Debate is ramping up at the nation’s capital ahead of a Tuesday city council vote on a sweeping public safety package of more than 100 crime interventions, as the city’s police union and mayor back the proposals and anti-cop groups oppose them. 

It’s the latest in the growing — and national — clash between groups fighting for so-called harm reduction or prevention policies and those pushing for increased policing and law enforcement. The debate at Washington has become particularly heated as the city suffers from an enormous crime wave out of sync with an overall decline in violent crime nationwide. The carjack killing last Monday of a former Trump administration official in what was considered a safe part of the city has left D.C. residents unnerved and on edge.

Proponents of the public safety bill are taking a hard line against the anti-police groups opposing it.

“Resurrecting the 2020 rhetoric and talking points of anti-cop activists is not going to work. Every major city has seen the effects of your misguided policy,” the D.C. Police Union, which represents 3,600 police officers and detectives, said in a statement posted on X. 

The package, formally known as the Secure D.C. Omnibus Amendment Act of 2024, is “a common sense, logical public safety policy. Any of these radicals suggesting otherwise should be ignored,” the union added.

The police were responding to pushback to the bill from a national group called Campaign Zero, which aims to “live in a world beyond policing” and whose work includes “diminishing” police power. “Instead of solutions, this proposed plan is full of cuts to vital social services,” the campaign says of the proposed legislation. 

A council member, Brooke Pinto, has been championing the package, saying it will “make clear” that safety is a priority in the district. She has repeatedly called for “urgent and effective action” to address the area’s staggering crime rates — last year Washington saw a 39 percent increase in violent crime. Its 274 murders last year were the most on record since 1997, and carjackings nearly doubled in 2023 compared to 2022, as the Sun has reported. 

The council vote comes days after a father of three and member of President Trump’s administration died from injuries sustained during a carjacking at D.C. “His sudden departure has left a void in our lives that can never be filled,” his wife, Kristina Gill, said in a statement released to FOX 5 over the weekend. 

Ms. Pinto’s office didn’t respond to a request from the Sun for comment, but she said in a statement on X that the bill will “improve safety by increasing prevention, accountability, and government coordination.” 

“Every day I hear from residents, business, and visitors about their serious concerns on the state of public safety and violence in the district,” Ms. Pinto said in a video on X. “Residents are in fear of carjacking, thefts, and falling victim to crime across the district. This is unacceptable.” 

The proposals include establishing stricter gun penalties, an expanded definition of carjacking to allow more prosecutions, and cracking down on retail theft and public transit crime. It also would allow the city to establish “drug-free zones” in “hotspots of crime,” a proposal that has faced heated debate.

D.C.’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, has been a staunch supporter of the package and has called on the city council to pass it. Representatives of Ms. Bowser’s office were not immediately available for comment on Monday. 

Despite strong support for the bill from Democratic leadership in the city, the proposals are facing backlash from far-left groups. In addition to criticism from Campaign Zero, Black Lives Matter DC has been organizing efforts against the package, arguing that it would “harken back to the racist and harmful crime bills of the 1990s.” 

“Instead of following the guidance of experts, the Secure DC Omnibus expands police surveillance, incarceration, criminalization, and use of deadly force, while undermining police transparency and accountability,” a letter to the Council reads while nicknaming the bill “crimnibus.” 

Citing concerns about “racial equity,” the group takes issue with the drug-free zones and expanded pre-trial detention and says the bill would “undermine publicly supported legislation that decriminalized fare evasion and release the ban on face coverings.”

President Trump, for his part, has ratcheted up his rhetoric about D.C. crime, calling last week for a federal takeover of the troubled district he called “a nightmare of murder and crime.”

“We’re going to federalize it. We’re gonna have the toughest law enforcement in the country. We’re not going to have any more crime and it’s going to look beautiful,” Mr. Trump said.