In an effort to thwart the ever-increasing prevalence of guns and violence in Washington, D.C., the city’s mayor said Tuesday that she will work on “closing gaps in our laws.”
Mayor Muriel Bowser said in an interview with ABC 7 she wants to make it easier for police to search the homes of people on either parole or probation.
We have been talking about making it easier for our supervising agencies to identify and search for illegal guns that may be in the hands of a violent offender,” she told the TV station.
The plans will include the reintroduction of a 2013 bill that would allow D.C. police to search parolees at will, at any time of the day, and allow police to detain those people for up to three days if they are found to have even minor violations, The Washington Post reports.
D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson told the Post he recently spoke with Bowser and confirmed plans to move the legislation when the council reconvenes after its summer recess.
The bill was originally introduced by Mendelson in 2013 but was shut down by public defenders, and as the Post put it, “more liberal members of the council,” which included Bowser.
Bowser said in the Tuesday interview that she would announce more initiatives Thursday intended to combat the rising number of homicides committed in the city.
Mendelson said he, too, will propose more laws to better empower police in the city.
At a press conference earlier this month Bowser announced new “legislative changes” she planned to implement to curb rising gun violence in the city.
She didn’t say exactly what those changes would be, but she did say she plans to make sure penalties for crimes committed on public transit are “more robust” than they have been in the past.(RELATED: Violence Is So Bad In This DC Neighborhood, Bus Drivers Just Stopped Going There)
D.C. has seen a massive spike in murders this summer, with the total homicide count at 103, just two shy of the total for all of 2014.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.