Black D.C. residents represent 47 percent of the city’s population, but a new report from the ACLU of D.C. found that from 2013 to 2017, 86 percent of people arrested by the city’s police department were black.

The arrest data, released by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, show that black people were arrested at 10 times the rate of white people in the years examined. And according to the ACLU, black people were arrested at higher rates in the vast majority of D.C.’s neighborhoods — even predominantly white ones. Racial disparities in arrests were found in 90 percent of the city’s census tracts.

ACLU attorney Michael Perloff told WAMU it took 10 months for MPD to respond to the request for the data.

The data show significant racial disparities for relatively minor offenses, including driving without a permit, possession of an open container of alcohol, public marijuana consumption, gambling and noise complaints.

For both open container offenses and public marijuana consumption, 80 percent of the arrestees were black. In its report, the ACLU noted that both open container laws and marijuana consumption laws criminalize activities that people of age can legally do in their homes, “thereby penalizing those who have less access to private property.”

The ACLU argues that because black people in D.C. are disproportionately poor, they are also disproportionately targeted by enforcement of these crimes.

The data also found that of the 10,305 arrests made between 2013 and 2017 for driving without a permit, 78 percent of arrestees were black. According to the ACLU, racial disparities in traffic stops could have been the cause.

As part of the Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results (NEAR) Act, which was passed in 2016, MPD is required to collect demographic data for all of its police stops and uses of force. According to the website for the mayoral initiative Safer Stronger D.C., the data collection requirements of the NEAR Act have not yet been fully implemented, but “data system improvements” will be rolled out this summer.

The NEAR Act also requires MPD to collect data on the reasons for its arrests. Lisa Rosenberg, Executive Director of Open the Government, which joined the ACLU in filing the Freedom of Information Act Request for the data, said the police department has not yet made the justification for its stops available.

“That underlying piece of information is really important — why are they being stopped?” Rosenberg said. “The question is, are they being stopped because they’re driving while black?”

MPD forwarded WAMU’s request for comment to Deputy Mayor for Public and Justice Kevin Donahue. In a statement emailed to WAMU, Donahue said Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration is committed to providing residents with a police department they trust.

“We have invested heavily in resources like the nation’s most progressive body-worn camera program, increasing opportunities for our students and residents for a career with MPD, and providing officers with training on DC history and culture utilizing the National Museum of African American History and Culture,” Donahue wrote.

A 2017 study found that body-worn cameras in D.C. did not affect use-of-force rates among D.C. police, but at the time, Chief Peter Newsham said camera footage was still an important boost to policing transparency.

Donahue added that the administration is hoping to address inequities by reforming the city’s criminal record-sealing process, exploring the option of more local control over parole and being more transparent with data related to arrests and crimes — efforts he said will “get to the root causes of crime, while being accountable and transparent to our residents.”

During MPD’s budget oversight hearing in March, Newsham was questioned about data which showed that 90 percent of his department’s uses of force involved black people. Newsham defended the practice by saying that black people were arrested for 91 percent of the city’s major crimes, and he suspected “there’s a stronger likelihood that there will be resistance” for major crime arrests.

Bowser’s proposed budget includes additional funding for MPD to hire more police officers and additional funding for violence prevention programs. The Council’s proposed budget, which will receive its first vote Tuesday, recommends more than $4 million in additional funding for violence interruption and prevention programs run by the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement.

This story was updated to include comments from Lisa Rosenberg and Kevin Donahue, and it originally appeared on WAMU.