Norton Meets with Last of 3 Federal Police Chiefs and Union Reps - June 9, 2006

Norton Meets with Last of 3 Federal Police Chiefs and
Union Reps on Crime at Federal Sites--
Requests FBI Briefing
June 9, 2006

Washington, DC—To close the loop on recent crime on the Mall and Senate Park, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) met today with Amtrak Police Chief Sonya Proctor and representatives of the U.S. Park Police Labor Committee. She was pleased to learn that federal police may be close to closing both the Mall and Senate Park cases, but concerned that stationary icon deployment around the monuments could seriously endanger not only public safety, but also the security of monuments.

Norton asked Chief Proctor to come in because of leads that suggest that the juveniles who struck and knocked over a Capitol Hill worker in Lower Senate Park may have been in Union Station before the attack. Many juveniles are among those attracted by Union Station shops, movies, and other amenities, according to Chief Proctor. Although her meetings with Acting Capitol Police Chief Christopher McGaffin and Chief Proctor appear to show that the attack in Lower Senate Park and the more serious gun robberies on the Mall were unrelated, Norton has sought and gotten a more visible police presence to deter further attacks. Her concern has been not only about public safety, but the potential harm to the tourist-heavy D.C. economy if the impression lingers that crime has increased at federal, normally crime-free tourist sites.

However, Norton is asking for a special FBI briefing on the present deployment of the Park Police to combat threats to monuments. She said that the Park Police command and officers may have been hampered from using modern police and security techniques.

The Congresswoman said she is satisfied with what Chief Proctor, a former MPD police chief, is doing with the force at her command, but is concerned that although Union Station ranks as D.C.’s #2 visitors site, Amtrak police have only 38 officers to handle 70,000 people daily, equal to a medium-sized city. Theft is the major crime in and around Union Station. Nevertheless, Amtrak’s 2005-2006 record shows a 32 percent reduction in Part I or serious felonies. Norton said that in contrast to the Capitol Police, Amtrak Police, like the Park Police, appear to lack the number of officers it should have. The difference is that Congress has generously added officers to the Capitol Police while keeping the Park Police flat-funded for the past two years, and Amtrak, which has barely survived federal cut-off altogether, has struggled just to keep the trains running.

The Amtrak Police, along with Capitol and Park Police, are among more than a dozen federal police departments covered by a Norton bill passed more than 10 years ago, authorizing them to patrol areas and communities beyond the target site to keep crime from reaching the site.