In the D.C. Council’s last legislative session before the fall on Tuesday, lawmakers proposed several pieces of legislation that targeted crime in the District, The Washington Post reported.
Ward 2 Council member Jack Evans, who represents Foggy Bottom, introduced a bill that would require Metropolitan Police Department officers to tow and impound cars if the officer had probable cause that the owner was involved in prostitution. Calling the bill “Honey, I lost the car,” Evans told NBC Washington the measure was meant to deter people from trying to pick up prostitutes because they would be embarrassed to lose their car for the crime.
Evans said prostitution is becoming a problem in the District and the law would deter people from driving out of state to downtown D.C. to pick up prostitutes. He passed similar legislation in 2005 that gave a local agency permission to tow people suspected of supporting prostitution, but said it hasn’t been effectively enforced.
Anita Bonds, an At-Large council member, proposed legislation that would require universities in D.C. to permanently mark a “scarlet letter” on the academic transcripts of students convicted of sexual assault. She cited a survey from The Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation that found 20 percent of college females in the past four years had an unwanted sexual experience at school.
“I hear these statistics and I am as outraged as many in the community are,” Bonds told The Washington Post.
Bonds also proposed a bill that would make it illegal to financially exploit elderly residents of D.C., saying the older population is “less equipped to recover from the loss.”
Kenyan McDuffie, the Council member from Ward 5 and the chair of the Council’s Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill that would increase fines for multiple offenses of having illegal dirt bikes and ATVs in the city. The bill would keep the current $250 fine for the illegal vehicles on the first offense, but increase punishments for later offenses to up to a $1,000 fine or 180 days in jail for a third offense.
“I have heard from countless residents, and police officers about the illegal use of dirt bikes and ATVs,” McDuffie said in a press release. “Currently our laws just do not serve as a sufficient deterrent to the use of these machines. Dirt bikes and ATVs are not appropriate for use on our roads, are dangerous, and have been used completely irresponsibly on sidewalks and in packs to intimidate pedestrians and drivers.
The bill against dirt bikes were co-sponsored by Council members Charles Allen from Ward 6 and Brianne Nadeau from Ward 1.
The Council also confirmed 20 appointments by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, including Gregory Dean, the new chief of D.C. Fire and EMS, and five other agency heads.
