May 17, 2007

Police Complaints Board Recommends Next Steps to Address Biased Policing

(Washington, DC)  The Police Complaints Board (PCB), which oversees the Office of Police Complaints (OPC), today submitted a report and set of recommendations to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, the Council of the District of Columbia, and Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Chief Cathy L. Lanier proposing that the District of Columbia and MPD take immediate steps to combat the perception and practice of biased policing.

PCB recommends that MPD reestablish the Biased Policing Task Force, which was created as part of a 2001 initiative to address biased policing concerns in the city.  MPD disbanded the task force in December 2006 after the Department also ordered an end to the collection of traffic and pedestrian stop data earlier that month.

MPD’s actions, taken without the input of the task force, coincided with the Department’s release of a study it commissioned, entitled “Data Collection and Benchmarking of the Biased Policing Project:  Final Report for the Metropolitan Police Department in the District of Columbia.”  The study, authored by Dr. John C. Lamberth, offered a mixed assessment of whether racial and ethnic profiling by the police occurs in Washington, DC. 

A consultant hired by OPC, Dr. Lorie Fridell, produced a report commenting on the MPD study. 

In addition to calling for the reestablishment of the Biased Policing Task Force, PCB proposes that MPD, with the input of the task force, review the Department’s policies and practices in the areas of hiring, training, supervision, and outreach in order to combat the practice or perception of biased policing.  PCB also urges that the task force be charged with assessing MPD’s anti-biased policing policy and that consideration be given to further data collection and analysis.

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