Mr. ADAMS. I want to at this point extend my compliments to you and the Chief and to the Commissioner. Mr. BROYHILL. If you will yield, will you repeat that? Mr. FLETCHER. 82 vacancies as of last week. Mr. BROYHILL. 82? Mr. FLETCHER. 82. We had approximately 40 in the process of being appointed and over 200 in the pipeline for appointment, as I said, within the next several weeks we will have no vacancies left. We are recruiting at the average rate, in the last six months, of 63 net gain per month. Mr. ADAMS. I want to extend my compliments to you, because I sat for some time on this committee when this vacancy rate was high and going up. I am very pleased to know that now, through the changes that have occurred and the efforts you have made, this trend has been reversed and men are now coming into the Department. Thank you. Mr. BROYHILL. Will the gentleman yield? I think the gentleman from Washington should also be complimented for his leadership and support of a salary increase bill that helped fill those vacancies. Mr. ADAMS. I think all Members of the committee should share in that. I think it is one of the solutions. I am extremely pleased. I hope we continue to have that interest in the Department. I vield to the gentleman. Mr. GUDE. There is one project that I have been particularly interested in, the establishment of a Narcotics Rehabilitation Center in the District which is now in the process of being geared in. This requires very close coordination with the Police Department, doesn't it? Mr. FLETCHER. Yes. Mr. GUDE. What type of coordination is required if you are going to have a Center? Mr. FLETCHER. I believe the Chief could provide a better answer than I on that, Congressman. Mr. GUDE. I know that the concept of police handling of people who are narcotic addicts has changed quite a bit in law enforcement work. Now, rather than just confining them, imprisoning them, the idea is to enter them into a rehabilitation center and see what can be done. How is this carried on? STATEMENT OF CHIEF JOHN B. LAYTON, METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT Chief LAYTON. We could go back some years, Mr. Gude, when the Congress, at the recommendation of the District Government, did enact legislation which provided for treatment of addicts and was not solely geared to penalties. We do in the enforcement of the narcotics laws cooperate very closely with the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. We work jointly, we make joint raids, we put undercover men out in the area where there is narcotics peddling. We do move very properly and appropriately, I think, in the enforcement of the present laws. There is this other side of it, where persons who have become addicted to narcotics; there is provision in law for them to be hospitalized. Originally they were sent to the Federal institution. More recently they have been cared for at the local hospital, D. C. General. There is in the works now in cooperation with the Health Department a broader experimental use of the rehabilitation of narcotics addicts. Mr. GUDE. Do the precincts where this problem is the greatest work with the Health Department in this effort? Chief LAYTON. Our narcotics law enforcement is supervised and coordinated largely by the headquarters squad. We do make use of members of the various precincts, but it is all coordinated with the headquarters squad. This is a specialized enforcement. We need, I think, to have this centralized coordination. Mr. GUDE. Then whoever is head of this squad in your central headquarters works with the Health Department in coordinating this new program? Chief LAYTON. Yes. Mr. GUDE. If we had this legislation, then, there could be no one person who could compel if police authorities felt they did not want to cooperate or work with the Health Department, then they could go their own way, as I see it. Now, as the Police Commissioner established by this bill would not be under the control of the same authorities as the Health Department, would that be true? Chief LAYTON. Well, I would expect that whoever was the head of a law enforcement agency or group of agencies would still be amenable to the law. If the law provided for certain kinds of treatment then that individual, whoever he would be, would be amenable to the dictates of the law. Mr. GUDE. If the law so stated or if you put the administration of this aspect of the Health Department under Congress, then it would be easy to coordinate. Thank you very much. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Walker? Mr. WALKER. Mr. Chairman, there is one good thing about being a junior Member of this committee, as well as of any other; by the time it reaches this Member, why, it has been thoroughly aired and most issues have already been adequately taken care of. So I don't have any questions, but I do have an observation or two. CIVIL DISTURBANCES If memory serves me correctly, I have heard testimony before this committee that the Department was, and was not, both sides as a matter of fact, surprised and not surprised about the so-called riots that we had back there in April. I can't understand how anyone in Washington reading the news media and the many remarks and speeches having been made prior to the April riots, that anyone could have been surprised, because I have heard testimony before this committee that they were not surprised and, as a matter of fact, they had the troops alerted and trained. There was some confusion, as a matter of fact, as to when and how soon they called on them. Then I have heard and read many statements and remarks about how happy and pleased everyone was because they had showed so much restraint. So I won't belabor the subject. I have just been sitting here listening to all these remarks with some interest. I was also interested in the remarks made by Attorney Margolius, I believe was his name, last week. 97-945-68- 4 I was intrigued by his statements, especially by the survey that had been made by the policemen themselves, and the percentage that were in favor of this legislation. As of now, if we were called upon to vote, I don't know how I would vote. I think morale is very important, not only of our policemen in the District but all over this country, I think most of the Members on this committee would agree with me that no individual on this committee would want to serve as a policeman any place in the United States under conditions which policemen in this country have to work. So I would like to join with the rest of my colleagues in commending the police force, whether they be here or some place else in this great country of ours. is Also, the point was made this morning about whether or not there any other city in the United States where the Federal Government is trying to intrude on their prerogatives. I don't know of any other city in the United States that has exactly the same situation as Washington. This is a Federal city. I certainly don't want to see Congress take over the prerogatives. the law enforcement duties of the Capital or any place else, but I will tell you one thing: I think you will agree with me when you go back home and receive your correspondence from the people back home, they are not blaming the Police Department, they are not blaming the City Council in Washington, they are blaming Congress for everything that they see and read about the actions of this country. That is the longest speech I have made since I have been up here. The CHAIRMAN. Any further questions of Mr. Fletcher? Thank you very much. Chief Layton, do you care to make a statement? Chief LAYTON. I have no prepared statement, Mr. Chairman. POLICY AS TO RESURRECTION CITY Mr. WHITENER. Chief, I would like to ask you a question. We have all heard this talk from the Deputy Commissioner about how this bill would destroy the present high level of coordination. We have here several separate police organizations and all of them are fine ones. But Mr. Fletcher said something about "a good job done during the Poor People's March". From what I read in the paper and from what Members of the House have told me, who went down to this so-called Resurrection City, apparently there was no policing at all within Resurrection City, at least none to amount to anything. I understand again that that was a park area under the primary jurisdiction of the Department of Interior and not the District Government. Yet, I understand that your men were called down to the vicinity to back up the Federal police, the Park police. Now, who made the decision there? I don't want to point the finger at any particular individual. How was the decision made to leave these men down there in the hands of some so-called marshals who, according to the press, were recruited from gangs all over the United States in the major cities? How could it happen that anybody would decide that a newspaperman would have his camera taken away from him and be knocked down, or another newspaperman who reported in one of the papers said "You give me your money or else you are not going to get out of here alive". We had evidence reported in the press of other abuses of that after taking his camera, as I remember it, somebody came up and people who should have had every right to be on this Federal property, the television people who were assaulted, I understand. Now, we talk about coordination. How did this type of coordination, if it is coordination, come about? I am not trying to embarrass you or your Department. Chief LAYTON. First of all, as you have indicated, this was on Federal parkland which is supervised by the Department of Interior and the police agency that has the primary function there is the United States Park Police. Our Department, on occasion, is called Mr. WHITENER. Chief, let me make it right short: Isn't the truth of the matter that neither the Park Service, nor the Metropolitan Police, nor Deputy Commissioner Fletcher, nor Commissioner Washington had any voice at all in that decision, to stay out of there? Chief LAYTON. I can't answer completely on that, Mr. Whitener. As to whether to go in or out, it is my understanding that on occasion members of the United States Park Police did go in. But it is my understanding also that they did not regularly patrol inside Resurrection City. Mr. BROYHILL. They had to clear with the marshals in the Resurrection City, didn't they? In order for the Park Police to enter Resurrection City, they had to clear with the marshals' tent? They couldn't go in and try to arrest one of these people who had taken a camera. They had to clear access with the head of the "Nation"? Chief LAYTON. My understanding, Mr. Broyhill, is Mr. BROYHILL. I am being facetious, of course. Chief LAYTON. First of all, the Park Police did not regularly patrol inside the area. It is also my understanding that they depended mainly on the marshals who were appointed, as you have indicated, to patrol inside Resurrection City. It was the arrangement, according to my understanding also, that if any incident occurred they talked with the marshals. Mr. BROYHILL. They could not go into the city even if an incident occurred, could they? Chief LAYTON. I don't believe they were completely restricted to that extent. It is my understanding that they did on occasion-Inspector Beye, particularly, went in when he saw need to go in. But they did not regularly patrol the area. Mr. WHITENER. If that is the kind of coordination they are trying to preserve, then this bill, it seems to me, is very desirable because that is not the kind of coordination that the people I represent want here in the nation's capital. Chief LAYTON. Yes, sir. Mr. WHITENER. Actually, the coordination, as they call it, resulted in creating a situation where the average American wasn't even safe to go into this acreage of federally-owned property within the confines of the District of Columbia; now, isn't that so? Chief LAYTON. Well, they arranged at times for people to go in. There were, without any question, assaults that occurred in this area and it was not regularly patrolled by duly constituted police forces. Mr. WHITENER. Actually-and this is aside from police work—but the Health Department people weren't too safe fooling around inside there, were they? Chief LAYTON. I am not able to answer to just what extent they went into the camp site, Mr. Whitener. There was a facility in a trailer that was immediately adjacent to the City, but I am not familiar with the extent to which they entered the camp site. Mr. WHITENER. Again I am going afield, but do you know if any arrests were ever made in the several cases where duly accredited press photographers and television cameramen were assaulted, and in some cases had their cameras taken away from them? Chief LAYTON. I am not aware of an arrest that was made in those cases that you refer to. Mr. WHITENER. That isn't much coordination, is it? That is not much coordination of law enforcement, is it? Chief LAYTON. It is not an exercise of good law enforcement, of course. Mr. WHITENER. Thank you very much. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Chief Layton. Chief LAYTON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. At this point, we will include a Resolution of the Federation of Citizens Associations of the District of Columbia in support of Chief Lavton. (The resolution referred to follows:) FEDERATION OF CITIZENS ASSOCIATIONS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA [RESOLUTION OF FEBRUARY 8, 1968] Whereas Chief of Metropolitan Police, John B. Layton, has served his community faithfully and well during his term of office; and Whereas Chief Layton has dealt with his men and the community fairly, and has gained the respect of the law abiding Citizenry for his ability, honesty and straight-forwardness; and Whereas Chief Layton has maintained law and order in our Nation's Capital during a period noted for racial tensions and has prevented the riots and destruction suffered by many of the Nation's urban centers during this same period: and Whereas: This has been accomplished in spite of the harrassment by groups and individuals having the avowed objective of destroying our way of life: now, therefore, be it Resolved: By the Federation of Citizens Associations in meeting assembled this eighth day of February 1968, that it reiterates its whole hearted confidence. support and appreciation of John B. Layton, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, and his accomplishments for our community; and be it further |