On a Thursday night a few weeks back, Martin Austermuhle and his girlfriend saw a young woman walking home alone from the Potomac Avenue Metrorail station. Cognizant of the recent spate of robberies reported in the area, they offered to accompany the stranger to her door. Once their good citizen detour was complete, they continued toward home, Austermuhle says, whereupon he became victim to one of the 26 armed robberies in the Hill East area that took place in the last 60 days.

(Unless otherwise noted, figures here compare the period between April 18 and June 18 with the same period in 2006. All statistics are taken from the DC Metropolitan Police Department’s on-line Crime Statistics Report.)

Police responded right away and apprehended one of four juvenile suspects, Austermuhle reports. Soon afterward, however, he was told there would be no prosecution. This news was shared on NewHillEast and MPD-1D (Metropolitan Police Department - First District) listservs, prompting outrage over the district attorney’s decision. Austermuhle and others contacted the DC Office of the Attorney General as well as Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells to express their concerns. A prosecutor visited Austermuhle to walk through the area and discuss the case, but the evidence was again deemed insufficient to pursue.

“We are very aware of the impact that these [armed robberies] and other crimes have on individual victims and members of the community,” says Deputy Attorney General David Rubenstein. “But decisions to prosecute are based on the strength of the admissible evidence and the applicable law.”

Some community members fault the police for procedural failures which can undermine the possibility of prosecution or for failing to investigate thoroughly. Others insist that prosecutors are not doing their jobs. Austermuhle is satisfied that “everybody from the police to the prosecutor” did their best on his behalf, “balancing public safety needs against what can be prosecuted.”

Still, everyone doing his or her job carried no guarantee that Austermuhle’s robbers would be apprehended, tried or convicted. Similarly, his adherence to citizen safety tips, such as walking with a friend and avoiding headphones, did not prevent him from becoming an entry in the area’s crime statistics.

Crime Statistics, Arrests and Prosecutions
Robberies excluding guns are down by 20 percent in 1D, which seems like good news…until one learns that robberies with guns are up by 13 percent. Moreover, if you or someone close to you is among the 107 individuals in 1D who were recent robbery victims, knowing that 121 people were robbed during the same period in 2006 won't be cause for celebration. Nonetheless, violent crime, crime against property and total crime are down in all 1D Police Service Areas, except 106 (see sidebar).

It does appear, however, that Hill East is – or was – experiencing a dramatic rise in armed robberies and burglaries, even accounting for the usual summer surge in crime. Of the 34 armed robberies in 1D, 26 occurred in just three of 1D’s seven PSAs – PSAs 103, 107 and 106 on the eastern edge of Capitol Hill. In PSA 106 alone, armed robberies jumped from two last year to 11 this year – a rise of 450 percent. Additionally, there have been 37 burglaries – commercial and residential, including a number in which someone was home – in the three eastern-most PSAs of 1D, with 60 more just to the west, in PSAs 102 and 105.

Sgt. Micciche of PSA 106 said at the June 7 meeting that arrests of one individual and two groups of juveniles “represent 10 closed cases.” Commander Groomes told the listservs of several arrests in PSA 107, with one juvenile confessing to eight robberies in PSAs 106 and 107. Some suspects have been released for “weak identification by victim,” she says, but some are the focus of additional cases, and MPD hopes to re-arrest them.

Rubenstein says MPD “presented 21 cases to OAG involving robberies or armed robberies with juvenile offenders in the First District since April 1.” (125 robberies/armed robberies were reported since April 1; those in PSA 106 and 107 involved juvenile suspects.) “OAG filed charges in 18 of those cases. The remaining three cases were declined for prosecution either because the witnesses would not cooperate or the evidence was insufficient to file charges.”

Despite releases and declined cases, robberies – with and without guns – dropped to zero for the period between June 15 and June 24 in every 1D PSA except 103 (one robbery excluding gun). For the same period, each PSA had at most one burglary. The robbery and burglary crime wave on Hill East appears, at least temporarily, dammed.

Electronic and Community Policing
Hill East residents, including armed robbery victims contacted for this article, have been largely satisfied with police and OAG response following incidents. In addition, Sgt. Micciche addressed PSA 106 about the roots of local crime, hoping to provide young people with alternatives to criminal behavior – especially those in public housing – and announced a picnic designed to foster neighborliness between public housing residents and those from the surrounding area – a strategy designed to reduce crime by addressing some young residents’ anger and fear of displacement as the neighborhood demographics change.

Commander Groomes later said that crimes, such as rock-throwing from inside the Potomac Gardens fence, as well as some of the robberies, can be addressed, in part, by helping “the community to engage both new and old residents...to break down barriers.... If youth knew [the neighbors], they would not attack them.”

As summer brings a rise in crimes associated with long days and hot nights – outdoor drug use, physical and verbal harassment of passersby, etc. – PSAs 106 and 103 are engaged, in meetings and via listservs, in community discussion about issues like balancing the need to curb illegal and disruptive behavior with the right of neighbors to gather lawfully.

On the other hand, residents of PSA 107 found their June meeting unsettling. Nearly 50 people turned up, many for the first time. But community discussion was limited, with Sgt. Jones instead listing behaviors that he said invite crime, including iPod use, walking through alleys, “carrying a Macy's bag,” and sharing personal financial news with neighbors – the latter, he suggested, precipitated a burglary/beating of a victim who was told, “we know you have the money.” Many community members were disturbed by what sounded like blaming the victims and failure to address their concerns.

“We heard no strategy, no action plans, no problem-solving – all those alleged cornerstones of so-called community policing,” longtime Hill East resident Jim Myers said after the meeting. “Fifty people, many new, came ready to talk about crime in the community, but the meeting shut them down. They won’t be back.”

Also of concern to PSA 107 is the reassignment, beginning in July, of officers, and the summer meeting hiatus before replacement officers will get to know community members.

“We can’t wait until after Labor Day to hear how the police plan to deal with the rising crime and what information and action the police need from the community to keep the lid on crime during the hot summer weeks ahead,” says Jack Colhoun, who has lived in Hill East since 1977.

Commander Groomes later addressed some of PSA 107’s concerns via listserv (she did not attend the meeting), but the community remains troubled by the recent meeting and the change in personnel.

Meanwhile, Austermuhle says he and his roommates – like many Hill East residents – are “a little more vigilant... give friends rides, call each other instead of walking home alone late at night.” In addition, he says with a sigh, he has become “more wary of kids.”

SIDEBAR: Hill East PSAs
PSA 103 runs from Ninth Street SE, east to the Anacostia River, from Maryland Avenue and Benning Road to the north to East Capitol Street on the south.

PSA 107 runs from East Capitol on the north to the river on the south, with the river also serving as its eastern boundary, and 13th Street SE to the west.

PSA 106 runs from 13th Street SE, west to Sixth Street, from East Capitol Street south to the river.

For reference: the remainder of the First District extends toward North Capitol Street and beyond – as far west as 17th Street NW, with the river and Ohio Drive SW, as the southern boundary and L Street and New York Avenue as the northern boundary.

PSAs 102 and 105 are just west of PSA 103 and 106 respectively.

SIDEBAR: Belief, Doubt and Crime Impact
In response to Hill East community frustration with juvenile prosecutions, Stephanie Nixon of PSA 103 asked the OAG for information. Rubenstein addressed questions via e-mail shared with NewHillEast and MPD-1D listservs, and Lynnette Collins, from the OAG’s office, addressed PSA 103’s June meeting in person.

Rubenstein wrote that the law provides for victim impact statements – which can be considered at sentencing in juvenile cases. Although the law does “not explicitly provide the same right for community impact statements,” Rubenstein wrote, “we will certainly try to have that statement admitted and considered at disposition [sentencing].”

Community impact statements are difficult to develop, given that neither the OAG nor the crime victim is allowed to share information on a juvenile case, but community members “who become aware of such crime or crimes through lawful means” can provide such a statement to his office, including as much detail as possible, so that it can be forwarded to the correct prosecutor.

“It is helpful for prosecutors to have a community impact statement,” Rubenstein says, “so that we can assist the court in understanding the impact that a particular case or crime has had on members of the community. A community impact statement may also help the juvenile offender understand the impact that his or her behavior has had on other people.”