[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 57 (Tuesday, May 6, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E853]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  INTRODUCTION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA POLICE COORDINATION ACT OF 
                                  1997

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 6, 1997

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today, I am introducing a bill that will 
introduce rationality and cost efficiency into the almost totally 
uncoordinated, extraordinarily inefficient and wasteful use of Federal 
agency police power in Washington, DC. My bill will free 30 or more 
Federal law enforcement agencies to give direct assistance to the 
Metropolitan Police Department [MPD] and will get a much increased bang 
for the Federal buck as well as additional police protection for 
District residents, commuters, and tourists. The point of my bill is 
the highest and best use of their valuable police powers.
  Few are aware of the great number of overlapping Federal law 
enforcement agencies in the District. A CRS survey that I requested 
shows that there are at least 30 agencies with the authority to arrest 
and to carry firearms. Many of these agencies get state-of-the-art 
training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center [FLETC] in 
Brunswick, GA, considered the best police training facility in the 
country. The MPD does not receive this superior level of training 
because the District cannot afford to send our officers to the Georgia 
facility. Yet the MPD is left to respond to calls for assistance not 
only from residents but also from the Federal officers while responding 
to one of the highest crime cities in the country without their 
assistance.
  Examples of Federal law enforcement agencies that would be affected 
are Federal Protection Services, Library of Congress Police, U.S. Park 
Police, Government Printing Office Police, Naval Observatory and Walter 
Reed Army Medical Center.
  Despite often excellent training, these and other Federal law 
enforcement agencies are pitifully constrained in their ability to 
utilize this costly training. The Federal taxpayer is getting very 
little protection at a very high price because the Federal law 
enforcement agencies are treated essentially as private police forces. 
Most of these officers are unable to make arrests except in the 
building or on the immediate grounds. Most do not patrol in the 
immediate vicinity surrounding their agencies, but leave that job to 
the overburdened MPD. On the few occasions when they do intervene in an 
unlawful activity, many can only call 911 as if they were citizens 
without arrest powers. By phone, they inform the MPD of the crime that 
may be occurring within sight of the agency because Federal agencies 
and the MPD do not share the same radio frequencies. To its credit, 
Park Police Officers in Rock Creek Park overcame the obstacle by simply 
loaning their counterpart officers in the MPD a police radio and vice 
versa. Federal officers who do make an occasional arrest merely hand 
over the suspect to the MPD and do not do any of the paperwork, leaving 
the MPD with hours of processing that keep officers off the streets. 
Although they work in the same city, there is little, if any, routine 
sharing and donation of equipment between Federal agencies and the MPD 
at a time when the President has called on Federal agencies to help the 
District. What little coordination that is done comes on an ad hoc 
basis, without any central entity or authority to coordinate agency 
efforts.

  Therefore, today I am introducing the District of Columbia Police 
Coordination Act of 1997. The bill directs Federal law enforcement 
agencies to enter into cooperative agreements with the MPD to assist 
the department in crime prevention and law enforcement activities in 
the District. Matters that must be included in these agreements include 
sending agency personnel on patrol in areas immediately surrounding 
their respective agencies, sharing and donating equipment and supplies, 
sharing radio frequencies, and streamlining the processing of suspects. 
The U.S. attorney will act as the coordination entity for purposes of 
implementing the bill.
  Federal police officers usually earn more than D.C. police, have 
access to better training, have better benefits and working conditions, 
yet perform almost none of the services that the MPD officers perform. 
The District has had to cut other vital services to raise the number of 
officers while Federal officers are treated like high-priced night 
watchmen. Yet high crime rates and police assassinations are quick to 
get the attention of Congress. Stinging criticism of the MPD and death 
penalty rhetoric will do nothing to assist D.C. police officers. 
Federal law enforcement officers should not be left underperforming 
only because they lack the authority to render service commensurate 
with their police power and arrest authority.
  I have had success with a similar bill. In 1992 Congress passed 
Public Law 102-397, my bill that now allows the Capitol Police to 
patrol an area three times greater than previously. Instead of 
patrolling only adjacent to the Capitol grounds, where there is 
virtually no crime, the Capitol Police now patrol the neighborhood. 
Under my bill, Federal law enforcement agencies would accomplish the 
same results through cooperative agreements that take into account 
their own agency needs, assist the MPD officers in avoiding duplicate 
actions, and coordinate their work for maximum efficiency.
  I believe most Members of the House and Senate would be alarmed that 
Federal tax dollars contribute so little to the protection of areas 
around Federal facilities and want a more cost-efficient system. The 
Congress came to this same conclusion when it reacted to crime in the 
Capitol Hill neighborhood by freeing its own Capitol Police to patrol 
beyond the immediate area of the Capitol. The District of Columbia 
Police Coordination Act of 1997 will give the Congress the opportunity 
to apply the same approach to Federal law enforcement officers assigned 
to other Federal facilities.




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