qualified immunity Qualified immunity emboldens police violence and impedes accountability. 6 Minute Read Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine that can limit a person's ability to sue public employees, such as police officers, for constitutional rights violations. An officer can receive qualified immunity only if a court decides...
Car chases A high-speed police chase needlessly puts DC residents at risk. 6 Minute Read Car chases – high-speed police pursuits of an individual – are deadly actions. At least 3,336 people died in police car chases in the U.S. between 2017 and 2022, including at least...
body searches Invasive body searches strip people of their dignity, privacy, and cause trauma. 3 Minute Read While Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) policy limits invasive searches, lawsuits have shown that some officers violate these policies. These painful and humiliating invasive searches cause unnecessary harm, can cause long-lasting...
repeat arrests Reducing repeat arrests by expanding treatment would increase safety and reduce harm. 5 Minute Read There are a small number of individuals who are frequently re-arrested and jailed, sometimes from the same locations. They end up going through the criminal legal system over and over without...
special and campus police Cosmetologists have more specialized training than armed special police officers in DC. 5 Minute Read Along with more than 3,000 Metropolitan Police Officers, there are 7,700 DC special police officers (SPOs) in DC who are privately-hired security guards assigned to guard stores, offices and...
Mandatory arrests Mandatory arrest laws deter some victims from reporting crimes. 4 Minute Read DC requires that the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) make at least one arrest when responding to a domestic violence call. Forcing officers to make an arrest can make situations more dangerous, deter people from...
Jump-outs Jump-outs are DC’s scarier version of stop and frisk. 5 Minute Read When plain-clothes officers appear quickly out of unmarked cars in the community, “jump out,” surround someone, demand that they lower their waistband and submit to a search, it decreases safety and increases the chances the...
citation in lieu of arrest Unnecessary arrests make us less safe. 4 Minute Read When police issue a citation instead of arresting someone, we avoid exposing someone to the harmful consequences that an arrest carries, reduce the use of pretrial detention, and can quickly redeploy policing resources. A...
Consent searches Consent searches are never consensual when compliance is a survival tactic. 4 Minute Read Saying “no” to an officer when they ask for consent to conduct a search can involve serious risk of violence or legal consequences. DC has tried to increase protections for the community...
DC spends Dollars every year on the Metropolitan Police Department. $ 1000000000 + DC also has Federal law enforcement agencies operating in the city. 0 While substantial resources go into policing, public trust in their fairness and effectiveness has reached an all-time low. Most voters doubt police can treat Black and white individuals...