WASHINGTON — Editor's Note: A previous version of this story was titled "Report reveals over 1,000 complaints of DC police's uses of force in 2021." The report found that 1,042 officers used force in 2021 and 827 complaints were filed in 2021.
D.C's Office of Police Complaints (OPC) recently released its fifth annual report on complaints against the Metropolitan Police Department.
The report found 1,263 allegations of misconduct by D.C. police officers and 827 filed complaints. Harassment made up 50% of the allegations in 2021 with language/conduct being the second most reported offense making up 24% of the allegations.
The 41-page report outlined data describing the leading causes of complaints in comparison to past years. The new report found that 1,042 officers reported using force, which the OPC says is a 5% decrease from 2020, and a 64% increase from 2013 when only 636 officers reported using force.
DC Police officers fired a gun, intentionally, at a person 20 times,18 of which involved Black men. Two incidents involved white men and five community members were killed.
“The goal of producing a report of this magnitude continues to be transparency and to strengthen the public trust in MPD, said Michael G. Tobin, OPC’s executive director. "But we also want to make sure the community understands all aspects of use of force by the police department and not just about the ones they hear about.”
The report found that 92% of all of the uses of force involved Black community members in 2021. Four percent of the uses of force involved white community members in 2021 an additional 4% involved Hispanic community members.
According to the 2021 Census data, 37.5% of D.C.'s population identifies as white, 46% identifies as Black and 11.3% identifies as Hispanic/Latino.
Fourteen percent of the people that were reported as the subjects of uses of force complaints were women whereas men made up 84% of those complaints. Additionally, the report found that 60% of people who filed instances of force were between the ages of 18 and 34.
Most of the complaints were filed from Black community members toward Black police officers in the District. However, white, male and young officers were reported to use force at a substantially higher rate, according to a press release from the OPC.
Complaints from Black community members towards Black police officers made up 35% of the complaints from 2021. Complaints from Black community members towards white police officers made up 28% of the complaints that same year.
The report also found that 61 D.C. police officers had three or more complaints, with 54% of those officers reportedly on the force for five years or less. Data shows that 95% of these officers were men with 44% being white, 31% being Black and 18% being Hispanic. Asian officers in this instance made up less than 10%.
Regarding the use of force, 56 officers had reported using force five times or more and 10 officers reported using force 10 or more times in 2021, according to the press release.