D.C. police and federal agents will work closely together this year in a crackdown on convicted felons illegally carrying guns in the city, a law enforcement strategy prompted by a steep increase in homicides in 2018, officials said Wednesday.
The new approach — in which U.S. authorities will play a greater role in investigating local gun-possession offenses in the District — will involve prosecuting many “felon-in-possession” defendants in federal court rather than D.C. Superior Court, officials said. That could result in longer prison terms in some cases.
Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu of the District, appearing at a news briefing Wednesday, praised the plan, which Bowser attributed to Liu.
“Today the U.S. attorney briefed me on a new strategy her office has launched that will take more illegal gun cases [to federal court], specifically cases where a previously convicted felon is . . . arrested and charged with illegally possessing a gun,” Bowser said.
