POLICING THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
DC is an occupied police state. With more than 32 independent police departments, 5 local agencies, and 8 university police departments the 678,972 residents of the District live in the most heavily policed city in the country. In fact, DC has the highest number of police per capita among cities that have a population of 250,000 people or more. To clarify, D.C. has nearly 547 officers per 100,000 people.
In the fight for Black lives, one of the many rebuffs we receive when demanding an end to police violence and terror is that “not all cops are bad cops.” This assertion is almost always coupled with examples of law enforcement officials who step outside of their assigned duties to "help" Black people and champions the belief that we can change systems by changing the individuals who work within this system, but not the system.
The DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) invests in militarization and uses what it learns from other police states like Isreal on Black, brown and indigenous people in DC.
We’ve seen time and again that doesn’t work. We do not believe in reforming, re-imaginging or “fixing” policing. Policing and the system under which police work exists is bound to the enslavement, degradation, and murder of Black people and was never meant to protect us, but instead to exploit our bodies and labor to fill prisons and bolster capitalism. No amount of feel-good videos can deny that truth -- no dancing, ice cream peddling, dance videos, BBQ eating COPAGANDA can change that.
Police Chief Robert Contee
As reported in “Highlights of the Racial Disparities in Stops by the Metropolitan Police Department: ACLU DC 2020 Data Update” from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020, the DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) made 80,698 stops and of those stops::
Only 1.22% of all stops in the five-month of data lead to the seizure of a weapon of any kind.
With respect to guns, stops leading to the seizure of a weapon of any kind only 1.0% of all stops and 2.2% of all non-traffic stops led to the recovery of a firearm in 2020.
The data confirms that policing has not, is not, and cannot stop the bloodshed.
Our fight has always been and will remain a fight against the institution of policing. We are clear that the race, origin story, lived experience, and birthplace of any person occupying the position of Police Chief will never “fix” policing, and that reform doesn’t work. There have been Black police chiefs and commissioners, as well as Black Mayors, for years in cities all over the nation, and nothing has changed. This is bigger than one person. Black people make up 46% of DC’s population, and MPD is already 60% Black
A prime example of policing in DC is the Investigative Services Bureau, which houses the Narcotics and Special Investigations Division (NSID) and Jumpouts. We have long fought against this unit’s illegal jumpout tactics, targeted harassment, exclusive use of force on Black people, and ties to white supremacy. Despite saying MPD’s Gun Recovery Unit should be looked at, the city continues to condone their actions despite their failure to reduce homicides, as demonstrated by MPD’s own data.
“DC is an occupied police state. With more than 32 independent police departments, DC is the most heavily policed city in the country. “”