March 21, 2023
Since fall 2020, Georgetown Law’s Center for Innovations in Community Safety, Howard University, The Lab @ DC, and the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) have partnered to engage with community members, members of law enforcement, and researchers to explore and document how jurisdictions can reimagine police stops. Today, we are distributing the three final products from this effort.
The impetus for this work came in July 2019, when DC’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) launched new data systems to allow for the collection of more granular data on police stops. In September 2019, MPD released its first report on this data accompanied by data files for public use. MPD highlighted disparities in police stops by race and called for further research to understand the role of racial discrimination in producing these disparities.
To achieve that goal, MPD and The Lab engaged Georgetown Law and Howard to explore how to best use the new data, but also how to more accurately weigh the costs and potential harms associated with police stops. These efforts kicked off with an ambitious seven-part workshop series hosted virtually by Georgetown Law, The Lab, and Howard. The workshop continued DC government’s commitment to ensuring that each police stop meets its high standards for fair and constitutional policing that demonstrates respect for the individual stopped.
The event was organized with the belief that gaining a more complete understanding of the experienced harms and benefits of police stops requires diverse perspectives. More than 130 community members, advocates, researchers, and police practitioners shared their expertise and experience. Over six days, participants described their assessments of the current state of police stops as well as how to reimagine this practice and its role in public safety.
The participants’ contributions provided the foundation for three resources for DC and other jurisdictions contending with similar challenges nationwide:
A White Paper produced by Georgetown Law, Howard, and The Lab @ DC, which summarizes nearly 24 hours of workshop content. It allows anyone working on this topic to draw on the expertise of community members, advocates, researchers, and police practitioners who participated in the workshop.
Policy Considerations for Reducing Harm produced by the Howard University School of Law and the Howard University Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center. Howard Law and the Center sought to produce independent recommendations that would generate both measurable and lasting change in the potential for stops to produce harm by highlighting the voices and views of the communities most impacted by policing and police stops. The document also includes an independent assessment by The Lab @ DC of the evidence base for each recommendation.
Sample Learning Agendas and a Measurement Guide produced by The Lab @ DC. This document summarizes the existing research on police stops and pushes for a solutions-oriented approach to research on police stops. The document offers guidance on measuring racial bias in police stops, examining the broader harms and benefits of stops, and assessing promising opportunities for change.
We thank Georgetown Law and Howard for their work–specifically, Christy E. Lopez, Dr. Bahiyyah Muhammad and Justin Hansford–as well as the more than 100 residents, researchers, and practitioners who contributed their time to the workshop series and the final documents.[1] These efforts will inform and support MPD’s mission to protect and serve the District of Columbia in a fair, accountable, and effective manner that upholds DC’s motto–Justitia Omnibus–Justice for All.
If you would like to participate in future efforts to increase racial equity in DC, we encourage you to engage with DC’s first Racial Equity Action Plan produced by the Office of Racial Equity. The draft plan includes a metric related to disparities in police stops and provides a three-year roadmap, updated annually, outlining actions that District government will take to close racial equity gaps and measure progress towards a more racially equitable DC.
[1] A full list of named participants can be found on page 1 of the White Paper.