There’s a good discussion going on today over at Prince of Petworth‘s post about Monday night’s fatal shooting in Columbia Heights.
Let us set a goal of zero homicides in the District and then set out seriously to achieve it. Some of our neighboring jurisdictions actually accomplish that goal year after year. That we have a goal of less than 100 annually somehow doesn’t sit right with me. That’s a murder every third day.
I don’t like the zero homicide goal because once you have one, you’ve failed. I think it’s more productive to set an aggressively low goal, like under 80, that way you have something to continue to work toward throughout the year.
Otherwise, what do you do after you have the first homicide of the year? Which we will. We just will, even if it’s not from street violence it could be domestic or something that is harder to prevent.
What do you think? Does setting a goal help law enforcement? What are the best goals to set? (number of crimes, number of arrests, number of prosecutions, number of successful prosecutions?) How does the number of homicides influence how you feel about safety in D.C.?
For the record, Monday’s shooting was the 31st recorded homicide in D.C. this year and the ninth in the past 18 days. For a complete listing, use Homicide Watch’s Google spreadsheet embedded after the jump.
