In response to the Metropolitan Police Department’s (MPD) September 16, 2024 statement on the ACLU’s newest stop and frisk report, Scarlett Aldebot, ACLU-D.C. Policy Advocacy Director, today said:
“Our recent report underlines a concerning and persistent truth: D.C. police disproportionately stop Black people in the District. In 2022 and 2023, over 70% of those stopped were Black, despite making up only 44% of the District’s population. We have seen racial disparities as a consistent pattern in four years of data. These stark disparities raise important concerns about potential bias in policing that need to be addressed.
The ACLU-D.C. is committed to transparency in our analysis. We remind MPD that warning tickets and arrests, without information about successful prosecution, do not justify practices that raise significant concerns about bias and that are making us less safe.
We do appreciate the dialogue with MPD and look forward to reviewing the Department’s independent study on Equity in Traffic Stops that MPD indicates will be available in Fiscal Year 2025. We encourage a similar type of independent analysis on non-traffic stops and jump-outs. MPD’s additional information on traffic stops and vehicle registrations raises additional concerns about racial disparities in stops. Is MPD justifying disproportionality by introducing the idea that primarily Black people drive into the District? Both the ACLU's research and other studies clearly show the significant harm and trauma caused by stops in Black and brown communities. Given their ineffectiveness at overall gun recovery and the individual and community harm these practices cause, we must ask District leaders: Why do they allow these harmful policing practices to persist?
District leaders need to rethink how stop-and-frisk practices impact community trust and public safety. It's time to adopt a policing approach that effectively serves all residents.”