ACLU report exposes stark racial disparities in DC police stops

WASHINGTON - A new report from the American Civil Liberties Union has revealed troubling data about police encounters in Washington, D.C., showing a stark racial disparity in stops made by the Metropolitan Police Department. 

The study, titled "Bias at the Core?", examined nearly 140,000 police encounters from January 2022 to December 2023 and found that police disproportionately stop Black people compared to other racial groups.

According to the ACLU, an African American individual in D.C. has a police encounter every ten minutes. Despite Black people making up approximately 40% of the city's population, they account for over 70% of police stops during the study period. 

The report points to racial bias as a significant factor in these disparities.

The study also highlights that less than 1% of the stops led to the seizure of firearms, raising concerns about the effectiveness of the stop-and-frisk practice. 

The ACLU noted that the data shows racial disparities consistent with racial bias.

The report also found that white residents, who make up about 39% of D.C.'s population, were only stopped 13% of the time. The ACLU says it has reached out to D.C. police and city officials for a response to the findings but has not yet received a comment.

The ACLU's report calls for immediate action, including police retraining, to address these racial disparities and improve community trust in law enforcement.

In a statement sent to FOX 5, the Metropolitan Police Department says it "continues its commitment to transparency by publishing comprehensive stop data twice a year, which supports the work of partners such as the ACLU in studying this data. However, it would be helpful for the public if descriptions about the data were also transparent. For example, whereas the ACLU gives the impression that all of the 68,940 stops in 2023 were ‘stops and frisks,’ this is not at all accurate. Of the almost 69,000 stops, only 4,471 (less than 7%) included a protective pat down, sometimes called a frisk. Only 1% include a consent search."

MPD released its own data:

· The stops had a clear purpose. Almost 4 of every 5 stops resulted in enforcement action, either a ticket (58%) or an arrest (23%). The rest ended with investigation or other public safety response, such as mediating a dispute, educating a violator, or referral to services.

· The stops included many people traveling in or through the District. Sixty percent of the stops were traffic stops. Only 30% of the vehicles stopped and issued tickets for traffic violations were registered in the District; 70% were registered in another state.

· Most stops were resolved without any physical contact between the officer and the person stopped or his or her property. Only 10% of stops involved a protective pat down or a pre-arrest search of either a person or property.

· MPD stops play a vital role in supporting Vision Zero and making our streets safe for all users. Fifty-eight percent of all stops result in a ticket. Of these, almost one-third of the tickets were warning tickets. Eleven percent of arrests include a charge for a criminal traffic violation.

· Most stops are for traffic violations and have nothing to do with gun or gun crimes, but some stops help remove a significant number of guns from our neighborhoods. In 2023, MPD officers were able to remove 2,057 guns—64% of all guns recovered—from DC streets as a result of police stops.[1]

· Most stops are brief. More than three out of four were resolved in about 15 minutes; 86% lasted 30 minutes or less.

The Department says it is committed to fair, professional, and constitutional policing in all aspects of its work as it strives to safeguard people and property in the District of Columbia. The Department works continuously to strengthen its service to the city. In the past year, the Department has focused on providing updated and comprehensive training for all its officers on the Fourth Amendment, including 10 hours of online and classroom training developed in partnership with the US Attorney for the District of Columbia. The Department is also supporting an independent study on Equity in Traffic Stops conducted by the University of Connecticut Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy. Researchers regularly stress that disparities, in and of themselves, are not sufficient evidence of racial profiling. We expect this study to be available in Fiscal Year 2025.

Read the full report below: