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Public Safety

Lisa is no stranger to dealing with issues on public safety. Lisa was a bilingual Juvenile Probation Officer and spent 25 years as a federal Special Agent and law enforcement senior manager investigating crimes and overseeing federal housing programs in DC and across the country. Lisa is committed to keeping homes and businesses safe, and she knows tackling the root causes of crime will bring long-lasting results for all of our communities.

 

Our communities are fearful and want an immediate response to crime and violence in their neighborhoods. Lisa knows that we must confront violence directly and believes that DC-wide, public health, justice-first approach is the best path forward.

 

Immediately Address Violence 

  • Protect DC residents from violent crime through immediate response resources from our public safety systems. While the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) is usually the primary agency that responds to violent crime, we should invest in more behavioral healthcare professionals and other specialists to become the default first responders to individuals in crisis. 

  • Deploy mobile crisis intervention teams to areas experiencing increased violence to provide crime victims with immediate trauma-informed care, especially young people that are often witnesses to or victims of violent crime. 

  • Support efforts to remove illegal guns from the streets, including ghost guns. 

 

Strengthen Communities

  • The safest communities are the ones with the most resources and economic opportunities. We see disinvestment in housing, education, healthcare, and food access in marginalized communities; we must be committed as a community to long-term social investments that can prevent violence in our communities before it happens. Lisa plans to invest in a modernized vocational education program that begins in middle school, allows youth to develop trade skills, and provides a streamlined pathway to entrepreneurship. 

  • Fund vital school-based mental health services and ensure equitable access to quality educational programming. 

  • Invest in Out-of-School programming, including better funding for club sports, arts, and cultural programming.

  • As a former bilingual Juvenile Probation Officer, Lisa knows that non-violent youth in the justice system must receive equitable access to diversion programs, and we must continue investments in restorative justice. Lisa wants adequate screening and treatment for mental health and substance use disorders and proper educational support for court-involved youth to build a career, trade, or technical skill for long-term success. Lisa is also a mom and knows we must-have programming that addresses the trauma most court-involved youth experience.

  • Establish more robust protective measures for domestic violence survivors, victims of crime, and seniors. Lisa plans to strengthen the collaboration among service providers and will work with residents, community and advocacy-based organizations, ANCs, the Department of Behavioral Health, and MPD to prevent abuse and attacks on women. 

  • Trust and invest in communities to stem gun violence: scale-up community-based violence interruption initiatives as a crucial first line of intervention.

  • Create a hospital-based violence interruption program in the new level-3 trauma center serving Wards 7 and 8.

  • Fund 24-hour harm reduction services and resources to improve our public health infrastructure and adequately respond to the ongoing opioid crisis. 

  • As a former federal Special Agent with HUD-OIG, Lisa knows the importance of maintaining vacant properties. Nuisance properties can lead to crime, and she supports ensuring that vacant properties and our communities are well maintained. 

 

Oversight and Accountability

  • To help restore public trust and for stronger accountability and equity, Lisa supports fulfilling the recommendations of the DC Police reform Commission. 

  • Lisa supports strong oversight of MPD to restore public trust and tracking their performance measures for immediately addressing crime and having these goals reflected in their budget.

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