Safer For All D.C.
Every Washingtonian deserves to feel safe walking home, sending a child to school, riding Metro, residing in any ward and calling 911. DC has made real progress on public safety, but that progress is being tested by a recent and unacceptable surge in violence and by compounding understaffing and deficiencies across the public safety system. Police, fire, emergency communications, violence prevention, reentry, and victim-support systems are all strained at once. When one part of that system breaks down, every neighborhood is less safe.
Kenyan McDuffie, a former prosecutor and trial attorney in the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division under President Obama, has spent his career confronting the root causes of violence and building a public-safety system that pairs accountability with prevention. As Chair of the Council’s Judiciary Committee, he advanced a public-health approach to violence prevention, comprehensive juvenile justice reform to reduce the school-to-prison pipeline, and one of the nation’s first body-worn camera policies to strengthen transparency and accountability. He also championed sentencing reform that has helped eligible residents earn a second chance and produced a 3% recidivism rate.
As Mayor, Kenyan will make the public-safety system work again: rebuilding depleted first responder ranks, modernizing 911 infrastructure, scaling violence prevention, holding agencies accountable for response failures, protecting victims and witnesses, defending immigrant families from federal overreach, and strengthening reentry so returning citizens can rebuild their lives.
Safer for ALL DC is built on five connected prongs: prevent violence before it happens, hold the public-safety system accountable, support first responders, prepare DC for every emergency, and protect every resident’s ability to call for help without fear.
This plan moves beyond single-solution politics. It combines evidence-based policing, public health, youth engagement, first-responder staffing, emergency readiness, victim protection, and civil-rights safeguards into one operational strategy for safer neighborhoods in all eight wards.
"Washington’s young people deserve both accountability and opportunity. Right now, they are getting neither."
THE PLAN AT A GLANCE
MEASURED RESULTS: HOW KENYAN WILL TRACK PROGRESS
A safer city requires public accountability. Kenyan will publish and track clear metrics so residents can see whether the public-safety system is improving.
Public safety is not one agency, one program, or one slogan. It is a cohesive system, and as Mayor, Kenyan McDuffie will make that system work for every resident in every ward.
