News/Commentary

D.C. residents struggling as murder rates spike, but fewer cases are getting solved

November 25, 2023 | | Print Article

Washington, D.C. is reportedly facing a spike in homicides but a decline in the number of homicide cases that have been successfully solved.

“D.C. is close to breaking a 20-year-old record for the deadliest year in the District. In 2003, D.C. saw 248 homicides. … The crime has gotten so out of control, businesses are closing their doors and leaving the city,” local station WUSA reported last Monday.

Yet even amid this uptick in murders, there’s been a downtick in solved cases — leaving the family members of deceased victims crushed.

“Asiyah Timimi’s husband, Aqueel, was stabbed in a dispute in January 2021 and died several days later. ‘You just don’t feel safe until they’re caught,’ Timimi said. ‘I could be walking past the person that killed my husband,'” according to the Associated Press.

“Natalia Mitchell wants justice for her son Morris, who was fatally shot in March 2022, and closure for herself. A successful arrest of her son’s killer, she said, ‘doesn’t bring Morris back, but it would help,'” the paper reported on Friday.

The AP notes that the percentage of homicides that D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department has solved has “declined sharply” this past year — so much so that the city is on track to record its lowest “clearance rate” in over 15 years.

ADVERTISEMENT

As of Nov. 13th, only 75 of the 244 homicides reportedly committed this year had been solved. When coupled with the 33 homicides from 2022 that were solved this year, the clearance rate rose to a measly 45 percent.

“That would be the lowest rate dating back at least to 2007, according to statistics provided by the MPD. Nationally, the average clearance rate tends to hover between 50% and 60%, said Rick Rosenfeld, a professor of criminology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis,” the AP notes.

The problem is that a low closure rate on homicides hurts police morale and the local community’s trust in the cops, meaning even less cooperation from the public.

“That whole process can kind of spiral down, where the community doesn’t trust the police that much anymore or there’s a lack of faith,” Christopher Herrmann, an associate professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a former crime analyst supervisor with the New York Police Department, told the AP.

“There’s much less cooperation between the community and the police. And once the police see a lack of cooperation from the community, some of them will kind of throw their hands up in the air and say, ‘Why should we care when no one in the community wants to help?’” he added.

ADVERTISEMENT

Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Lyndsey Appiah concurred, admitting to the AP that closure offers “some sense of justice for victims.”

“The surety of consequence is a deterrent to crime. So it’s important that we are, as quickly as possible, closing cases and solving cases,” she added.

Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee earlier this year, she bluntly acknowledged that this closure problem is a serious crisis.

“Oxford defines a crisis as a time of intense difficulty, trouble or danger. So I would say there is a crisis,” she said.

ADVERTISEMENT

As for why there’s been a decline in closures, Appiah reportedly cited both staffing issues and difficulties with crime scene analysis.

“The MPD is at around 3,300 officers this year, down from 3,800 officers since 2020 — a decrease of 500 over three years. Police union officials have publicly blamed the D.C. Council for what they say are anti-police policies that have driven away officers and stifled recruiting efforts,” the AP notes.

“D.C.’s crime lab, the Department of Forensic Science, also lost its accreditation in spring 2021 over allegations of flaws in its analysis. Appiah said the lab hopes to regain its accreditation early next year; in the meantime, the city is outsourcing its crime scene analysis, a process that consumes time and money, she said.”

Ronald Moten, a community activist whose half-brother’s 1991 murder remains unsolved, also agreed that case closure is needed for people to move forward.

ADVERTISEMENT

“[Lack of closure] devastates the black family, and it can devastate the police department. It always gives the family some sense of relief if there’s a closure. It doesn’t help you heal by itself, but it’s part of the healing process,” he said.

“It hurts because you feel like somebody’s gotten away with killing your child with no consequences. That’s painful. You want closure, and you want somebody to be held accountable,” he added.

Vivek Saxena
Latest posts by Vivek Saxena (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles