DC Mayor Bowser Asked How Cooperation With Feds Will Affect MPD's Relationships With DC Communities

Forbes Breaking News

During a press briefing on Wednesday, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser was asked how the Metropolitan Police Department's cooperation with federal law enforcement will affect its relationships with local communities.

Transcript

00:00I know we've been asking all week and we're told that you had been talking to federal partners

00:04about the agents having masks on. Have you gotten any clarity or direction about what they can and

00:10can't do? Well, what I'll say is this, you know, I've spent 20-something years on the federal side

00:15and the concern is from some of our federal partners with the masks, I have not gotten

00:20clarity on it, let me be clear about that. It's under DHS, if I'm not mistaken. But they, for

00:27a certain type of back country, if you will, or different types of events or marijuana eradication,

00:36some of our federal partners do have the ability to kind of cover their faces and it's really

00:42about making sure that there are no threats coming to them once they've cleared the area.

00:47So in this particular case, I have no clear guidance on the why and the how come, but I

00:55can only put on my federal hat from back in the day to say that I think that's what's happening.

01:00Lastly. Let me just add to that. We believe in our environment, an urban environment, that

01:06there's no reason for any official to wear a mask. We believe that it's not a law enforcement

01:15or just people that are in the umbrella of the Justice Department, you don't see them doing

01:19that. I think this is a good question for the Congress to prohibit law enforcement agencies

01:26that are going to be working in an urban environment from wearing masks.

01:31And just lastly for that. Okay. So I know we've been seeing videos. Sorry, I can't see it.

01:37For example, last night, members in Columbia Heights kind of heckling and yelling for federal

01:42agents and ICE to leave the area. We've seen that in other spots. I'm just wondering if you have

01:46any concerns about how this is going to affect community relations that MPD is building with its

01:52community members, all of this. And so I've had conversations specifically with our federal

01:57partners with regards to that. We've come a long way in establishing positive relationships

02:02with our community. And what I want to be able to do is to ensure our community that we are

02:07working with our federal partners in that space. We do a lot of community engagement with our

02:13federal partners. This isn't new. So we want to try to see how we can enhance that and build

02:18upon that. What we don't want is for community members to interfere, get involved in things

02:24that is a police related matter.

02:28Yeah.

02:29Yes, ma'am.

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