The following testimony was presented by Metropolitan Police Department Chief of Police Cathy L. Lanier to the District of Columbia Council Committee on Public Safety & the Judiciary, Honorable Phil Mendelson, Chair, on March 30, 2012, at the John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC.
Good afternoon, Chairman Mendelson, Members of the Committee, and members of the public. My name is Cathy Lanier, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). I am pleased to testify before you today in support of Mayor Gray Fiscal Year 2013 for MPD. Mayor Gray’s FY2013 budget submission will ensure that all District residents are able to receive enhanced service delivery and access our city’s renaissance to truly “seize our future”. While many other cities are shrinking, the District of Columbia continues to grow and thrive. I am pleased to have been a part of the development of the Mayor’s budget and look forward to testifying in support of Mayor Gray’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget for MPD. The text of my prepared testimony is posted on the Department’s website, www.mpdc.dc.gov.
The Mayor’s proposed budget continues to support the hard work and successes of the Metropolitan Police Department. Briefly, the budget provides funding from all sources of $497 million and 4,611.5 full-time equivalent positions, or FTEs. This is an increase of $18.5 million, or almost 4 percent from the current FY2012 budget. As certified by the Chief Financial Officer, the budget will allow MPD to reach a staffing level of approximately 3,900 sworn members, while launching a civilianization initiative to return other officers to operational assignments more quickly.
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Most of MPD’s budget, 85 percent, is for personal services. The remaining 15 percent of the total budget – approximately $75 million dollars – covers a variety of Nonpersonal Services, including specialized law enforcement purchases – such as uniforms, firearms, ammunition, and contracts for the Police and Fire Clinic, fleet, and automated traffic enforcement.
As of Monday, March 26th, the Department had 3,844 sworn members, including 155 hired this year. The FY13 budget funds the hiring necessary to maintain just over 3,900 officers in the Department. The budget will allow MPD to retain 50 officers hired under an expiring federal grant by identifying the necessary local funds. Equally important, the Mayor’s budget supports putting more officers on the streets by funding a civilianization program in FY13. Over the past three budget cycles alone, more than 100 civilian positions have been de-funded in the Department’s budget, leading to sworn members assuming some critical but non-operational functions. The FY13 budget will allow us to transition 29 officers back into operational positions.
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The FY13 also reflects some important new initiatives. The budget supports building out the Merritt School to move the overcrowded Sixth District headquarters to a well-equipped space that will support both the officers and the community. The number of people assigned to the Sixth District – more than 400 – has far exceeded the capacity of the building. Our dedicated officers and detectives, and the great community that supports them, deserve better facilities.
The budget also supports a small, but common sense change that will allow the Department to post notice of unclaimed property in a newspaper of record, but publish the full description of the property on our website and at police headquarters. In today’s environment of Internet-based information, a requirement that the list of unclaimed property be published in a print publication is outdated, unnecessarily expensive, and ineffective. A person who loses property is more likely to search the Internet to locate a public notice of the unclaimed property than to peruse multiple editions of a newspaper, and an Internet search is more likely to be effective. Yet MPD is still required to spend about $100,000 a year publishing full lists of property in a newspaper of general circulation. Online publication will provide more effective notice at a lower cost.
The FY2013 budget initiative that has perhaps received the most attention reflects the culmination of an effort that we first presented to this Committee in April 2009 for the FY2010 budget proposal. With Mayor Gray’s support, we are ready to implement these new efforts to harness the city’s automated traffic enforcement systems to meet the expectations of residents for effective and efficient traffic safety initiatives. Over the past decade, automated enforcement in DC has reduced crashes and fatalities associated with red light running and speeding. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recognized the District last year as having the largest reduction in traffic fatalities nationwide, based on 2009 statistics. However, there is still work to be done to make our roads safer. Although some critics of automated traffic enforcement, also known as ATE, seem to be under the impression that the District is only deploying the technology to protect pedestrians and bicyclists, more than half of all traffic crash fatalities are people inside vehicles, and we care about them, too. But the fact is that our pedestrians and bicyclists are particularly vulnerable. Whereas bicyclists and pedestrians account for only 5 percent of traffic fatalities nationally, in the District over the past five years, 44 percent of all traffic fatalities have been pedestrians and 3 percent, bicyclists. Needless to say, this still means that more than half of all fatalities are vehicle drivers and passengers who also benefit from safer roads.
I would also like to reassure this Committee and the public that the push for more automated traffic enforcement has nothing to do with revenue. Indeed, MPD is responsible for the ATE proposal, and the revenue doesn’t come to the Department. I spent two years leading MPD’s Major Crash Division, and I'm motivated to promote traffic safety because I don't want to see anymore fatal accident victims who have been ejected from their shoes by the force of the crash impact. I’m also motivated by a desire to respond to communities clamoring for more traffic enforcement so that drivers will stop treating their neighborhoods like raceways, speeding through red lights and stop signs. Since resources for the Department are limited, and I don't have an option to deploy technology to investigate and solve murders and other major crimes, I support automated traffic enforcement to promote public safety. The bottom line is that people die because of excessive speeding and reckless disregard for red lights, stop signs, and other traffic laws, so we're trying to do everything we can to get people to drive more responsibly. Automated traffic enforcement does that, and saves lives.
New types of automated enforcement initiatives include:
- Portable enforcement units for stop sign violations in neighborhoods, protecting all users of the roads
- Speed enforcement using newer technologies in tunnels and other sites where traditional RADAR can’t be used and in intersections at existing red light sites with known speed issues
- Pedestrian safety enforcement at mid-block crosswalks
- Gridlock enforcement to alleviate traffic jams, improve traffic flow, and reduce risk for pedestrians and bicyclists
Automated traffic enforcement is supported by pedestrian and bicycle safety groups as well as Advisory Neighborhood Commissions and other community organizations in neighborhoods throughout the District. The new initiatives will be rolled out with a large public information campaign, and all sites will be well advertised. Residents who wish to recommend sites for the new enforcement can do so at www.mpdc.dc.gov/automatedenforcement. Most importantly, drivers who obey traffic laws will not need to worry about these fines.
|
Year |
Total Traffic Fatalities |
Pedestrian # |
Pedestrian % |
Bicyclist # |
Bicyclist % |
Pedestrian /
Bicyclist % |
|
2007 |
54 |
25 |
46 |
2 |
4 |
50 |
|
2008 |
39 |
14 |
36 |
1 |
3 |
38 |
|
2009 |
33 |
16 |
48 |
0 |
0 |
48 |
|
2010 |
25 |
14 |
56 |
2 |
8 |
64 |
|
2011 |
32 |
11 |
34 |
2 |
2 |
36 |
|
Average |
37 |
16 |
44 |
1.4 |
3 |
47 |
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In closing, the Department has been able to weather the challenging economic times while still improving public safety because of our sustained effort to find new efficiencies and savings for the Department and the city. For instance, for the fourth consecutive fiscal year, significant reductions in locally funded overtime hours have led to large savings for District tax payers. In FY11, we spent $14 million less in locally funded overtime than in FY 2007. Over the past four fiscal years, we have saved a cumulative total of $41 million. During this time of tighter finances, the Department has been doing its share to conserve the city’s resources. The FY13 budget reflects a more efficient Department while supporting its most important asset: employees. I thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you to present the Mayor’s FY13 budget for the Metropolitan Police Department, and my staff and I will be happy to address any questions you may have.