WASHINGTON — How law enforcement polices our community, especially our neighborhoods of color, is one of the most critical issues facing the nation. Now, newly released data from the Metropolitan Police Department (D.C. Police) reveals in 2020, 7-out-of-10 people stopped by the department's officers were Black.
The latest numbers continue an ongoing racial disparity first uncovered in WUSA9’s award-winning investigative series: DC Police Stop and Frisk.
The newly released data from D.C. Police reveals in 2020, 74% of all stops made by the department were of Black people, even though D.C.’s population is less than half Black. However, it also shows the department reported more than a 66% decline in frisks in June as the pandemic sharply reduced the number of police stops citywide.
When WUSA9 first revealed similar findings from our own reporting three years ago, then D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham accused us of taking the racial disparities WUSA9 found out of context. But with this latest round of police stop data, his replacement, acting D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee, is taking a different tone.
In its latest Stop Data report, just posted to the department website, D.C. Police writes:
“Understanding sources of that disparity so we can appropriately focus resources to solve it continues to be a top priority for Chief Contee, MPD (D.C. Police), and the District.”
And in a separate statement issued to WUSA9 Monday, an MPD spokesperson added:
“This commitment is reflected in Chief Robert Contee’s upcoming community listening sessions, designed as an opportunity to have intimate conversations on issues impacting the District ... as we strive for racial equity, harm reduction and procedural justice in all MPD interactions with the public.”
That meeting will be held Tuesday, March 9 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. You can register using this link.
Organizations like Black Lives Matter DC have argued for years police stops do not make the community safer. And only serve to build distrust between police and minorities.
Also, of note in D.C. Police’s latest police stop data, the total number of department police stops in 2020 was down 43% from the previous year, likely due to impacts from the pandemic.
But D.C. Police said the reasons behind those 81,000 total police stops in 2020 remained consistent, including taking illegal firearms off the street.
On Thursday, Acting Chief Contee will appear before D.C. Council for the department's annual oversight hearing. A spokesperson for Councilmember Charles Allen, Chairman of D.C. Council's Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety says the acting Chief will be questioned on the latest police stop data.