During an interview with CBS on Thursday, U.S. Marshals Service Director Gady Serralta said that Washington, D.C. has to eliminate cashless bail to eliminate crime and if they did that and made progress on holding people in jail, “absolutely, there will be a de-escalation of our efforts and D.C. will be much safer.”
Host and CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Major Garrett asked, “How long is this going to last and how do you measure whether it is succeeding or whether success, however it is defined — and that’s maybe another question, how do we define it — is achieved?”
Serralta responded, “I can tell you, success, complete success is there is no more crime in the D.C. area, right? We are trying to make D.C. safe and beautiful again. And that’s going to require a lot of work from all law enforcement agencies. We’re a united front. We are working together in order to make this happen. The president has ordered it, and he’s put together all these federal law enforcement agencies.”
Garrett then said that totally eliminating crime isn’t doable.
Serralta responded, “Well, I can tell you this: It’s definitely not going to be achievable if we continue the catch and release program that we have, right? We need to stop this cashless bail program that D.C. has. Because no sooner than the police officer puts them in the jail, some other police officer, maybe in the same shift, is picking them up for a different crime. And that needs to stop and that needs to stop now. That’s a legislative issue, something that the government here can take up.”
Garrett followed up, “Sure. And if they did that, would the necessity for this federal involvement and the federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police disappear?”
Serralta answered, “Well, I would think if we make headway with bad guys staying in the jail, rather than walking right back out the other side, that, absolutely, there will be a de-escalation of our efforts and D.C. will be much safer.”
Garrett then asked, “So, should my audience think about this, sir, as a tactic that is trying to achieve a legislative outcome, and once that legislative outcome is sufficiently satisfactory to the president, this will all be backed off?”
Serralta responded, “I think it’s a multi-pronged approach, right? There are a number of issues at work here. The president has tasked me with one particular portion of this task that he’s bringing about to make D.C. safe and beautiful.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
