U.S. attorney questioned constitutionality of sealed safety zones in May

by Michael Neibauer
The Examiner
Jun. 06, 2008

WASHINGTON - A top prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office warned D.C. officials two weeks ago that Mayor Adrian Fenty's plan to seal off high-crime neighborhoods might be unconstitutional, documents obtained by The Examiner show.

Fenty and Police Chief Cathy Lanier defended the Neighborhood Safety Zones on Wednesday as an "extreme" but worthy tactic to fight surges in violent crime. Interim Attorney General Peter Nickles said the zones -- manned checkpoints in which every vehicle is stopped, and the occupants are identified and ordered to prove they have a legitimate reason for being there -- will not violate anyone's rights.

But in a May 20 e-mail to police officials, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bradley Weinsheimer said he was worried. Can the police, he asked, stop a driver with a disability? If a car has six occupants but only one resident, can it enter? Won't ferretting out who's "legitimate" and who's not lead to questions of selectivity?

"As you can see, I am very concerned that the NSZs will not pass constitutional muster or at least that there are so many circumstances that will lead to discretionary calls on the part of officers that as applied, the NSZs will be unconstitutional," Weinsheimer wrote.

All of those concerns "were accommodated" in the final version of the order enacting the zones, Nickles told The Examiner on Wednesday.

"We've been working on this for eight weeks," he said. "This is not a half-assed kind of deal."

As The Examiner first reported, the zones entail cordoning off communities beset by crime. It's what "people in the neighborhood are looking for," Lanier said during a news conference in the crime-ravaged Northeast community of Trinidad, "for people to give us some reason that they have for being in the area."

The initiative, Fenty said, is a way of "making sure that we can better go into an area and … completely shut it down and prevent any type of illegal action from going on in that area." The first zone will be established in Trinidad starting Saturday, Lanier said, specifically along the 1400 block of Montello Avenue.

A line of skeptics quickly formed, from elected officials to civil libertarians. How effective can a program be, some critics asked, that stops all cars but no pedestrians?

"I guess the plan is to hope criminals will not walk into neighborhoods," said at-large D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson, chair of the public safety committee. "I also suppose the plan is to take the criminal's word for it when he or she gives the police a reason for driving into a neighborhood."

The safety zones will remain for five to 10 days. Legitimate reasons for gaining access, according to police, include visiting a friend or relative, going to work or attending church.

"We're not here to violate anyone's civil rights," said Ward 5 Councilman Harry Thomas Jr. "When Council member Thomas comes through and they ask me, I gladly show my ID. You know why? Because they're protecting my life."

Examiner staff writer Bill Myers contributed to this report.