Giving Compass' Take:

• The ACLU of D.C. unpacks D.C. policing data, revealing extreme racial disparities in interactions, tickets, and arrests which disproportionately impact Black people. 

• How can funders use this data to help guide more equitable policing practices? 

• Learn about the effects of police stops on adolescent Black and Latino boys.

Racial disparities pervade criminal justice systems across the country; Washington, D.C. is no exception. The District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) recently provided extensive arrest data for the years 2013 to 2017 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Open the Government and ACLU-DC. An examination of that data by the ACLU Analytics Team revealed a pattern of disproportionate arrests of Black people that persists across geographic areas and offense types. It also showed that MPD arrests thousands of people every year for relatively minor offenses. This report analyzes these trends and proposes steps for addressing them.

From 2013 to 2017, Black individuals composed 47% of D.C.’s population but 86% of its arrestees. During this time, Black people were arrested at 10 times the rate of white people.

This disparity cannot be explained merely by a large concentration of MPD officers in predominantly Black neighborhoods. Rather, Black people are disproportionately arrested in over 90% of the District’s census tracts, including the whitest parts of the city.

Seventy-eight percent of all people arrested for driving without a permit were Black. That statistic is notable because in many cases, officers have no way of knowing whether a driver possesses a valid permit at the time they order the driver to pull over.

As a result, the significant disparity in arrests for this offense may indicate a racial disparity in traffic stops—which, in turn, could arise from discriminatory decisions by officers.

Unfortunately, we can’t assess whether such a relationship exists because MPD has refused to track crucial information or make the information it does collect meaningfully accessible.

This failure is unlawful.

Read the full article about D.C. policing data at ACLU of DC.