Two Black women who formerly worked in the Metropolitan Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division (IAD) are suing police chief Robert Contee and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, saying they were forced out of their jobs because of their race and gender. They allege that the head of Internal Affairs used his power to shield white officers from consequences for misconduct — and they say there was a “coordinated effort” to remove them and other Black women from the department because they spoke out against racism and other forms of discrimination.

The plaintiffs, Felicia Carson and Lisa Burton, are asking the city to reinstate them to their jobs in the IAD and provide them with monetary damages and back pay. They are also asking for a judge to order the D.C. police department to stop this alleged pattern of discriminating against Black women agents in the IAD — and they want the MPD Inspector General to “conduct a thorough and Court-supervised investigation into potential civil rights violations by MPD officers, IAD supervisors, and more specifically, Chief Wilfredo Manlapaz.”

“Black women are invisible and expendable” in the D.C. police department, Burton told the audience of a town hall on Wednesday night.

MPD said in an emailed statement that while it could not discuss the specific allegations in the suit, “the Metropolitan Police Department is committed to treating all members fairly and equitably throughout our organization.”

“We take these allegations seriously and we will be reviewing them thoroughly and responding accordingly,” the department said.

The IAD is the branch of MPD that investigates allegations of misconduct made against police officers. The team is responsible for investigating when officers are accused of committing crimes, and also investigates alleged violations of MPD policies. After IAD agents investigate crimes or policy violations, they also draft charges against officers or make disciplinary recommendations. But IAD does not have the ultimate authority to decide whether or how officers are disciplined: Those decisions are made by a trial board composed of high-ranking officers. MPD leadership also has a say in disciplinary decisions.

The suit says that in 2018, the department was led by a Black woman, Assistant Chief Kimberly Missouri, and had 13 Black agents, including nine Black women. But, according to the suit, after Assistant Chief Wilfredo Manlapaz took over the internal affairs department that year, “most of the seasoned and experienced Black women agents were moved out by Chief Manlapaz, either by termination, targeted harassment and retaliation, or due to being overworked and pressured for results which forced them to quit.”

By 2021, the suit says, IAD had only two Black women agents on the team. The suit also alleges that every single Black woman IAD agent who left the department since 2018 was replaced by a white agent.

Carson, one of the plaintiffs, says she saw racial bias play out in the disciplinary process. According to the suit, Carson was investigating the case of a white male officer who was found on body-worn camera “arresting a young [B]lack man under false pretenses, grabbing the young man by the throat, and later repeatedly lying” about the incident. While preparing for the disciplinary review board that would determine the officer’s discipline, Carson was fired, the suit says. Then, the suit alleges, senior MPD leadership canceled the trial board and allowed the officers to return to his duties.

“The intercession was highly irregular for such serious charges of misconduct, and Plaintiff Carson asserts that it was racially motivated,” the suit says.

The suit says Carson’s firing happened about a month after she filed an internal complaint alleging discrimination based on her race, gender, and age (according to the suit, Carson is over the age of 40). The complaint also alleged that her supervisor used her performance review to retaliate against her for using FMLA leave to care for her child, who had been previously diagnosed with leukemia and had other special needs.

The lawsuit also alleges that MPD’s process for handling discrimination complaints is biased against Black women, and that Alphonso Lee, the Director of MPD’s Equal Employment Opportunity office, “has maintained a system that intentionally discredits Black women complainants, effectuates a pattern and practice of retaliation, and bullies his subordinates into disavowing any and all claims of discrimination filed by Black women officers.”

Burton, one of the plaintiffs, alleges that fellow agents in the department began to retaliate against her in 2019, immediately after she emailed Lee to report a “racist and disparaging comment” an agent had made about Black men.

Over the next several months, the suit alleges, Burton had her duties stripped from her, had her work vehicle taken away, and was denied training opportunities because she emailed Lee about the racist comment.

According to the suit, after Burton filed another complaint about a T-shirt white agents passed around with a “racist and offensive political message on the front of it,” she was pushed out of IAD and forced to accept a transfer to another department within MPD.

And the suit alleges that government officials have been made aware of discrimination problems in both the IAD and the EEO office but have not taken meaningful action in response. The plaintiffs claim that they believe Black women police officers have filed at least eight complaints against Manlapaz since 2017, and they say that officials are also aware of concerns about Lee.

“It’s not like the higher officials don’t know what’s going on,” Carson said at Wednesday’s town hall. “They just don’t care.”

Carson and Burton are not the only Black women to allege racial and gender discrimination in MPD and other local police departments.

Women with the D.C. Housing Authority’s police department have also faced harassment and discrimination while on the job, according to reporting from the Washington City Paper.

And a group of 10 Black women in the department filed a class action lawsuit against MPD in September alleging racial discrimination, sexual harassment, an a “systemic pattern” of bullying and retaliation. They are represented by the same attorneys as Carson and Burton.

“We’re just going to keep suing the MPD until they decide to take this seriously,” their attorney Pamela Keith told DCist/WAMU.  

This story was updated with comment from attorney Pamela Keith.