Park View, D.C.

The January PSA 302/409 meeting at the 4Th District Substation on Park Road included some changes and case updates.

The biggest change was that PSA 409 now has a new Lieutenants, Sean Connors, who will be working the evening tour of duty. Prior to his assignment at the Fourth District, he was a sergeant at the Second District for a little over 3 years and an officer assigned to the Sixth District for almost 5 years. Lieutenant Jonathan Munk, who has been serving PSA 409 will be moving to PSA 408 in the Mount Pleasant area.

The meeting began with officers for both the 3rd and 4th Districts reviewing crime statistics and stating that crime is largely down across the board in comparison to last year. While this may be true when considering events in the overall areas represented by the reports, a good amount of time was spent discussing how that isn’t necessarily true for the Park View area which straddles both the Third and Fourth districts along Georgia Avenue.

Residents at the meeting focused the discussion largely on problem properties on the 600 block of Newton Place, NW, and asked about the process for getting a property recognized as a nuisance property. It is the Office of the Attorney General that determines when a property is a nuisance, and the process does take some time, but the officers at the meeting confirmed that they are aware of the properties, working to address them, and patrolling the area regularly.

Regarding the shootings in December, 3D Commander Emerman was at the meeting and shared that an arrest has been made in the double shooting at Georgia and Fairmont that occurred on December 29th. The charge is assault with intent to kill.

Commander Emerman also shared that a second arrest has been made in the shooting that occurred on December 20th on the 600 block of Morton Street.

With regards to shooting cases in the area, the 3rd District Prosecutor of the United States Attorney Office for the District of Columbia asked residents to consider writing community impact statements related to the arrest following the August 25th incident where an individual fired shots down the escalators at the Columbia Heights Metro Station.

At the end of the meeting, Commissioner Boese noted that the 14th Street businesses Jimmy Johns, Jenkins BBQ, Gussini, and Children’s Place are all closed or closing, and asked if the increase in vacant store fronts would impact MPDs police deployment. In response, Commander Emerman stated that this section of 14th Street is already a focus area with high call volume, and the store closings wouldn’t impact their deployment or patrols.

The meeting wrapped up shortly after 8 pm.