WTOP NEWS: As the D.C. Council prepares to vote on a massive anti-crime bill, the D.C. Auditor has released a report that suggests the city’s fight against crime would be strengthened if some District agencies performed their jobs as they should.
“Legislation is important, but it doesn’t solve the issue. Legislation is a critical piece, but nothing happens because of legislation. Policies have to be implemented. Programs have to be put together,” D.C. Auditor Kathleen Patterson told WTOP.
In a review of recent, related audits, Patterson singled out the D.C. crime lab, the Department of Forensic Sciences, which recently regained partial accreditation after losing its ability to process evidence in 2021.
“We’ve been without a permanent leader in that agency for three years. And the loss of accreditation is a very serious issue. But it’s something that could have been and should have been addressed much … faster than it has been,” Patterson said. “Getting a new leadership, really reinstating the purpose of the Science Advisory Board to really provide oversight, these are all steps that ought to have been taken at some point over the last three years.”
She was also critical of the agency for its use of active-duty D.C. police officers to help operate the lab’s Crime Scene Sciences Division, which failed to meet the goal of fully staffing crime scene work with civilian forensic scientists.
Patterson said the forensics lab’s lack of full accreditation severely hampers the testing that is needed to prosecute crimes.
The auditor also directed criticism at the city’s 911 call center and its ability to swiftly dispatch emergency help. She said some improvements have been made, but the Office of Unified Communications still has too many shifts that are not fully staffed; in January, 17 of 66 shifts were reported as not fully staffed.
“Mistakes are continuing to be made. And we don’t have a real clear picture of what happens in the after-action investigations. So there’s not yet the full transparency that we’ve been asking for from 911,” Patterson said.
In summary, her office wrote in the report, “[D.C.] agencies whose purpose includes preventing and solving crime and mitigating the effects of crime are not performing as they should to have maximum impact on crime reduction.”
Patterson said audits have shown it’s unclear if some of the city’s violence prevention programs are working because participants are not properly tracked after they leave the programs.
“The Pathways Program works with mostly young men who have committed crimes, to work with them to try to steer them in the right direction. So that program is touching people’s lives. But we don’t know if it’s successful. The District is not collecting data on recidivism. It’s not collecting data on employment. So folks are being given services, but we don’t know the impact,” Patterson said.
The role of the Office of the District of Columbia Auditor is to conduct performance audits and make recommendations that can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of D.C. government.
