A new report from the D.C. Office of Police Complaints found that reported use-of-force incidents by officers dropped 22% in 2020 — the department’s first decrease since 2015 — and the number of officers involved in repeated use-of-force incidents has also decreased by more than 30%.

There were 968 reported use-of-force incidents and 2,011 reported uses of force by 1,098 MPD officers in 2020, according to the agency’s report released Tuesday. The number of uses of force is higher because some incidents involved multiple officers and repeat uses of force. MPD defines use-of-force as “any physical coercion used to effect, influence, or persuade an individual to comply with an order from an officer” including hand controls, handcuffing an individual, or deadly force such as discharging a firearm.

The Office of Police Complaints is an independent agency tasked with investigating and overseeing MPD. The report found that 66 officers used force five times or more in 2020, and seven officers used force 10 times or more. That’s approximately 32% less than 2019, when the agency reported 98 officers used force five or more times and four officers used it more than 10 times.

Many of 2020’s findings are consistent with 2019’s report. Subjects reportedly carried a weapon in approximately 20% of reported cases and 11-15% carried a firearm. Officers discharged firearms at nine people in 2020 — two of which ended in fatalities — compared to 2019 when the agency reported that 10 people were shot by police and one person died. (That was the lowest number of civilian fatalities from an officer discharging their firearm reported by the department since 2014). The number of police officers reportedly assaulted by civilians in 2020 was 25% — a three-percentage-point drop from 2019.

Black residents comprise 43% of the District’s population yet were subjected to at least 89% of use-of-force incidents since OPC started keeping track in 2017. Fifty-nine percent of all use-of-force incidents in 2020 occurred in the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh districts, the latter two located in wards 7 and 8 where a majority of the city’s Black residents reside. Meanwhile, takedowns and control holds continue to be the most common types of force used by officers and comprised at least 64% of all reported incidents in 2019 and 2020.

“Police use of force remains a major topic of discussion and concern throughout the country,” the report reads. “Police officers are empowered to use force to maintain the peace, but with that empowerment comes high standards and responsibility.”

MPD typically encourages officers to follow its Use of Force Framework — an outline of uses of force and responses officers should take in a given situation — but according to the report the department has since stated that framework is “fluid, dynamic, and non-sequential and can be used within the officer’s individual discretion during an incident.”

MPD spokesperson Alaina Gertz wrote in an emailed statement to DCist that the report’s description of the department’s use of force framework was inaccurate. MPD has since reached out to OPC to rectify the department’s use-of-force policies on future reports.

“Our current use of force framework is structured in the same manner such that officers are required to both select and modify their level of force (if any) based on the resistance offered by the subject,” Gertz wrote.

The D.C. Council enacted emergency legislation last year that prevented officers from using chemical irritants, stun grenades, and rubber bullets to disperse crowds after repeated police shootings of Black people across the country. The city has yet to pass permanent legislation that bans officers from using said measures, but the Council did pass temporary legislation banning the use of chokeholds on Dec. 3. The measure is in effect for 225 days and must be voted on again later this year to become permanent.

As of December, MPD has fully implemented six of 11 recommendations the OPC made in its 2017 and 2018 reports, including training updates that remind officers that fist and knee strikes are not acceptable restraint techniques and consolidating its use-of-force policies into a single document. This year OPC recommends MPD reduce racial disparities in its use-of-force incidents through bias training and recategorize officers drawing guns at civilians as a use of force.

“MPD needs to work to reduce the racial disparities in their officers’ uses of force,” the report reads. “This blatant overrepresentation illustrates the systemic racism present in police departments, and particularly in regard to use of force.”

This story was updated to include comment from MPD