Public Safety

Making Ward 7 Safe

Everyone deserves to feel safe in their own neighborhood. While getting to know your neighbors and keeping a lookout for unusual activity are great first steps, here are some other recommendations whenever something happens:

Questions to ask yourself*

1. Is this merely an inconvenience to me? or Can I put up with this and be okay? 
2. No, I need to respond or Can I handle this on my own, is this something I could try to talk-out with the person?
3. No, I need back-up or Is there a friend, neighbor, or someone whom I could call to help me?  
4. No, I need a professional or Can we use mediation to talk through what’s happening or is there an emergency response hotline I could call? 
5. No or If I call the police, do I understand how involving the police could impact me and the other person? If police are present, do you know what to do?

*compiled by Showing Up for Racial Justice DC

List of Mediation & Hotlines Resources

• Mediation: Community Mediation DC (240) 766-5311 M-F 9:00 AM - 8:00 PM Mediation offers a chance to listen and to be heard, to build relationships, and to develop your own solutions to your own conflict. Mediation works because when people develop their own solutions, these solutions last longer.  Mediators are professionally trained volunteers who reflect the diversity of your community. Call or email info@communitymediationdc.org.for more information.
• Runaway and Homeless Youth: National Runaway Safeline 1 (800) RUNAWAY, text 66008 24/7 by telephone, text, or online chat for teens, young adults, parents, and guardians. Offers support, can mediate talks between family members and provide free bus tickets home. If you want to avoid mandatory reporting, avoid giving identifying information. 
• Victim Support:  DC Victim Hotline  (844) 443-5732 24/7 by telephone, text, or online chat. The hotline provides comprehensive information, resources and referrals in D.C. to connect victims of crime to free resources and  help them navigate the physical, financial, legal, and emotional repercussions of crime. 
• Sexual Assault: DC Rape Crisis Center Hotline  (800) 656-4673 24/7 The Center, committed to the belief that all forms of oppression are linked,  helps survivors and their families heal from the aftermath of sexual violence through crisis intervention, counseling, advocacy, community outreach, education, and legal and public policy initiatives. They will connect you to an advocate and other survivor resources.
• Severe Heat or Cold: Hypothermia Shelter Hotline (800) 535-7252 24/7 They will dispatch a van equipped with water, blankets, gloves and jackets. When it is 32 degrees or below the van can take the person from the street to an emergency shelter or to a hospital if needed. When it is 95 degrees or above the van can transport the person to cooling centers. Transportation is always voluntary. 
• Police Misconduct : Office of Police Complaints (866) 588-0569 24/7 you can initiate misconduct complaints against Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers within 90 days of the incident by calling or filling out an online form.

*compiled by Showing Up for Racial Justice DC

Opportunities to Get Involved Building Alternative Structures to Police in DC

• Know your neighborhood: meet your neighbors: learn their names, who they are, their contact information, say hello when you walk by, invest in relationships with them. 
• Learn bystander intervention, de-escalation, and street harassment responses by getting a group of friends, neighbors, or colleagues together and scheduling a training with the Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS). CASS is a local organization that mobilizes the community to end public sexual harassment and assault in the DC. 
• Ask bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and music venues to join the Safe Bar Collective - by training their staff to recognize and respond to harassment and keep communities safe from sexual violence and hate violence using bystander intervention strategies.
• DC Peace Team can help you identify sources of conflict in your community through circles and form civilian peacekeeping units in your neighborhood as well as learn skills in nonviolent communication, bystander intervention, and restorative circles. 
• Volunteer with Community Mediation D.C. (see above) 
• Join Stop Police Terror Project DC : SPTP works to oppose police abuses and to build community-led peacekeeping efforts to empower oppressed communities to deal with their own security concerns in Washington DC. SPTP has many campaigns including one to support DC’s Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results (NEAR) Act

*compiled by Showing Up for Racial Justice DC

Legal Resources

• DC Justice Lab: DC Justice Lab is a team of law and policy experts researching, organizing, and advocating for large-scale changes to the District’s criminal legal system. They develop strategies and solutions that are evidence-driven, community-rooted, and racially just.
• Civil Rights Corps (CRC): Civil Rights Corps is a non-profit organization dedicated to challenging systemic injustice in the American legal system. They work with individuals accused and convicted of crimes, their families and communities, people currently or formerly incarcerated, activists, organizers, judges, and government officials to challenge mass human caging and to create a legal system that promotes equality and human freedom.