A Fenty Administration will:
• Employ an improved community policing model and work to create a joint community-policing relationship to control and discourage crime. Deployment in the neighborhoods will be a main focus. Police will walk the beat and maintain a presence throughout the community. The police alone cannot control crime. We will work to encourage a cooperative relationship between MPD and the neighborhoods so that each gains confidence in the other. Residents need to work with officers to foster an atmosphere where crime does not flourish.

• Focus on both prevention and rehabilitation to address juvenile crime. We will employ best practices from around the nation for prevention strategies. These include improving academic skills, providing recreational programs, and drug and alcohol education and intervention. We will employ a model using gang prevention and behavioral programs. Most importantly, we will work with the community to provide leadership development and a comprehensive jobs program so that our city's youth have opportunities that serve as positive alternatives to juvenile crime. We will employ a restorative justice, restitution driven system for juveniles involved in less serious offenses. The focus is placed on restoring the victims while offering rehabilitative programs for juveniles including, after-school programs, drug and alcohol treatment, conflict resolution skills building, and parental training.

• Better prepare the Nation's capitol for emergencies. DC must be the leader on emergency preparedness, educating and engaging our citizens at an unparalleled level. No matter what disaster faces our city, emergency public safety personnel --including our fire and rescue services, healthcare facilities, police and residents -- must be prepared. My administration will ensure that federal grants are utilized for training and planning and that there is real coordination between all our response teams and the federal government. We will make the Metropolitan Police Department and our emergency preparedness agencies the best in the country. We will also work closely with neighboring jurisdictions.

Adrian Fenty has:
• Worked with the police department and the community to set specific goals and timelines for eradicating open air drug markets.

• Co-introduced the Public Safety Crisis Emergency Act of 2003, which required MPD to evaluate its PSA system and led to a substantial revision of PSA boundaries and deployment plans.

• Authored major amendments to the Omnibus Juvenile Justice Amendment Act of 2004, passed by the Council. The final bill contains several provisions originally proposed in the Blue Ribbon Juvenile Justice and Youth Rehabilitation Act of 2004, introduced by Fenty and based on the policy recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform. These provisions (Titles VII, VIII, IX, and XI of the omnibus act) include the Release of Certain Children in Need of Supervision Act, the Periodic Evaluations Act, the Individualized Treatment Plan Act, and the Detention and Commitment Facilities Act (which mandates the closure of the Oak Hill Youth Center no later than 2008).

• Introduced the first bill to remove the Youth Services Administration from DHS and establish it as a cabinet-level department, based on the recommendation of the Office of the Inspector General. In 2005, Fenty guided through the Council the nomination of Vincent Schiraldi, a nationally recognized juvenile justice expert, as the Director of the new Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. Fenty's Committee has closely overseen the Department, which has made substantial progress in transferring children, when appropriate, from prison-like confinement to community-based settings focused on rehabilitating troubled kids.

Back to Vision for DC >>