[link removed] [[link removed]]
[[link removed]] [[link removed]]
Dear Friend,
Last week, Washington City Paper dropped a new story about how the District’s crime lab [[link removed]] forced out its oversight board of forensic professionals. That's bad news for public safety.
The crime lab, formally named the Department of Forensic Services, lost its accreditation – meaning the ability to analyze evidence from a crime and testify about it in court – in 2021 after former leadership covered up errors and undermined hundreds of criminal prosecutions. The lab’s implosion stopped most evidence testing in its tracks overnight and made it extremely difficult to bring cases in court, given the lab's now tainted reputation. It’s no exaggeration that this major blow to our criminal justice system was an important reason why the District was an outlier in violent crime statistics in 2023.
Donate [[link removed]]
Although some of the agency's units have finally come back online, the continued loss of accreditation (especially for guns and ammunition testing) means delayed arrests, dropped cases, and the opposite of swift and certain accountability for people who commit violence [[link removed]] . People can walk free on the street because there's no evidence tested and proven to tie them to the crime.
And a big part of what led to the crime lab falling apart was the lack of a strong oversight board to hold leadership accountable. In 2022, after more than a year of work digging into the issues at DFS in my role as Chair of the committee with oversight of the agency, I introduced and led the Council to pass a law overhauling the crime lab [[link removed]] , making the agency independent and giving its board actual power and whistleblowers the ability to raise concerns. Since then, this law hasn’t been embraced by the Mayor or the agency, even as the Council works to fund it after the Mayor has twice ignored it in her proposed budgets. In fact, last year, the Mayor tried to roll back my reforms, but I successfully fought off the effort with my colleagues.
Given my years of oversight of the agency, it’s very concerning to see the crime lab backsliding by resisting expert oversight meant to strengthen its work and protect it from outside influence. As a member of the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, funding and implementing this law is one of my top priorities for the Committee’s budget this year. This may seem like a complicated or technical issue, but getting the crime lab back online is critical to closing more cases and ensuring accountability for people committing harm in our community .
And serious fights like this to improve public safety are part of what's at stake with this misguided recall effort. I've used my seat on the Council to make the important changes our city needs to be tough, smart, and just, to hold agencies accountable, and to fight back against efforts to undermine what we need to keep us safe. A recall would remove the leading voice fighting to get a trusted crime lab back up and running. If you support my approach and think an independent and accountable crime lab is a priority, please join your neighbors in donating today.
Donate [[link removed]]
Thanks,
Charles Allen
Follow the campaign on social media and RT: Twitter [[link removed]] | Facebook [[link removed]]
Endorsed by the Following Groups ( full endorsements available here [[link removed]] )
[[link removed]] [[link removed]] [[link removed]]
[[link removed]] [[link removed]] [[link removed]] [[link removed]]
Paid for by Neighbors United for Ward 6. 331 4th St. SE, Apt. 3, Washington, DC 20003. Patrick Johnson, Treasurer.
A copy of our report is filed with the Director of Campaign Finance of the District of Columbia Board of Elections.
If you believe you received this message in error or wish to no longer receive email from us, please unsubscribe: [link removed] .