Mr. HORTON. Now, you heard yesterday that the Commissioner testified that the policy that was in effect at the time of the disturbances was the policy which you had announced and which you were following.

Chief LAYTON. Yes, sir.

Mr. HORTON. Do you have any comment to make with regard to the policy, or whether or not there was any change in the policy prior to the disturbances after the Safety Director came to Washington?

Chief LAYTON. No, sir. I have not been given any directives to change that policy, as I have stated here.

Mr. HORTON. Yesterday there was reference here to the Police Chief of Miami and his policies. Do you have any comment with regard to the seeming difference between handling disorders in Miami and the handling of the disorders that occurred here in Washington?

Chief LAYTON. Well, frankly, I only know, Mr. Horton, about the comments that were attributed to Chief Hedley in the newspaper.

As to shootings-it has been stated to our officers also that the policy that we follow in the Metropolitan Police Department is that which is set out in the law. The lawful authority is that a police officer is granted to use his service revolver, has been the same for many years, and continues to be the same.

So that during the period of the disturbance, our officers had the same legal authority that was not infringed upon in any respect. They had the same legal authority to use their revolvers in a situation that called for it, and which was justified, as they have always had.

PROSECUTION OF OFFENDERS

Mr. HORTON. One further question that has to do with the followup on those who were arrested. In many of the civil disturbances elsewhere there has been a delay in bringing people to justice. What is the status of the people who were arrested here, following the arrest?

Chief LAYTON. Well, I think, Mr. Horton, this is one of the areas particularly where we gain from the experience in some other city as to the numbers that frequently are necessary to handle in a situation of this kind, the tremendous numbers of defendants.

We have made plans ahead of time in cooperation with the Justice Department, the United States Attorney's office, the courts, and our own Department of Corrections. A number of meetings have been held and plans have been developed that made it possible for us to handle large numbers of arrests a good deal more expeditiously than I think was true in any other city of which I am aware.

Mr. HORTON. I would like to ask the U.S. Attorney, Mr. Bress, what has been done subsequent to the disturbances in regard to bringing those arrested to justice, and how it is determined one way or the other? Some 8,000 were arrested.

Mr. BRESS. There were approximately 1,000 felony charges of the 8,000 you referred to, Mr. Horton. I understand that about 4,000 were curfew arrests, and those persons were taken to Occoquan and released the following day with citations. But on the felony arrests, there were approximately 1,000.

I can give you figures as of the moment, as to the status of those cases. There are approximately 440 cases remaining for preliminary

hearings in the General Sessions Court. That is, hearing on the felony cases that is frequently held by a Committee Magistrate.

None of these cases went to the Commission. Of the remaining cases that have gone to the United States District Court after preliminary hearing in which defendants were held for action of a Grand Jury, we have already presented approximately 200 cases to the Grand Jury and there are a number of cases in the District Court now awaiting Grand Jury action.

When the riotous condition ended on April 8th, I made the request to the Court of April 10th for a special Grand Jury to be convened for the purpose of hearing the great number of felony cases that we had then in jail or on bail. That Grand Jury was convened and started holding hearings on April 23rd and has been hearing approximately 20 to 25 cases daily since that time.

I have special assistants assigned solely to the hearing of the cases arising out of the disturbance.

Mr. DOWDY. Have there been any indictments returned as a result of this?

Mr. BRESS. No indictment has yet been returned. The first batch of indictments will be returned on this coming Monday or Tuesday, and weekly thereafter, or twice weekly thereafter, indictments as a result of this incident, will be coming forward.

Mr. HORTON. I have nothing further.

Mr. DowDY. Before we get to another Committee member-I assume that the Police Department has been advised of the demands that started yesterday on stores, that they close up on Monday, May 20, to honor the birthday of Malcolm X. You all are acquainted with that, I

assume?

Mr. MURPHY. I am aware that there are flyers in the community and a group has announced that they will attempt-they will request stores and schools to close, yes, sir.

Mr. DOWDY. Under demand. Demanding that they close or probably get burned out if they don't. Are you all doing anything about that? Mr. MURPHY. Yes, sir.

Mr. Dowdy. Are you going to take steps to prevent rioting on Monday if those people don't close, or are you going to let them start before you do anything about it, as was done here a few weeks ago? Mr. MURPHY. No, sir.

Mr. DowDY. You are not going to do anything about it?

Mr. MURPHY. We are. We are not going to fail to do anything about it. As with any information we get, Mr. Chairman, about any anticipated trouble or problem, many precautionary steps are taken by the Department. Special efforts are made to learn about the plans, the size of the group, if there would be a demonstration.

We have people already assigned investigating any of this activity. Mr. DowDY. Do you have enough people assigned to it to prevent an outbreak on Monday?

Mr. MURPHY. We feel that we are well prepared, Congressman. Frequently, groups

Mr. DowDY. Are you as well prepared as you were for this other recent outbreak?

Mr. MURPHY. As well prepared?

Mr. Dowdy. As you were for the outbreak two or three weeks ago?

Mr. MURPHY. I think we are as well prepared as we were well prepared for the previous action.

Mr. Dowdy. In other words, you know that the death rate there won't be any more than-there won't be any more than six or eight blocks burned up this time?

Mr. MURPHY. I don't anticipate that. Frequently, such a group talks about having large numbers of people and accomplishing very large objectives which they don't have the potential to accomplish.

Mr. DOWDY. Let me ask this question: Do you have enough protection that people will be safe in opening their stores if they want to on Monday?

Mr. MURPHY. Yes, sir. I believe that from all that we can foresee of what will be occurring on Monday, we now believe that we are adequately prepared.

EXTORTION THREATS TO BUSINESS

Mr. Dowdy. Now, are you aware-and I suppose you are-I know the people would be in fear of the levies that are being placed upon merchants here in the District of Columbia to support this army of people coming in here from all over the country.

Are you aware of that?

Mr. MURPHY. I am not sure that I understand your question. Levies are being placed upon people for those who are visiting the city?

Mr. DowDY. That is right. For instance, there is a produce dealer here in town; it has been demanded that he furnish two truckloads of food each week to this group. If he doesn't, they are going to put him out of business.

Mr. MURPHY. Well, sir, we have made special efforts with the businessmen urging them to report to us any kind of threat or attempted extortion, and we have made at least some small number of arrests in these cases.

Mr. Dowdy. Has anybody reported these things?

Mr. MURPHY. We have received some reports, sir.

Mr. DOWDY. Have you made any arrests as a result of it?

Mr. MURPHY. Yes, sir, we have.

Mr. Dowdy. What kind of complaints are they?

Mr. MURPHY. I am sorry that I don't have the specific charge before me, in one case that I am aware of. We have received a warrant for threats.

Mr. DownY. For extortion?

Mr. MURPHY. For threats, sir. I don't have the

Mr. Dowdy. You don't have the specific charge. Do you feel that the merchants here in town and the ones that these threats are being made against would feel safe in coming here? Do they feel that you would protect them from the violence that they are threatened with? Mr. MURPHY. Well, sir, we have had several meetings with such groups, including a meeting in Mayor Washington's office last week, attended by Chief Layton and myself. I know that I was encouraged. I think Mayor Washington and Chief Layton were also encouraged that the businessmen indicated that they would be more responsive and that they would come forward with information.

We have explained to groups of businessmen, Mr. Chairman, that we think it would be a very dangerous course for them to permit

themselves to be threatened, or to subject themselves to extortion and not call these matters to the attention of the Police out of fear. If this kind of fear escalates in the community, then I think we will have an extremely dangerous situation.

I am confident now that many businessmen, who, two or three weeks ago were hesitant to come to the Police Department with information an complaints, have since come forward and given us the kind of information without which we cannot conduct a very effective investigation.

Mr. DowDY. We have got to have some confidence, of course, that we will get some protection from the law. We have got a situation. here much like an invading army placing levies on the businessman, telling them they have to feed them or they are going to destroy them. Mr. MURPHY. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Bress tells me he has some information he would like to present.

Mr. BRESS. With respect to the subject of extortion of local business, Mr. Chairman, I think it would be well for the Committee to know that beginning early in April there were some such reports. The matter has been investigated. It has not yet been presented to the Grand Jury. My office is keeping in daily contact with the squad of the Police Department who are engaging in developing the investigation along the lines that we have suggested.

Mr. DOWDY. Mr. Adams?

CITATIONS AND ARRESTS

Mr. ADAMS. First, Mr. Bress, I would like to follow through with the comments that were being made by Mr. Horton. A number of us offered amendments which were finally adopted by the Congress in the ominous anti-crime bill for the use of citations as a method of handling large numbers of people with certain types of misdemeanors. According to the Report on Civil Disturbances in Washington, Title VII of the anti-crime bill was used quite extensively in this last riot situation. Did it, in your opinion, prove to be effective?

Do you think it should be changed in any way?

Mr. BRESS. The citation procedure as spelled out in the D.C. Crime Reduction Act, I think, is desirable and under normal peaceful conditions in the community, it can be effective.

Mr. ADAMS. I also understand that you used it after these people were in jail for curfew violations. In other words, the Police had to clear the streets in order to get at the actual perpetrators of the crime, so they picked everybody up. I understand this system was a method whereby the people that were picked up for curfew violations could be moved out of the city rapidly so that you could get at the remaining felonies and other misdemeanors.

Mr. BRESS. That is precisely what did happen. It was too much of a burden on the limited facilities of the courts to bring 8,000 people in within three or four days, so that the citation procedure was very helpful in curfew violation cases where a curfew violator was kept overnight, not released back into violations.

Mr. ADAMS. Right. In other words, held out of the area.

Now, Mr. Murphy, I think we should put into perspective what happened in this city, because I think it is very bad if we preach fear

all the time. I think your police response in this case was based on accurate planning.

But in this case, this was a spontaneous, as opposed to an expected or pre-planned type riot, because of the death of Dr. King, was it not? Mr. MURPHY. Yes, Congressman. We had no advance information. Mr. ADAMS. Obviously not. You didn't know this was going to hap pen then. I understand this happened at 8:26 on Thursday night. It is my understanding that by 12:00 o'clock that night you had the better part of 2,000 officers on the street, which is less than 21⁄2 hours; isn't that correct?

Mr. MURPHY. By shortly after 12:00, we had about 2,000. As Chief Layton explained earlier, we were up to 2500 officers by 2:00 or 3:00

a.m.

Mr. ADAMS. It is also my information now that by the middle of the afternoon on Sunday you had made over 4200 arrests. That information is in the Report on Civil Disturbances. Now, I understand that of these, over 900 were for looting and 700 for disorderly conduct and other offenses; is that correct?

Mr. MURPHY. Yes, sir; as Mr. Bress pointed out, about 1,000 felony arrests, which were the lootings

Mr. ADAMS. It is also my understanding that the Police Department; and Chief Layton, you can correct me on this if I am wrong, used tear gas?

Chief LAYTON. Yes, sir, we did.

Mr. ADAMS. You used massive amounts of force going down the streets, officers linked arm in arm to clear the streets; is that correct? Chief LAYTON. We used a large number of officers, not necessarily linked.

Mr. ADAMS. Down the streets to clear them?

Chief LAYTON. Down the streets to clear them-14th Street, particularly.

Mr. ADAMS. I was pleased to hear the report that you are down to only 164 vacancies, because a number of us since we arrived on this Committee, when there were 400 vacancies have been very concerned with the recuritment problem. This indicates that you are getting the men in.

POLICE FORCE REQUIRED

I would like your opinion on this, Mr. Murphy, and yours, too, Chief Layton, if you would like to comment on it. In the central cities. when handling riots where you are involved with large numbers of people, do you think an authorized force of 3,100 is adequate and if not, what is your feeling as to what we should be considering?

Mr. MURPHY. Well, Congressman, we have not reached a final decision. We hope to fill the remaining 164 vacancies very shortly, and we are considering whether a request should be made. Obviously, more officers can provide more protection. We are trying to take steps to get more officers on the street. That is why we would like this precinct consolidation program to go through.

It would give us perhaps a couple hundred more officers on the street. As crime has increased, I think it is an obvious fact that the number of police officers per hundred or per thousand crimes is diminishing. Mr. ADAMS. What is your feeling now in terms of the necessity for a readily available reserve force; and I want to emphasize in this that