Update: The Metropolitan Police Department released stop-and-frisk data from Jan. 1 through June 30, 2020 on Monday, following a lawsuit filed last week by the D.C. ACLU.

According to a two-page summary of the data, 75% of stops over the six month period were of Black people — up slightly from the previous report in March 2020, which found that Black people accounted for 72% of stops over a six month period in 2019. A comprehensive breakdown of stops by race and ethnicity were not included in the most recent summary report.

Meanwhile, total stops decreased by 33% per week during the pandemic, according to the report.

“Understanding sources of that disparity so we can appropriately focus resources to solve it continues to be a top priority for Chief Contee, MPD, and the District,” reads the summary.  “As we strive for racial equity, harm reduction, and procedural justice in all of our interactions with the public, getting this right is critical.”

According to the department, data from the second half of 2020 will be published in March, followed by a report in April.

Original:

The D.C. chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is suing the Metropolitan Police Department over unreported stop-and-frisk data, continuing the ACLU’s years-long legal push for transparency from the department.

The suit, filed on Tuesday, alleges that D.C. Police have not published any data since March 2020, and have failed to meet the ACLU’s recent FOIA deadline for the information.

“While MPD drags its feet, the public’s concerns about the policing of Black people are more pressing that ever and grow more urgent each day,” reads the suit.

Per the 2016 Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results (NEAR) Act passed by the D.C. Council, the department is required to collect extensive records of all police stops, including the reason for the stop, the duration of the stop, and whether a search was conducted. For three years, the ACLU and other local organizations have been engaged in a legal battle with the department, demanding compliance with the law — resulting in the first publication of four weeks of data in September 2019. 

In March 2020, the department released an additional five months worth of data. At that time, stop-and-frisk was under particularly heightened national scrutiny with the presidential candidacy of Mike Bloomberg — who during his 12-year tenure as New York City Mayor oversaw the stops of roughly 5 million people from stop-and-frisk tactics, and had recently received the endorsement of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. 

Now, despite the department’s claim that it would publish stop-and-frisk data two times a year, the ACLU says the department has again failed to comply with the law.

“For over three years after the [NEAR] Act was passed, MPD failed to collect this data, violating its legal obligation,” the suit reads. “It was only after a court order in a lawsuit we filed, together with Black Lives Matter D.C. and Stop Terror Project D.C., that MPD overhauled its data-collection system and committed to publicly releasing stop-and-frisk data twice a year. But MPD has failed to uphold its promise.”

D.C. Police did not immediately respond to DCist’s request for comment.

The first — and only — two stop-and-frisk reports revealed gaping racial disparities in the city’s policing.

The March 2020 report found that of the police stops conducted between July and December of 2019, 72% of people stopped were Black, even though 46% of D.C.’s population is Black (a similar percentage was reported in the September 2019 report). White people made up 14% of those stops. For stops that did not result in a traffic ticket, 87% of individuals stopped were Black.

This past September, similar data confirmed the disproportionate policing of Black people in the District. A D.C. Council mandated report of the city’s special gun recovery and narcotics unit found that 87% of subjects stopped were Black — accounting for 91% of arrests and 100% of use-of-force incidents. Meanwhile, white people accounted for just 5% of arrests.

The initial mandate for the report required a review of three years of police activity, but due to MPD’s inconsistent data collection and noncompliance with NEAR Act provisions, only six months of arrests were studied.

In its latest suit, the ACLU says stop-and-frisk data is necessary ahead of upcoming activity in the D.C. Council. There will be oversight hearings to examine MPD’s policing this spring, and lawmakers will hold a confirmation vote for acting Police Chief Robert Contee. Previously, members, including Ward 5’s Kenyan McDuffie and the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee chairman Charles Allen, have been critical of the department’s delays in providing transparent data, and the broader problem of police operations targeting Black residents.

“This information must inform the Council’s approach to oversight, the budget, and the confirmation of a new police chief. There has to be consequences for an agency that repeatedly flouts the law in ways that significantly harm District residents,” D.C. ACLU Policy Director Nassim Moshiree said an emailed statement to DCist. “At a time when both the Council and Mayor have voiced a commitment to racial equity, the community will be watching to see that their actions match their words.”

The suit marks the latest in an ongoing series of efforts for increased transparency, accountability, and reform of the city’s police operations — a push that has sparked criticism and lawsuits from the D.C. Police Union, which has been largely critical of the D.C. Council’s proposed changes to policing in the District.

This post has been updated with additional information, and to correct that Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie represents Ward 5.