10:40] money and how that changed our local allocation of dollars that
[4:10:44] we had anticipated, because we weren't sure we were going to
[4:10:46] get that money. Yeah.
[4:10:47] so our current forecast of what we think we'll need from e, p,
[4:10:50] s, f and mpd, and particularly mpd overtime, uses the majority
[4:10:54] across the district. I know fire uses some and I
[4:10:57] believe corrections. It is it is getting close to 90.
[4:10:59] so we are having conversations with sema and others in terms of
[4:11:03] you know, they're the ones that manage it centrally with the cfo
[4:11:05] as well in terms of what we can do about that and potentially
[4:11:08] working with the mayor, because it's definitely america.
[4:11:10] 250 alone. The iran middle east ramp up of
[4:11:15] of mpd resources is also going to epsf.
[4:11:17] so there's other factors at play that haven't been there in the
[4:11:21] past. So even though the 90 is a lot,
[4:11:24] the vast majority of that is going to be mpd over time.
[4:11:27] are there any other sources of money that the federal
[4:11:31] government can just directly pay for some of these security
[4:11:34] expenses that are due to federal government activity?
[4:11:37] so in my ideal world, we'd have a whole bunch of new moas
[4:11:41] because we have various task forces in place where we do have
[4:11:43] existing moas, and we become a reimbursable special purpose
[4:11:45] revenue. Obviously, that takes time and
[4:11:47] more paperwork and agreement with these various federal
[4:11:49] entities, and it doesn't seem to have been the case so far in
[4:11:53] this current environment. But, you know, that would pave
[4:11:56] the way because we've had for years dozens of federal task
[4:12:00] forces and regional. And those work very well.
[4:12:03] there's there's agreements in place, there's reimbursable
[4:12:05] rates in place, and a special purpose revenue.
[4:12:06] so it doesn't even get to epsf or the need for another federal
[4:12:10] payment. I do know anecdotally, there are
[4:12:12] conversations from the cfo side and the mayor's side, I believe
[4:12:15] directly with congress to to talk about a potential
[4:12:17] additional federal payment. Federal payment would be great
[4:12:20] because there's not usually the same requirements as a grant
[4:12:22] with strings attached, if you will, because it's money we can
[4:12:26] utilize and have more flexibility.
[4:12:27] but I'm not aware of anything in writing at this point.
[4:12:34] so is the only way the federal government ever really helpful
[4:12:36] in this regard is through this epsf fund that we then apply for
[4:12:41] reimbursement to? That's right.
[4:12:43] well, epsf is is is easy in, in a in a sense, because it is it
[4:12:48] is it is reimbursable. But there are there are it's
[4:12:52] broader and its application and how we can use it.
[4:12:56] it's just this year is, is with america.
[4:12:59] 250 and some of these other events.
[4:13:00] it's, it's far beyond what we would normally need in a, in a
[4:13:03] fiscal year. Well, it feels like america is.
[4:13:06] 250 is a perfect example of something that is unique.
[4:13:10] and that's not accounted for in our annual budgeting, that if
[4:13:14] there was ever a time for the federal government to directly
[4:13:17] pay for some of those security and personnel costs, it would be
[4:13:21] the programing around. To me, it would be just like the
[4:13:23] inaugurations. Every four years we get an
[4:13:25] additional federal payment for the inauguration from.
[4:13:27] from my standpoint, that would that would make sense.
[4:13:29] similar size, similar scope. But imagine if the inauguration
[4:13:32] was only once in every 250 years.
[4:13:35] yeah, exactly. I mean, really.
[4:13:37] okay. And so some of the inauguration
[4:13:40] expenses I thought were part of the epsf reimbursement.
[4:13:44] yes. Although the majority of it is,
[4:13:46] is actually designated. It's similar, but it's actually
[4:13:49] accounted for separately. It's a separate paper agency.
[4:13:52] so sometimes I think the numbers may be shown together, but
[4:13:54] they're actually separate. And how much was that that
[4:13:57] separate fund received for the inauguration.
[4:13:58] from that I'd have to I don't have it right in front of me.
[4:14:01] okay. I'm just curious about what the
[4:14:02] range would be. It's in the tens of millions.
[4:14:06] yeah. Okay.
[4:14:09] and are those conversations going on now around setting up a
[4:14:13] similar funding structure for americas 250 as far as I'm
[4:14:17] aware, right now, we're just looking at it in terms of epsf.
[4:14:20] so I think I think I do believe there's conversations at higher
[4:14:23] levels of the cfo and the mayor in terms of trying to work with
[4:14:27] congress on getting an additional federal payment.
[4:14:28] I don't we haven't there's no structure or anything that's
[4:14:31] been set up to accommodate that. Okay.
[4:14:34] well, chief, you serve on the safe and beautiful task force,
[4:14:37] right? Yeah, I do.
[4:14:40] so is this something that you can ask them for?
[4:14:42] yeah, we can definitely bring up the conversation about it just
[4:14:46] to kind of give a little context, though, about task
[4:14:48] force and things like that. The task force don't usually pay
[4:14:50] for all the officers. They usually pay for task force
[4:14:53] expenses that are associated with that.
[4:14:55] so think about officers, for example, that we have to serve
[4:14:57] on the joint terrorism task force.
[4:14:59] the fbi doesn't pay for their salaries.
[4:15:01] they pay for overtime. That's associated with with
[4:15:05] their duties with the fbi. They may provide a vehicle, but
[4:15:08] they don't pay their salary. So it's just want to provide
[4:15:11] clarity. It's not like they would pay for
[4:15:12] everything. Yes.
[4:15:13] understood. But I think if the
[4:15:16] recommendation came from the task force to ensure that
[4:15:18] expenses around america's two 50th didn't come out of dc local
[4:15:23] overtime budget, but was separately allocated, you know,
[4:15:26] it could save the america 250 isn't.
[4:15:28] although the task force has some visibility.
[4:15:30] it's not like ran by the task force itself.
[4:15:32] but we definitely. Point taken.
[4:15:36] okay. I want to recognize we've been
[4:15:38] joined by my ward 7 colleague, council member wendell felder.
[4:15:41] I'll turn to you now for a ten minute round.
[4:15:44] thank you, chairperson pinto chief is always good to see you,
[4:15:49] sir, as well as members of your senior leadership.
[4:15:53] just diving right in, chief, as you are aware, agencies across
[4:15:58] the district have seen a significant decrease in their
[4:16:02] budgets. However, mpd has seen a
[4:16:06] significant increase in your budget.
[4:16:08] could you speak to how the increase in funds is helping to
[4:16:13] keep families across the district safe?
[4:16:15] sure. So as we talked about the a lot
[4:16:17] of the increase that we see in funds is really partially to
[4:16:20] make up for the the increase overtime we actually have been
[4:16:23] using to make sure we can keep the city safe.
[4:16:25] and also the increased that came from the collective bargaining
[4:16:29] agreement that went into place last year that's now being put
[4:16:32] into this year's budget, that the I believe it's a 13%
[4:16:34] increase from fy 24 through fy 26.
[4:16:38] so some of that is really pushing that up.
[4:16:40] the number up because of the collective bargaining agreement
[4:16:43] with that, with this budget allows us to do is to deploy
[4:16:45] officers across the city, not only for special events and
[4:16:47] others. You know, a lot of talk about
[4:16:49] america 250 and that kind of stuff.
[4:16:50] but I mean, our number one priority is to keep crime down
[4:16:53] across the city and be across the communities and make sure we
[4:16:55] have the resources that we need across the city for that.
[4:16:58] and may it be addressing concerns with with young people
[4:17:02] inside certain areas or violent crime that's starting to tick up
[4:17:05] over in the sixth and seventh district.
[4:17:07] we have to make sure that we have the appropriate resources.
[4:17:09] the officers that are out there, you know, when we talk about our
[4:17:12] budget, I mentioned it earlier, kind of my introductory
[4:17:14] testimony. There's such a small percentage
[4:17:16] of it that is not personnel costs.
[4:17:18] the people that actually do the work and the things that we have
[4:17:21] to have out there. That's what drives, you know,
[4:17:24] 99% of our budget is that that cost, that salary, the benefits
[4:17:27] the officers we have, and we need those officers to be out in
[4:17:30] those areas across the city as we continue to face that, the
[4:17:34] short staffing that we have, as I mentioned, it's the lowest
[4:17:37] we've had in over 50 years. We have to supplement that with
[4:17:40] overtime. That's that's the only way we
[4:17:41] can do that to make sure we have the resources that we need.
[4:17:44] and of course, it does drive up the cost with that.
[4:17:46] and so you see that within your proposed budget, a little over
[4:17:52] 42 million is an increase in overtime.
[4:17:55] how many officers could you get with that in the event that that
[4:18:00] money would go to officers, new officers rather?
[4:18:03] yeah. So I'll let dan or patricia kind
[4:18:05] of give you the number. But what I'd say before we get
[4:18:07] there is, you know, with the ability to get back to our
[4:18:11] budget support act, some of those provisions in there,
[4:18:15] providing the ability to get new people in the door, open up that
[4:18:17] new pool of applicants is really important because that would
[4:18:20] allow us to do just that, right? Get new officers in the force
[4:18:24] that make a lower salary to take up those spots.
[4:18:26] and also we talk about, you know, work life balance and the
[4:18:29] well-being of our members, bring down some of the hours that they
[4:18:32] have to spend, you know, working these details that we have.
[4:18:35] and also the other provision as we talk about the senior police
[4:18:38] officers, the ability to potentially bring in folks that
[4:18:40] have experience, that have been deployed across the city, that
[4:18:43] are currently prohibited based on that legislation, to let them
[4:18:46] come back at a lower salary, also provides us the ability to
[4:18:49] to get more people out there. And then dan can kind of give
[4:18:51] you a number on the number itself.
[4:18:55] sure. Yeah.
[4:18:55] theoretically, that would hire about 500 officers.
[4:18:58] you know, obviously you wouldn't see the savings in overtime in
[4:19:00] year one because they'd have to go through the academy.
[4:19:03] I will say overtime budget, though, is a reflection of what
[4:19:06] they are actually spending. And even then it's going to be
[4:19:09] tough to hit that mark. And as well as chief carol
[4:19:12] mentioned earlier, actually getting those officers in the
[4:19:14] door is the harder part. We have ftes.
[4:19:17] we're sitting currently on about 18% vacancy savings rate.
[4:19:21] so, you know, a healthy vacancy savings for an agency, the size
[4:19:24] is more like 5%. So I don't think it's an issue
[4:19:27] of getting authority from our officers.
[4:19:28] I think it's really more an issue of getting them in the
[4:19:30] door, because we certainly have the budget for it.
[4:19:33] from a financial perspective, it makes much more sense to hire an
[4:19:37] officer at $75,000 a year than pay an officer, an experienced
[4:19:40] officer at $85 an hour on overtime.
[4:19:43] it's, you know, they're all getting time and a half on
[4:19:45] overtime. Thank you for that.
[4:19:47] now, chief, I know that allowing officers to take advantage of
[4:19:53] overtime is a band aid. It's not the overall solution.
[4:19:56] could you speak to what's the long term strategy to get more
[4:20:01] officers through the door? And how does your budget reflect
[4:20:04] that? I know you mentioned some of the
[4:20:06] language in the bsa, but could you speak a little?
[4:20:08] could you go into greater detail on what the long term strategy
[4:20:14] consists of? Sure.
[4:20:14] so so what the bsa does the provision in there as far as
[4:20:18] allowing us to hire officers with college credit when they
[4:20:21] come in the door, provide them with those credits through a
[4:20:25] cooperative agreement that we will establish with frederick
[4:20:28] community college. So they would get credits for
[4:20:30] going through the academy. And then before they leave the
[4:20:32] academy, they would stay additional month or so to pick
[4:20:34] up the additional 19 credits. So when they graduate fully,
[4:20:37] they would have those 60 college credits.
[4:20:39] so this would allow us to open up an applicant pool that we
[4:20:42] currently can't tap right now in this region.
[4:20:45] us in arlington county are the only agencies that require the
[4:20:49] college credit to come in the door.
[4:20:51] I believe in july, arlington county's starting salary is
[4:20:53] going to $90,000. So a big difference from our
[4:20:57] starting salary of just over $75,000.
[4:21:00] so for us, this provision of the bsa would open up a new
[4:21:04] applicant pool. You know, we tried last year
[4:21:06] when we got the the entrance number of credits down to 40,
[4:21:10] but we have not seen anyone who's in that, that range where
[4:21:13] they need to make up just those 20 credits to get to 60.
[4:21:17] so this new provision, if we can get this passed, would open up a
[4:21:20] whole new applicant pool that would really help to get people
[4:21:23] in the door. The other portion of the
[4:21:25] provision I mentioned before is the spo portion of it.
[4:21:28] being able to take some of those folks that may have had serious
[4:21:31] misconduct 23 years ago, but have been a stellar employee
[4:21:35] since then. Right now, the legislation
[4:21:37] doesn't allow them to, to, quote unquote, rehire them or to bring
[4:21:39] them back as a senior police officer because of that
[4:21:43] prohibition, the amended language in the bsa would allow
[4:21:45] for folks that have not had any serious misconduct in the past
[4:21:48] five years of ten days or more. To be considered doesn't mean we
[4:21:51] have to hire them, but it would allow us to consider to bring
[4:21:55] them back. So we kind of go back to not
[4:21:57] only the new hire piece, which is very important, but also
[4:22:00] retaining people to stop the the number of folks that we're
[4:22:02] seeing leave each year. We have to look at something
[4:22:05] different. There's no way we're going to be
[4:22:06] able to compete with the hiring bonuses.
[4:22:09] right now, park police is offering a $70,000 hiring bonus.
[4:22:12] now the secret service is offering a $75,000 hiring bonus.
[4:22:16] we were one of the first agencies to offering a higher
[4:22:19] bonus. We still provide that of
[4:22:21] $25,000, but we're never going to be able to continue to go up
[4:22:23] and up. So we have to look at different
[4:22:25] strategies to really address and open up that applicant pool to
[4:22:28] get folks in here. So if you make me feel like I'm
[4:22:30] in the wrong occupation now, I mentioned earlier that there was
[4:22:35] an overall increase in your budget.
[4:22:37] now, to be honest, I was a little disappointed to see that
[4:22:40] the data analytics and research there was a reduction by $1.4
[4:22:46] million. And chief, could you speak to
[4:22:48] why is data and analytic capacity being reduced at a time
[4:22:52] when data driven policies is critical?
[4:22:54] sure. A great question.
[4:22:55] I'm gonna let dan answer that because some of this is just
[4:22:58] technical shifting in the budget.
[4:23:01] yeah. Thanks, counselor.
[4:23:02] the majority of that, actually all of that is a 12 ftes that
[4:23:05] were shifted out to special operations division and the
[4:23:09] crime analysts and investigative analysts.
[4:23:11] so I would say it was more of a shifting around program.
[4:23:15] it's a realignment from one bureau to another.
[4:23:17] yeah. Now, chief, I was happy to see
[4:23:21] investments in capital improvements.
[4:23:23] could you speak to how those funds will help improve overall
[4:23:32] conditions and facilities across ward 7, which is comprised of
[4:23:36] the first district, the fifth district and the sixth district?
[4:23:40] yes. So so one of the biggest ones
[4:23:42] that we have is actually on the capital project side isn't
[4:23:44] inside those words, but it's actually inside our 70
[4:23:48] headquarters renovation. This is something that we've
[4:23:49] been working on for, for many years.
[4:23:51] and at this point, it looks like we'll actually begin
[4:23:53] construction inside fiscal year 27.
[4:23:55] so the design function, all that has been worked through by the
[4:23:58] end of this fiscal year, the design and permitting will be
[4:24:01] fully completed. The goal is to start
[4:24:03] construction in fiscal year 27, and then it should be completed
[4:24:07] in fiscal year 28. The seventh district is probably
[4:24:10] the. The facility we have is in the
[4:24:12] worst condition that we have at this time.
[4:24:14] so that's a big impact inside of our seventh district to bring
[4:24:18] that up. Also, areas that we've been
[4:24:19] working on is the renovations of er detention centers inside of
[4:24:22] our district, cell blocks to make sure to bring them up.
[4:24:25] so we renovated a couple of them, currently 40 and five are
[4:24:29] being renovated, 40 is almost complete.
[4:24:31] five d is in progress. So by the end of fiscal year 26,
[4:24:34] they should both be completed. Following that, we have to then
[4:24:39] renovate the second district detention area and the third
[4:24:42] district detention area. Inside some of our renovation
[4:24:45] project. There's issues that we have.
[4:24:46] many of our facilities have more minor issues.
[4:24:50] I'd say plumbing issues, things like that.
[4:24:51] so working with the team on small projects to.
[4:24:54] sorry for interrupting you, chief.
[4:24:55] sure. I'm trying to get two questions
[4:24:57] in really quickly. The the first question, even
[4:25:02] though you saw an increase in your budget, does this budget
[4:25:07] adequately keep residents safe from your opinion?
[4:25:09] yes, it does it. Yes it does.
[4:25:12] and if you if we're talking about public safety from an
[4:25:16] overall public safety ecosystem, when you look at programs like
[4:25:20] pathways, which is supposed to be the front line defense with
[4:25:25] deescalating neighborhood feuds, unfortunately, that program has
[4:25:27] seen a a decrease in their budget.
[4:25:30] my question, chief, are you under the impression that maybe
[4:25:33] there's an opportunity to reprogram any additional funds
[4:25:38] that you may have to support other agencies that overall
[4:25:42] contribute to the work that your agency is doing?
[4:25:45] yeah. What I'd say is those agencies
[4:25:47] do a lot of good work, but the challenge is basically what we
[4:25:49] have right now with what appears to be an increase is really just
[4:25:52] right sizing of the overtime. And it's actually last year, the
[4:25:55] collective bargaining agreement was was passed.
[4:25:57] so 13% increase in salaries is really where you see a majority
[4:26:01] of that come to. It's not extra money that we
[4:26:03] have. Appreciate that.
[4:26:04] thank you chief. Yes, sir.
[4:26:10] thank you. Council member felder.
[4:26:13] we've also been joined by our ward one colleague, council
[4:26:16] member brian nadeau, and I'll turn to you now for a ten minute
[4:26:19] round. Thank you very much, madam
[4:26:21] chair. Hi, chief.
[4:26:23] good afternoon ma'am. Chief, in fy 26, mpd spent $41.6
[4:26:29] million on overtime. Is that right?
[4:26:33] yeah. I'm.
[4:26:34] dan's going to yeah. In terms of fy in fy 26 in
[4:26:39] current year. Yes.
[4:26:40] and through q2 through the end of march.
[4:26:42] that's correct. Okay.
[4:26:43] okay. And the mayor's fy 27 proposed
[4:26:47] budget, the percentage of overtime pay increased by about
[4:26:54] 56.7 million. Is that right?
[4:26:57] it was that's correct. It was.
[4:27:01] it's over the fy 25 amount. There was a $15 million one time
[4:27:05] that was eliminated. So the net increase was closer
[4:27:08] to 42. It got it just the way it's
[4:27:11] reflected. Yes it's correct, but I just
[4:27:13] wanted to clarify that. That makes sense.
[4:27:14] but it is like 100% increase essentially.
[4:27:17] correct. Okay.
[4:27:19] so chief, you testified that the agency is using overtime funds
[4:27:22] to staff and enforce the curfew. Is that right to deploy
[4:27:26] additional resources in the curfew areas and other areas
[4:27:28] where we see in teen gatherings? That's correct.
[4:27:31] and how much has been used? How much money has been used for
[4:27:34] overtime staffing on curfew enforcement during fy 26?
[4:27:39] yes. Miss campbell can can give you
[4:27:41] an idea. We approximately have about a
[4:27:45] thousand. Sorry, j.
[4:27:51] thus far we've spent about. $113,000, but that was only as
[4:28:01] of the march 2021 pay period ending.
[4:28:07] okay, okay. Chief, you also testified that
[4:28:10] overtime usage will increase if the permanent version of the
[4:28:13] curfew isn't passed. Do I have that right?
[4:28:16] yeah, I believe we'd have to deploy more officers
[4:28:20] potentially. Why is that?
[4:28:25] because we don't have the ability to break them into
[4:28:27] smaller groups or have them go outside the zone areas.
[4:28:29] and we need to probably deploy more resources to monitor them
[4:28:31] while the large groups are there.
[4:28:32] so it's just kind of like we would do for any, any large
[4:28:35] crowd right now, when we have the zones, we have the ability
[4:28:38] to if they don't go into smaller groups to, you know, give them
[4:28:41] warnings to break them into groups that are less than nine
[4:28:44] or they, of course, they can go outside the boundary areas,
[4:28:46] which kind of spreads out those groups.
[4:28:48] but if you have more compact crowding, then you'd need more
[4:28:51] members to monitor that just to make sure there aren't issues.
[4:28:54] got it. Okay, so just to to clarify the
[4:28:59] fiscal impact statement for the permanent bill states that mpd
[4:29:02] funds are sufficient with current resources to implement
[4:29:05] the bill. That's correct.
[4:29:09] yes. That's correct.
[4:29:11] and the resources to implement the bill is that also overtime?
[4:29:17] yes, I'd say so. The budget includes the overtime
[4:29:19] that we need. We need the overtime to be able
[4:29:21] to to do what we need to do as the agency.
[4:29:24] okay. Okay.
[4:29:28] just some more questions about curfew enforcement.
[4:29:33] when minors are found to be in violation of the curfew, do
[4:29:36] officers arrest or detain the minor?
[4:29:40] so if you're in violation of the curfew, it.
[4:29:42] when I say it, it depends. Right.
[4:29:44] so what curfew are we talking about?
[4:29:45] we're talking about the citywide curfew that begins at 11 or 12.
[4:29:49] that one, once the citywide curfew is in effect, if you're
[4:29:52] in violation, there are multiple exceptions.
[4:29:54] for example, if you're out in front of your house or if you're
[4:29:57] with a parent, or if you're on a direction from aaron, from a
[4:29:59] parent without stopping. So there are there are many
[4:30:02] exceptions. So what would happen initially
[4:30:03] if you're in the citywide curfew area, the officer would have to
[4:30:06] stop, talk to the individual, determine are they one of the
[4:30:09] exceptions to the regulations or not?
[4:30:11] let's just say, for example, they're not an exception to the
[4:30:14] regulation. The officer can either take the
[4:30:16] young person home or if they couldn't take them home, they
[4:30:19] could take them to a drs where they would stay and their parent
[4:30:22] would come pick them up. When we talk about the juvenile
[4:30:25] curfew zones, the ones that are designated areas, usually
[4:30:29] between 8 and 11, and those cases it's a little bit
[4:30:31] different. So those are defined areas where
[4:30:33] we put signs up at once. That time comes if they're in
[4:30:37] violation and to be in violation, you have to have nine
[4:30:39] or more folks that are in violation that are in the group.
[4:30:42] with that, you have to give two warnings.
[4:30:44] if it's not an emergency situation, you know, letting
[4:30:47] them know that they're in violation of the curfew and they
[4:30:49] can break into smaller groups. So then they come in compliance
[4:30:52] with that. Or they could also go outside
[4:30:53] the areas of the boundary. If it's an excellent
[4:30:56] circumstance, think like a fight or something, you could give one
[4:30:59] warning. And then if they don't comply,
[4:31:00] they will be taken as a curfew violator.
[4:31:02] so the same thing they would go to, you know, either go home to
[4:31:05] their parents or go to where their parent would come pick
[4:31:07] them up for curfew violation. Folks would only be arrested if
[4:31:11] they committed a criminal offense.
[4:31:12] you know, like they rob somebody had a firearm or something like
[4:31:15] that. Okay.
[4:31:18] so if they haven't committed a criminal offense, they're and
[4:31:22] they haven't been arrested, should I assume that they are
[4:31:24] not handcuffed? They're curfew violators so they
[4:31:27] could be handcuffed? It depends on the situation.
[4:31:29] okay. Are they read their miranda
[4:31:31] rights when that occurs? No.
[4:31:33] but people don't get read their miranda rights like on tv.
[4:31:35] you see people get put in handcuffs and get read miranda
[4:31:38] rights. You're only mirandized.
[4:31:39] we're going to ask custodial interrogation.
[4:31:40] we're going to ask you questions about the crime that you
[4:31:43] committed, curfew violators aren't aren't buying, aren't
[4:31:46] criminals like that. So even in most cases, when you
[4:31:49] are arrested, no one reads your miranda rights on the scene that
[4:31:52] that happens. If a detective is going to
[4:31:53] interview you, then you'd be mirandized.
[4:31:56] okay. Thank you.
[4:31:57] that's clear. Are they?
[4:32:01] taken in the back of a police car when this occurs?
[4:32:04] if they're being removed from the area.
[4:32:07] so we have a curfew and truancy wagons.
[4:32:10] so that's what's usually used. And you've probably seen them
[4:32:12] out there. They're kind of like passenger
[4:32:13] wagons. And it says curfew slash truancy
[4:32:16] enforcement on the side of it. And that's what they're used to
[4:32:18] transport them in. For those who are transported to
[4:32:22] is are they processed there? No, they're not arrested.
[4:32:25] they're they're put inside beds until their parents come to get
[4:32:27] them. Like they're given a place to
[4:32:28] stay. So that way officers don't don't
[4:32:30] have to stay with them. They can go back out on the
[4:32:32] street. That way they have the
[4:32:33] appropriate supervision while their parents are coming to get
[4:32:35] them. So they're staying on the
[4:32:37] non-secure side. The specifics of the actual
[4:32:41] facility, I don't know. I can't speak to that.
[4:32:45] okay. And what happens to the youth
[4:32:49] whose parents don't come to pick them up from is, I mean,
[4:32:53] potentially if no parent ever came to pick them up, they would
[4:32:56] be turned over to child and family services.
[4:32:58] in that case, I don't know if that's ever happened or not
[4:33:01] though. Okay.
[4:33:03] does mpd have any data collected on the following?
[4:33:08] I guess you can just say yes or no.
[4:33:10] number of arrests made during in these curfew zones?
[4:33:14] yes we do. How about the number of kids
[4:33:17] driven home by police officers? We don't have that per se.
[4:33:21] I think we have we have the number of curfew violators
[4:33:23] though. So that would mean they were
[4:33:23] either driven home or taken to curfew center.
[4:33:26] we have that. Okay.
[4:33:33] and then the number of kids held on detention after an arrest for
[4:33:39] curfew violation. I'm not quite sure what that
[4:33:42] means. An arrest?
[4:33:44] how about an arrest in a curfew zone?
[4:33:46] yes. We have.
[4:33:47] yes, we have arrest and curfew zones.
[4:33:49] yes, ma'am. Okay.
[4:33:50] and then would you have the number of kids identified as
[4:33:55] unhoused? We don't generally ask about
[4:33:59] their housing status unless they were to volunteer that we don't,
[4:34:02] you know, we'd ask their address, their parents phone
[4:34:04] number, that kind of stuff. So I don't think we'd have that
[4:34:06] on hand. Do you know if you've ever
[4:34:09] returned children to a shelter? I do not know.
[4:34:12] that's something we have the the curfew paperwork, so that's
[4:34:15] probably something we could probably find out.
[4:34:17] but I don't know. Okay.
[4:34:21] okay. Thank you.
[4:34:23] you were just talking about with councilmember felder, the cadet
[4:34:30] program and expanding the eligibility in the bsa.
[4:34:33] I think that's great. In 2023 and 2025, I introduced
[4:34:38] legislation that would increase cadet pay from 35 k to 60 k,
[4:34:41] because the cost of living is so high in dc and pay is so low.
[4:34:44] and my bill also expanded eligibility up to age 33 from
[4:34:48] the current age of 24, with the goal of increasing the number of
[4:34:53] applicants eligible. What would you think about
[4:34:55] including some of that in the bsa as well?
[4:35:00] I don't necessarily think I'm against it.
[4:35:01] what I would say is, I think, for example, raising the age to
[4:35:04] 33, I think we would probably do a much better service to those
[4:35:08] folks to remove the entry requirement for the college
[4:35:11] credit and allow them to gain that that college credit,
[4:35:14] because it really puts them on a track much faster and lets them
[4:35:17] actually become a police officer faster and make higher salaries.
[4:35:20] so I think that that would be probably a better solution
[4:35:23] overall than raising the age to let folks to come into the
[4:35:26] program because, you know, you get 33, it's harder the ability
[4:35:29] to potentially be done and have the 60 credits in the
[4:35:33] abbreviated time, I think would be probably overall beneficial
[4:35:36] to everybody. Okay.
[4:35:39] well, thank you very much. I appreciate your testimony.
[4:35:41] yes, ma'am. Thank you.
[4:35:42] thank you, madam chair. Thank you, councilmember nadeau.
[4:35:47] and chief, I just want to reclarify again that.
[4:35:52] but for the curfew, it is your position that more money would
[4:35:56] be spent on overtime. That's correct.
[4:35:58] and again, we're assuming that they continue with these these
[4:36:01] teen takeovers to continue. Yes.
[4:36:03] we'd have to deploy more officers to monitor the large
[4:36:05] crowds, however long they're there.
[4:36:08] okay. I just don't want that to be.
[4:36:11] misunderstood by anyone that yes, of course, it requires a
[4:36:13] deployment of officers, but fewer than would be required if
[4:36:17] you couldn't use this tool. Yes, ma'am.
[4:36:20] okay. I also want to clarify a
[4:36:23] conversation you just had with councilor bernardo about
[4:36:25] handcuffs. It was my understanding that if
[4:36:28] a young person was in a curfew zone and that was their only
[4:36:32] violation, they would not be handcuffed.
[4:36:34] again. It depends, for example, if the
[4:36:36] young person, depending on how they're going to say how they're
[4:36:38] acting, if they turn violent or something like that, there is
[4:36:40] the potential they could be handcuffed.
[4:36:42] so it depends on the situation. But in general, violation of a
[4:36:45] zone. Yeah.
[4:36:46] just yeah. Well, if they're just in
[4:36:47] violation of the zone, we would try to gain compliance.
[4:36:49] so the goal would be not even to bring them into curfew at all.
[4:36:52] we try to to have them leave the zone or break into smaller
[4:36:54] groups. But if we had to bring them in
[4:36:56] as a curfew violator, okay. And if you had to bring them in,
[4:37:01] would they? They would not be handcuffed.
[4:37:02] yeah. The goal would be not to
[4:37:04] handcuff them unless something precipitated that.
[4:37:05] we had to like a use of violence or assaulting an officer.
[4:37:09] yeah. And then then potentially it
[4:37:10] would change from a curfew violation to an arrest.
[4:37:13] okay. But that's a different kind of
[4:37:15] category, right? So if someone, if a young person
[4:37:17] is just in a zone violating a curfew zone, they're not
[4:37:22] handcuffed for that violation in and of itself in general.
[4:37:24] no. I don't want to give you
[4:37:28] absolutes, right? Because there's always one off
[4:37:30] situation that could could happen, right?
[4:37:31] because for example, you may stop a person and you may place
[4:37:34] my handcuffs because you're not, you're still investigating,
[4:37:36] right? So you see that lots of times in
[4:37:39] regular investigations, for example, we're in the area
[4:37:41] canvasing for a robbery suspect. We see an individual who meets
[4:37:44] that lookout. They could be a young person.
[4:37:45] they could be an old person. It doesn't really matter.
[4:37:46] we may handcuff and detain them. While we're investigating, we
[4:37:49] determine, okay, a crime didn't didn't happen.
[4:37:52] so that's why I don't want to give you absolutes to say that
[4:37:54] under no circumstance ever depends on if they stop the
[4:37:57] young person, because there's a potential of a robbery in the
[4:37:59] area, they may stop them, they may handcuff them, they may
[4:38:01] determine they weren't involved in a robbery, but then they may
[4:38:04] determine they were curfew violator.
[4:38:05] so that would then have been a curfew violator in handcuffs.
[4:38:07] so it depends. Right.
[4:38:09] but all the examples that you're using are for for other crimes
[4:38:14] potentially. Yes.
[4:38:16] solely if you're solely a curfew violator.
[4:38:18] in most cases, yes. You will not be handcuffed.
[4:38:23] okay. But again, all of the examples
[4:38:26] that you've used are not about sole curfew violators, right?
[4:38:29] well, that's because you may not know if they're curfew violator
[4:38:32] first. You understand?
[4:38:32] I'm saying like you may not know if they were curfew violent when
[4:38:34] you initially stopped them or not, because the same thing, if
[4:38:37] you stop somebody and it turns out they're not a young person,
[4:38:40] they wouldn't even be a curfew violator.
[4:38:44] so in general, if you're just a curfew violator, no, you will
[4:38:46] not be handcuffed. Okay, okay.
[4:38:51] all right. So back to overtime.
[4:38:54] so the 14% reduction that you found in overtime efficiencies,
[4:38:59] what were those efficiencies? So I wouldn't I wouldn't
[4:39:03] necessarily categorize them as efficiencies.
[4:39:04] it's just more so looking at the programs that we have in place
[4:39:06] and see, are there places where we could reduce the numbers of
[4:39:09] officers that were working those, or were there some areas
[4:39:11] where we had operational plans where we could shift resources
[4:39:15] at, especially as we saw crime go down, you know, during the
[4:39:17] winter months or other times where we could have less
[4:39:20] officers working some of our initiatives with in mind being
[4:39:23] that if things change or as we get into the summertime, we will
[4:39:26] probably have to increase the number of folks that are working
[4:39:28] those initiatives. Things like our robbery
[4:39:31] suppression initiative and our operation atlas.
[4:39:35] what was that last word you said?
[4:39:37] operation atlas? It's one of our initiatives we
[4:39:40] do where we deploy additional resources inside areas.
[4:39:43] for example, maybe the area has seen an uptick in violent crime.
[4:39:46] we deploy additional officers in that area to do increased
[4:39:49] traffic enforcement, provide increased visibility.
[4:39:52] so it's one of the initiatives that we do.
[4:39:54] okay. And so are there opportunities
[4:39:58] for other efficiencies to be found with overtime?
[4:40:00] I mean, even some of the examples you talked about with
[4:40:03] races that might happen with work on the with hcm, on the
[4:40:09] vehicular terrorism task force, are there other opportunities to
[4:40:13] use infrastructure that could reduce the reliance on personnel
[4:40:16] for some of these events? Potentially?
[4:40:18] there are. And you mentioned the terrorism
[4:40:20] task force is looking at that. The one challenge I would say
[4:40:23] with that is sometimes, folks, you still have to have police
[4:40:25] officers to monitor certain areas and certain things.
[4:40:28] so we don't build out operational plans, for example,
[4:40:31] for, for five keys or things like that, to, to pad an extra
[4:40:34] officers. That's not the goal.
[4:40:36] we have enough things that we have to do.
[4:40:37] we really try to keep it as thin as possible as relates to
[4:40:40] traffic postings and crowd control.
[4:40:42] so it's an evaluation of what we know as it relates to potential
[4:40:46] intelligence as it may be. Also, you know, traffic postings
[4:40:49] like the route that's in there, and then crowd control based on
[4:40:51] the number of individuals that are in there.
[4:40:53] so we're always looking at these things.
[4:40:54] we're always changing our operational plans.
[4:40:57] if you look at how we did nats park 20 years ago or when it
[4:41:00] first opened versus how we do it now, a lot of things have
[4:41:02] changed in that area as far as not only the the layout of the
[4:41:06] land with some of our bike lanes and things like that, but other
[4:41:09] commercial establishments. So as things change, we have to
[4:41:11] also adapt their operational strategies.
[4:41:14] okay. And so are you looking at
[4:41:18] additional strategies that could be changed for.
[4:41:20] we always are. Yeah.
[4:41:21] so for example, you know, some of the things we do a couple
[4:41:24] years ago, I think was last year, the year before we bought
[4:41:26] some of our different types of barriers that we can use to
[4:41:28] cover down certain alleys and things like that, because we
[4:41:30] have less officers. So we're trying to look at
[4:41:33] different ways to do things. You know, that lighten that
[4:41:37] load. So that's why I'll be talking
[4:41:38] about technology. We talk about cameras, things
[4:41:40] like that. These are different technologies
[4:41:42] and things that we can do to streamline what we do.
[4:41:44] also, of course, keeping a close eye on the overtime is very
[4:41:47] important. Okay.
[4:41:50] and so how much has the department spent in local
[4:41:52] dollars on overtime to date in fy 26?
[4:41:56] yeah, yeah. It's it's actually 75 million.
[4:42:00] so 75.5. I know actually I misspoke when
[4:42:03] councilmember nadeau asked she her number, coincidentally
[4:42:06] referenced the current deficit. So it's and it's quite high
[4:42:09] right now, in large part because there was a large back pay in
[4:42:13] november pursuant to the cba agreement.
[4:42:17] so about that amount is about $16.7 million.
[4:42:21] we expect to we expect to be able to shift that off.
[4:42:24] but even so, it's the burn rate is is already over budget, even
[4:42:28] if you adjust for that and other things, we expect to adjust.
[4:42:32] epsf. So at the end of q2, all of
[4:42:34] those adjustments taking place. We're still, I think, a couple
[4:42:37] million in the red right now. And our in our forecast is
[4:42:41] showing the same that we're going to end probably where we
[4:42:43] ended last year, which is around $92 million in overtime
[4:42:46] spending. The only reason we're able to
[4:42:49] absorb that is through through vacancy savings.
[4:42:55] so there's 18 million for overtime included in the
[4:42:59] supplemental budget. Will that be sufficient?
[4:43:01] it will it will close the gap. Our q1 frp showed about a $50
[4:43:05] million gap. So that'll bring us closer to
[4:43:09] the $3,231 million range of, you know, current with our current
[4:43:13] assumptions in place. Yeah.
[4:43:14] it helps. Okay.
[4:43:15] so it won't be we'll still be in a $30 million deficit, correct?
[4:43:25] okay. So if that happens and your
[4:43:48] projections are correct, and we're still in a $30 million
[4:43:51] deficit, what happens? We have to work with the with
[4:43:55] the mayor on finding additional funding.
[4:43:56] I know we did quite a bit of that last year as well, with
[4:43:58] multiple reprograming. And did those reprograming come
[4:44:01] from within mpd vacancy savings or other.
[4:44:04] it was both. So we absorbed some through
[4:44:06] vacancy savings. We had some savings at the very
[4:44:08] end of the year. And then we, we, the majority of
[4:44:11] it though, came through either supplemental funding or other
[4:44:14] agencies. So.
[4:44:15] and so it's kind of a mix of everything.
[4:44:21] okay. I guess just kind of just goes
[4:44:26] back to what we were talking about earlier, that it feels
[4:44:28] like we're taking some steps to more accurately reflect over
[4:44:31] time, but it's still not accurate.
[4:44:36] I mean, it's still a forecast, right?
[4:44:37] I mean, we're working on vacancy savings.
[4:44:39] but again, when we talk about the pay rate is higher this year
[4:44:42] than last year. So even shaving off hours will
[4:44:45] not translate into a cheaper cost.
[4:44:47] so I don't want to lose sight of that person.
[4:44:49] potentially. Totally.
[4:44:49] but but my point is not moving away from the efficiency point.
[4:44:54] just assuming that you need all the overtime that you need.
[4:44:57] we need to know what that number is.
[4:44:59] and it sounds like this budget does not reflect that reality.
[4:45:03] I think it's it's close on the overall level.
[4:45:05] what I will say is, is in the, in the out, I guess you're
[4:45:09] talking about fy 26. Fy 26 is tough.
[4:45:12] we have we have to we're going to have to work internally and
[4:45:15] with potentially other agencies in the mayor to look for
[4:45:17] additional funding. Okay.
[4:45:18] but fy 27, fy 27, there's potential for additional hiring.
[4:45:23] and we'd be happy to shift overtime over to to salaries and
[4:45:26] pay. Granted, a lot of that won't be
[4:45:28] until q4 if the recruits come out, but that that's the goal is
[4:45:33] to is, you know, at the end of the day, salaries and fringe is,
[4:45:36] you know, cheaper and better than overtime.
[4:45:40] how many new recruits were funded in the fy 26 budget?
[4:45:47] well, I think funded versus actually hired.
[4:45:50] funded was, was again, much higher.
[4:45:52] I think the initial plan called for something like, I think 250
[4:45:56] if I'm if I'm not mistaken, the additional hires were actually
[4:45:59] hires were only 185. The hires to date in.
[4:46:07] oh, sorry. Our project.
[4:46:08] I'm sorry. That's our projected for for I
[4:46:10] was thinking you said were you saying 25 or 26?
[4:46:13] 26, 26. Our projected is 185.
[4:46:16] our hires to date. For fy 26, our recruit hires to
[4:46:32] date is 61. Okay.
[4:46:35] and we're over halfway through the year.
[4:46:40] yes, ma'am. And we funded 185 or we funded
[4:46:45] 250. I'll have to get back to you the
[4:46:47] exact number that we funded. I just remember I, I know it was
[4:46:51] higher than what we've actually been able to obtain because our,
[4:46:53] we, we, we budgeted for. 26 I think with the hiring
[4:46:56] assumption of something like. 20 a class, I want to say, and
[4:46:59] the actuals are coming in at like 13 or 14, a class.
[4:47:03] okay. So we have the same tuition
[4:47:06] assistance, same bonuses, I guess a 13% increase in pay.
[4:47:12] we talked about the, the credit changes, but did the, or the
[4:47:16] credit changes going to account for that big of a delta and what
[4:47:20] we can reasonably expect to hire for next year?
[4:47:22] I don't think there's any silver bullet.
[4:47:24] I mean, if there was some some magical solution, we would have
[4:47:26] done it a long time ago. I think maintaining what we have
[4:47:29] right now, opening up the aperture for the recruits as far
[4:47:33] as the college credits and the ability to keep sboe is also the
[4:47:37] other lens with that. Also, by pumping up the cadet
[4:47:40] numbers gives us a little more additional that are in there.
[4:47:43] you know, we really looked at what else can we do?
[4:47:46] and, you know, that's pretty much everything.
[4:47:50] you know, we talk about our retention bonuses that we have
[4:47:53] as far as the for the port portion, for education, for
[4:47:56] those folks that are between the, the three and eight years
[4:47:58] or close to retirement. So we have a lot of things that
[4:48:00] are in there incentive wise, not only for new people, but also
[4:48:03] some things to keep folks that have been here a while.
[4:48:06] but also, you mentioned the increase in pay that they they
[4:48:09] did get last time. So there's, there's a lot of
[4:48:10] different things in there. But, but really none of those
[4:48:12] other things open up a new applicant pool, right?
[4:48:15] the only thing that really does that is the not having to have
[4:48:18] the credits when you come in the door and getting them while
[4:48:21] you're in the academy, that's what really will open up a new,
[4:48:24] you know, area, exactly what that looks like.
[4:48:27] I think we'll have to see because a lot of these other
[4:48:29] agencies we talk about, they too, also don't require that
[4:48:32] already. I mentioned only us in arlington
[4:48:34] who's paying $90,000 have that right now.
[4:48:38] so just a level set. Okay.
[4:48:40] and what else are you all doing around quality of life in the
[4:48:45] job and supporting our officers to continue supporting
[4:48:50] retention? Yes.
[4:48:50] we have our organizational culture and wellness bureau has
[4:48:53] been working on a lot of different things and programing
[4:48:55] to try to to help, you know, policing is a very challenging
[4:48:59] job. So there's a lot of different
[4:48:59] pulls, not only on the officer but their families.
[4:49:02] so working on mentoring programs within the agency, one of the
[4:49:05] things they were able to roll out this year is the wellness
[4:49:08] rooms across the districts for the officers.
[4:49:10] so they can go in there, decompress, you know, do
[4:49:13] different activities. They want yoga and things like
[4:49:15] that to try to work, you know, through that.
[4:49:17] the other thing is having some programing for the officers.
[4:49:21] different districts have done different things to bring in not
[4:49:23] only to show appreciation, but to allow them to, again, get the
[4:49:28] expectations of what they need. And listening to the members,
[4:49:30] you know, what would be beneficial to them?
[4:49:32] I mean, wellness is a really big, big issue, especially as we
[4:49:36] talk about the increase in overtime that we have and what
[4:49:38] we can do to try to help officers with that, because it
[4:49:41] is a really big pull not only on them, but also on their
[4:49:45] families. And how much does this budget
[4:49:47] invest in wellness? I don't think we have that right
[4:49:59] in front of us. We can follow up with you,
[4:50:00] though, and let you know. Thank you.
[4:50:02] yes, ma'am. Okay.
[4:50:04] so as you know, something I've been worried about for a while
[4:50:07] is the need to improve our district substations and
[4:50:13] headquarters. And so I'm excited about the
[4:50:16] seventh district headquarters renovation.
[4:50:20] the capital budget shows that there's $20 million in fy 27,
[4:50:23] but only 1. Million in 28. Are you anticipating that
[4:50:27] basically all of the renovations will take place through the
[4:50:30] course of 27? Miss campbell will talk about
[4:50:33] that. Okay.
[4:50:35] yes, ma'am. We're actually working with the
[4:50:37] with dgs on this project. So a majority of it is going to
[4:50:41] happen after the groundbreaking in quarter one of fy 27.
[4:50:46] they're hoping to finish the renovation by the end of fy 27.
[4:50:49] and then all of the other little things, I believe it's through.
[4:50:54] paygo is going to happen in fy 28.
[4:50:58] okay. And so that would be a pretty
[4:51:01] fast renovation for our standards of something of this
[4:51:04] size through dgs, wouldn't it. Yeah that's correct.
[4:51:10] and we're I'm sure that we will evaluate throughout the fiscal
[4:51:13] year. And then potentially, if there's
[4:51:16] any adjustments that need to be made, can propose that in fy 28.
[4:51:20] okay. The capital budget has $3.8
[4:51:24] million towards building renovations and construction in
[4:51:28] 27, but no further money in the entire rest of the cip that I
[4:51:31] see. You know, I think we have pretty
[4:51:35] great deeds for renovations at virtually all of our
[4:51:40] headquarters. How, I guess, a, how would you
[4:51:46] prioritize the 3.8 million that's there?
[4:51:50] and how are you thinking about as we talk about morale and
[4:51:54] retention and supporting our officers, how can we improve the
[4:52:00] daily circumstances of where they're sitting if so many if
[4:52:04] there are still so many challenges around heating and ac
[4:52:07] and leaks and the deep need to have new buildings?
[4:52:11] sure. So I'll let dan talk a little
[4:52:13] bit about the, the kind of the money portion of it.
[4:52:16] but with us, we have a liaison that works daily with dgs to
[4:52:20] prioritize what needs to be, what the issues are across the
[4:52:24] entire portfolio of facilities. For us, kind of the priority or
[4:52:27] the, the immediate officer areas.
[4:52:28] so the restrooms, the roll call rooms, excuse me, the report
[4:52:32] writing rooms. So meeting with them and working
[4:52:34] on those areas that have been identified to get the most
[4:52:37] impact as a priority. When we start looking at that,
[4:52:40] I'll let dan talk a little bit about how the funding is.
[4:52:44] yes, I think it's common for the small caps capital project to be
[4:52:47] funded one year at a time. It's been my experience.
[4:52:49] at least I've seen that at fire as well.
[4:52:51] maybe it's not ideal, but I do usually see that get trued up
[4:52:54] because that is, as you said, a very important.
[4:52:56] that's personally my favorite one because it's the one that
[4:52:58] keeps everything else going. You know, everybody loves the
[4:53:01] new stations and things, but the small caps for me is, is
[4:53:04] critically important. So on the cfo side, we are
[4:53:06] always making that point. I will say they are currently
[4:53:09] sitting on a, a almost a $6 million balance.
[4:53:13] so they are they do have money that will carry forward as they
[4:53:17] as they expend this year's allotment as well.
[4:53:19] so it's not just that that 3.8, it's anything that's carried
[4:53:22] forward that they can then use as well.
[4:53:25] okay. And where would you prioritize
[4:53:28] first? The areas I spoke of, right, the
[4:53:31] bathrooms, the roll call rooms, the places that officers spend
[4:53:34] most of their times. Those are the areas I mean,
[4:53:37] you'd prioritize kind of all of that for all of the district,
[4:53:39] starting with the district stations.
[4:53:41] to me, most of our members are in the district stations.
[4:53:43] that's where, you know, I'd say a majority, you know, for for
[4:53:46] one, it's a not a new building, but it's a newer facility that
[4:53:49] people are in. So I would say it's in better
[4:53:52] condition. But a majority of our officers
[4:53:54] sit across the districts, and that's where we need to have
[4:53:57] those those areas. And again, it's the immediate
[4:53:59] touchpoints of the officers, the roll call room, the report
[4:54:01] writing room, the bathrooms, things of that nature.
[4:54:03] that's the area that I want to focus on.
[4:54:05] okay. And so when you mentioned that
[4:54:09] there might be more money available for small cap, what do
[4:54:12] you anticipate will actually be the realistic number?
[4:54:16] I was just reflecting that because it's capital and carries
[4:54:19] forward, it doesn't lapse like operating.
[4:54:21] that was just my point that I'm just checking the current
[4:54:23] balance to say, okay, if they theoretically didn't touch it,
[4:54:25] but but that could theoretically be used by year end.
[4:54:28] but this money hasn't been committed yet on a poa.
[4:54:30] so it does tell me there's some likelihood that some of that
[4:54:34] balance will carry forward. I'm sure there's plans for that
[4:54:37] money. So I'm not advocating to get
[4:54:39] swept either, but I did. I didn't want it to look like
[4:54:41] the new allotment was the only money available to them.
[4:54:45] got it. Okay.
[4:54:46] thank you. Let me ask you about the new
[4:54:49] heliport facility that this capital budget allocates $2
[4:54:53] million towards building the budget says that the existing
[4:54:56] facility is currently in dire need of renovations.
[4:54:59] so is this for clarity? A new facility entirely or
[4:55:03] renovation dollars to the existing facility?
[4:55:06] my understanding is renovation to the existing facility.
[4:55:08] I don't know if it's a full take down or not, but there's a lot
[4:55:12] of challenges at the heliport. It's a very old building and
[4:55:15] also making sure that the helipad is completely level so
[4:55:18] that over on south capitol street is where heliport sat.
[4:55:20] but the facility is very old and it's in bad condition.
[4:55:24] this is the south capitol location.
[4:55:25] yes, the south capitol street helipad.
[4:55:26] and is this our only helipad location for mpd?
[4:55:30] it is the only mpd helipad location.
[4:55:32] and of course, as most folks are aware, there's very few places
[4:55:35] in the city you can actually land a helicopter.
[4:55:37] it's the only helipad that we've had.
[4:55:38] we've had this facility for many years, and any other agencies
[4:55:44] use that facility? Yes.
[4:55:46] other so no other agency store, store, their store, their
[4:55:50] helicopters, their per se. But we do.
[4:55:52] however, other helicopters do land there and get fuel from the
[4:55:55] south capitol street helipad. It's a it's a vendor that that
[4:55:57] runs the overall. The only other place that there
[4:55:59] is a helipad is a park. Police have a helipad on the
[4:56:02] other side of the river, and then military facilities really.
[4:56:09] there was some conversation yesterday among my colleagues
[4:56:14] about the opportunity to co-locate an nps facility with
[4:56:19] mpd. Tell me what your response to
[4:56:21] that suggestion is. So that's a that's an idea we
[4:56:23] had we've had talked about for years the ability to potentially
[4:56:27] do that. It's something that we've never
[4:56:28] been able to bring to fruition. It's something that we started,
[4:56:31] you know, when chief conte was here, maybe even chief newsham,
[4:56:34] having those conversations about the ability.
[4:56:36] the challenge is, is park police, they have more
[4:56:38] helicopters than we have. And they also have much larger
[4:56:41] helicopters. There's are capable for medevac.
[4:56:43] so the ability for them and the spacing, there's not enough
[4:56:46] space at their current facility to to