WASHINGTON — Ron Hampton joined the Metropolitan Police Department in 1971. Officer Evan Douglas joined 7D five years ago. Despite the decades between them, the two are cut from the same cloth. They both love police work, they both love D.C. and they are both willing to speak out against what they call a “corrupt police culture.”
“If we are willing to acknowledge things that we have done wrong, then maybe the community will actually start to trust us more,” officer Douglas said.
Hampton was on the force 23 years and he said he was always willing to call out another officer for bad behavior regardless of the consequence.
“I happen to have been someone who several times interfered in another officer's case,” Hampton said. "And yeah, I was retaliated against.”
After his retirement, Hampton continued his activism in the National Association of Black Police Officers and then taught D.C. officers sensitivity training at the University of the District of Columbia. He said the current climate is forcing some changes in police practices.
“That's going to go deep to disrupt what I call the corrupt culture of the police department,” Hampton said.
Douglas is now doing his part to change that. In partnership with Georgetown Law’s Police for Tomorrow fellowship, officer Douglas facilitated a workshop with officers and inmates last October.
“We truly have to understand that just because someone breaks the law, or commits a crime that they're not really a bad person,” Douglas said.
But both men feel most officers need to be rewired from the lessons taught at the academy; to protect and truly serve the community with empathy and respect even in the face of protest.
“I'm always going to be a Black man first -- my uniform could come off, but my skin can't," Douglas said. “So I'm always going to understand where the anger and frustration and the whole rhetoric about defunding the police comes from. It's frustrating because as much as I tried to engage and build those bonds and bridges with the community and individuals, if it’s just me doing it, then nothing's ever going to change.”
Officer Douglas said there are more officers like him. He hopes to give them the courage to speak out as well.
Gonçalves asked Hampton if he felt discouraged that he sees the same issues in policing decades later.
“I am hopeful, because all along the way, I've seen these results of the activism of individuals like myself and others," he said. "The lesson is about the changes that we made --they did not go deep enough into the corrupt culture to offset it. But that doesn't mean that we didn't have an impact or influence in the process.”
A spokesperson from MPD said they would issue a statement to WUSA9 regarding Officer Douglas’ comments, but we are still waiting for the statement.
The spokesperson did say, “MPD continues to be a model for its police academy training for departments all across the country.”