Mr. HARSHA. What have you done to alleviate the situation?

Mr. MURPHY. Well, we have increased overtime duty. Chief Layton has increased patrols and assignments in areas where the crime incidence is high. We have formed a new unit in the Department, an arson squad, which is concentrating on the crime problems flowing directly from these disorders.

We have had to assign people to planning and training for the handling of large crowds, including possibly large numbers of arrests. We have had to work with the United States Attorney's office and the Department of Justice and other agencies concerning the processing of prisoners. We have just done an awful lot of things.

The CHAIRMAN. Would it be agreeable to come back tomorrow morning?

Mr. MATHIAS. I think it is important.

Mr. FRASER. Yes, Mr. Chairman, I think we have not had an opportunity, many of us, to explore some other aspects of this.

The CHAIRMAN. Can you make yourself available tomorrow morning, Mr. Murphy?

Mr. MURPHY. Yes, I will certainly be available.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you for coming down.

(Whereupon, at 12:30 p.m., the full committee adjourned, to reconvene on Thursday, May 16, 1968.)

CIVIL DISTURBANCES IN WASHINGTON

THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1968

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,

Washington, D.C.

The Full Committee met, pursuant to recess, at 11:10 a.m., in Room 1310, Longworth House Office Building, Honorable John Dowdy, presiding.

Present: Representatives Dowdy (presiding), Abernethy, Whitener, Sisk, Diggs, Adams, Jacobs, Walker, Mathias of Maryland, Horton, Broyhill, Winn, Gude, Zwach, and Steiger.

Also present: James T. Clark, Clerk; Sara Watson, Assistant Counsel; Donald Tubridy, Minority Clerk; and Leonard D. Hilder, Investigator.

Mr. DOWDY. The meeting will come to order.

We are having this meeting this morning to continue hearing Mr. Murphy. If you would come around, Mr. Murphy.

Mr. MURPHY. Thank you.

STATEMENT OF PATRICK V. MURPHY, OFFICE OF PUBLIC SAFETY, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA GOVERNMENT, ACCOMPANIED BY JOHN B. LAYTON, CHIEF, METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT; DAVID G. BRESS, ESQUIRE, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA; AND HON. DAVID E. McGIFFERT, UNDER SECRETARY OF THE ARMY, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE-Resumed

Mr. DOWDY. Do you want to begin, Mr. Diggs?

Mr. DIGGS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The report of the City Council's public hearings on the Rebuilding and Recovery of Washington from the civil disturbances of April, 1968, on page 2 says:

Citizens can be grateful for the rapid, courageous, and sympathetic response of the Police, Fire Departments, Armed Services, Health and Welfare workers, the Urban Coalition, Sanitation and Inspection crews, and many other private groups and individuals. I just wanted to underscore that the Police Department and the Fire Department, both agencies under the jurisdiction of our witness, have been the recipient of this compliment from the members of the City Council of the District of Columbia which, I think, needs to be underscored because one might get the impression from certain criticisms that the activities of those Departments during that disturbance was not properly appreciated.

I would like to concur in that accolade, because as one who has actually lived through this kind of disturbance in Detroit and not from underneath a bed, but actually being right out there in the street in the middle of it, almost from its inception, and having also been in Newark the night that Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, as a principal speaker for a testimonial for one of the public officials of that community. The mayor was there.

Of course, the program was immediately curtailed, and I went with the mayor, a former Member of Congress, Mayor Addonizio, into the streets of Newark in an effort to keep reactions from getting overheated.

I was also in Atlanta that next day until after the funeral. There were reactions down there that produced some of the incidents that were experienced here in Washington. I was in the streets of Atlanta, so that I say I can speak from some measure of experience in these matters, which undergirds my appreciation for a very difficult situation that the police have encountered.

I think that people need to understand this. I think that we need also to put in the proper context the fact that this situation is not peculiar to the District of Columbia; that this protest technique is a phenomenon of the 1960's, the late 1960's; that the protest which produces this kind of destruction has been evidenced not only in the larger cities of this nation of ours, but in Warsaw, in Paris, and just two days ago in Panama, where most of the people in the audience, I am sure, witnessed on television cars being overturned and burned, and people being chased, and so on.

It does indicate that in crises, spontaneous situations of this nature, our Police departments are actually undermanned for this purpose. So I am always curious about criticisms that are directed at our Police Department about their alleged inadequacies in moments of this type.

I am also mindful, having been in many Police State communitiesin Latin-America, where you may see a policeman on every corner, where you will witness dips in the street at almost every intersectionthat this is something that we could get into if we concur in some of the implications that have been made in and out of press with respect to the police situation.

If we want a Police State in this country, if we feel that Police are the answer and the only answer to the situation, then we are talking about a policeman on every corner and dips in the intersections.

We are not talking about the United States of America. I don't believe that anyone would want this kind of Police State to exist in our country.

So, therefore, I think we ought to put this thing in proper context. There were some references made to the kind of people who were engag ing in this activity. I think the word "dangerous" people was used. There was an attempt to get some kind of response that would indicate that all of the people who were engaged in these kinds of activities were dangerous people-were criminals of some type; whereas, I do not condone any of this activity, the fact of the matter is that a profile of the average looter does not turn up a criminal kind of person.

I was in the middle of the greatest experience of this type in Detroit. and opportunity targets presented themselves and encouraged people to become looters. I saw mothers with small children going in places

that were open. I happen to be in the mortuary business. I buried most of the people who were killed in the City of Detroit in this conflagration.

I went into their homes, and I note that the kind of homes that I went into involving these looters were not the homes of criminals. So I think we ought to put that in proper context and, I think, related to any suggestion that we should go in indiscriminately, using excessive amounts of force, including gunfire, in order to exercise some kind of control over this situation-I repeat, I am not a supporter of this kind of activity.

I am also curious about reference to the tourist trade being down here in the City of Washington, and relating it to the riot situation, because there has been some encouragement of this kind of reaction from some quarters right here on the Hill through newsletters and responses to requests for servicing groups that propose to come here, that they have actually been discouraged, that there are quarters on the Hill who have not stood up for this community, who have painted a situation here in Washington which has discouraged people, and they have made their contribution to the reduction in tourism in the City of Washington; and then, they have turned around and tried to attribute this to the disturbances which have taken place.

I think that we have a community here that we ought to stand up for. We ought to stand up for our Police Department and its policies. Obviously, there are instances in a situation like this where excessive amounts of force may have created a problem.

I think that those situations ought to be handled on an individual basis as these complaints come up.

I am curious-and I am now getting to the question-I am curious, Mr. Commissioner, as to why or if you plan on asking for more police. We passed an authorization for a minimum of 2500 policemen in the District of Columbia in 1956; and in 1961, we increased it to an authorization of no less than 3,000, and it has stood at that minimum figure for seven years.

There have been some very dramatic changes, not in the population necessarily, but there have been changes in protest techniques; there have been changes in the very character of this community and of this nation and of the issues that have been involved.

I am curious as to whether or not you contemplate petitioning the Appropriations Committee for an increase in appropriations so that you can raise the minimum number of police that would be required. during these occasions?

I don't think we are going to go back. I think we have reached a new plateau that ought to be considered in this connection.

Collaterally, may I say, my experience in connection with calling out the National Guard and the Federal Troops has been that they have been called too late. I am certainly hopeful that you will take these matters into consideration and also the curfew techniques, that the time limits of imposing a curfew and calling out the National Guard is something that needs improvement, not only here, but across the country.

I know that there are some political implications involved in calling out the National Guard. This was our trouble in Detroit-when we needed troops, where the troops had to be requested by the Governor,

and the request was made by the Governor-and the troops were not sent in immediately because of certain political implications. The same may be true in connection with the National Guard situation here in our own community.

So the timeliness is a matter-the timeliness of calling out these supplemental enforcement agencies is extremely important; and I would like to get some comment from you with respect to some improvement in that decision-making process, and also of the curfew, and also with respect to the authority for more police, not-when I say more police, I don't mean a policeman on every corner, but certainly more than the authorization under which you are presently operating.

POLICE VACANCIES

Mr. MURPHY. Congressman, at the time that Mayor Washington took office and at the time of my appointment to this position, there were approximately 385 vacancies for police officers in the city. Even before my appointment, the Mayor had, through the assistance of the President and the Department of Defense, developed a recruitment program in cooperation with the Military that provided for early discharge of servicemen who would accept the appointment to Police departments.

Between that program and our own recruitment program, which has been intensified, we have been able since December to reduce the number of vacancies from about 385 to 164 at last count. This is a significant recruitment accomplishment, and I think an indication of high morale in the Police Department and the willingness and desire of many young men to become policemen today, even though it is becoming a more difficult job every day.

We are hopeful, Congressman, that we can close that gap completely within the next few months; and although we have not finalized our thinking on requesting additional positions, we are certainly giving much consideration to that. But we see our first step as that of filling existing vacancies before requesting additional positions.

TROOPS

Concerning the time limits of a call for assistance from the National Guard and the Military-all of my experience through our troubled days indicated to me that we were receiving very prompt response to our request, as I described yesterday.

The decision, the tentative decision, which just had to be finalized Friday a.m., was made very early Friday morning to have the National Guard on duty Friday evening. April 5th. In our discussions with the Military, all that I know about it, suggests to me that the gearing up, the turning of the wheels, was begun immediately upon our indication of our concern that we needed help sooner.

I think Mr. McGiffert may have described yesterday, and he may wish to speak to this question, but it is simply a fact that the movement of troops does take some period of time. But I am satisfied that even the well-laid plans that existed before April 4th have been further refined to provide us with an even more rapid response if we should require it again in the future.