Council Advances Key Public Safety Measures, Including Temporary Expanded Youth Curfew

In the Council’s final Legislative Meeting prior to its first votes on the primary measures that constitute the District’s budget, a number of key public safety measures were advanced.

Peace DC

In the second of two necessary votes, the Council approved the Peace DC Omnibus Amendment Act, another in a series of collective, omnibus public safety measures the Council has undertaken in recent months.

One such prior measure, the Secure DC Omnibus Amendment Act, included provisions related to a presumption that those accused of certain crimes may pose an inherent flight risk and/or a danger to the public, and as a result should be detained even prior to trial. In such cases, a person being detained under these terms can be released if and only if the court finds that the presumption of detention is not merited and therefore can be rebutted.

In the Secure DC law, the detention presumption was extended to cover crimes such as rape, child sexual abuse, child cruelty, aggravated assault, kidnapping, manslaughter, and carjacking, as well as certain narrowly-defined additional offenses by juveniles. However, this broadening of the detention presumption was scheduled to sunset on July 15 if no further action was taken by the Council.

While the Secure DC law included a provision requiring an expedited study of the effectiveness of the measure, in an attempt to inform the decision about a potential extension, the results of the effort were largely inconclusive. The Peace DC bill as initially drafted would have made these provisions permanent, while other Councilmembers sought to eliminate this extension.

In a compromise, the bill as passed in the second of two necessary votes would extend the provisions’ applicability until December 31, 2026, with the hopes that the now-expanded timeframe and data set for the study of their effectiveness (now concluding on September 30, 2026) will yield a more conclusive result.

An additional element of the Peace DC measure sought to balance the District’s past success with mandating higher education requirements for police trainees with a current need to facilitate recruitment. The measure as passed at first reading allows for the current training academy curriculum to partially count towards the currently required training hours, if an accredited university agrees to provide twenty hours of credit for the academy offerings (towards the sixty total required hours).

Other provisions of the Peace DC bill would extend the automatic sealing of criminal records in cases of non-conviction to less serious crimes in addition to the more serious crimes already covered under current law. This corrects an inadvertent gap in past legislation. The measure also clarifies an aspect of Fire and Emergency Services survivor benefit law to ensure coverage of both those who die in the line of duty, and those who die from performance-of-duty illnesses within five years of retirement, should be treated equally and receive coverage.

An emergency version of the Peace DC measure was also approved at the most recent meeting, so that some provisions of the bill (those without a fiscal impact) could be implemented immediately upon the mayor’s signature of the measure.

Temporary Youth Curfew Expansion

Also approved on an emergency basis was a temporary expansion of the District’s youth curfew. Under the existing curfew, during the months of July and August, the curfew is in place seven days a week, from 12:01AM to 6AM, and applies to all those under the age of 17.

Under the temporary extension of the curfew passed at the most recent Legislative Meeting, the general summer youth curfew would be extended to cover all youth under the age of 18, and the start time for the summer curfew would be 11PM instead of midnight.

Under a new element of the curfew created by the emergency legislation, police can designate specific, defined geographic zones for extended, temporary curfew applicability. In these zones, the expanded curfew would remain in place for four days, would go into effect at 8PM, and would designate that only gatherings of eight or more youth would constitute a curfew violation. Zones could only be put into place for cause—either crime occurring in the zone in the prior 30 days, or that an anticipated gathering of a large group of youth is likely to result in public safety problems. The curfew zones must be publicly posted within the zone, and youth must be given a verbal notice to disperse prior to any enforcement actions.

Residential Tranquility

Another measure receiving the second of two necessary votes at the most recent Legislative Meeting was a permanent version of a residential tranquility measure passed by the Council on an emergency and a temporary basis back in October of 2024. That effort was meant to achieve a balance between Constitutionally protected freedom of assembly rights with the expectation of tranquility (including auditory tranquility) in one’s home.

The prior versions of the bill struck that balance by maintaining the preexisting residential protest hour limitation between 10PM and 7AM, but layered onto this a ban on the use of amplification devices at such protests between 7PM and 9AM. The temporary measures also banned throwing projectiles at homes during protests, and disallowed protesters who had been ordered to disperse from immediately returning and re-initiating their protests. A ban on the wearing of masks at residential protests was removed from the emergency and temporary versions of the legislation prior to passage. The permanent version of the residential tranquility measure largely continues the terms of the emergency and temporary bills, but also provides for the seizure of unattended amplification devices at residential protests.

One further public safety measure passed at the most recent Legislative Meeting related to the Safe Passage ambassadors who assist students with safe travel to their schools. The goal of the measure is to improve communication and coordination between schools and Safe Passage ambassadors, as well as to expand and standardize training for those providing this critical public service. This measure also received the second of two needed votes at the meeting.

Other Measures

In other action at the most recent Legislative Meeting, the Council:

• Approved, on the second of two necessary votes, a wholesale revision of the District’s vacant property status quo, with the intent to keep properties from becoming vacant/abandoned in the first place, and to facilitate/accelerate their return to productive use if and when they do
• Approved, on the sole needed vote, the bill containing the federal portion of the District budget. This bill, which has included a decreasing chunk of the District’s budget across the past few decades, includes not just federal formula funds but also a collection of smaller federal-related programs, such as an increase in the per-scholarship funding for the DC Tuition Assistance Grant, plus the ability for DC to charge sales tax at gift shops on federal land in DC. This measure was put on the Council agenda ahead of the other bills comprising the District’s budget in order to give Congress a head start in approving it.
• Approved, on the second of two needed votes, a bell-to-bell ban on cellphone use in DC schools. While the legislation anticipates the ban starting for the 2026-2027 school year, DC Public Schools have announced since our first vote on the bill that their ban will go into effect for the 2025-2026 school year.
• Approved rules for the Council’s summer recess that, while not modifying the dates of the recess, allows for Legislative Meetings and Committee of the Whole hearings during the two months in question

The Council’s next two Legislative Meetings will, unusually, be held on Mondays: July 14 and July 28. The primary legislative measures that comprise the District’s budget are expected to receive their two necessary votes at these two meetings.