Press Release: Councilmember McDuffie Calls on MPD to Release Stop-and-Frisk Data Mandated by 2016 NEAR Act

News Release — Ward 5 DC Council member Kenyan McDuffie

This call comes after a second ACLU lawsuit alleges MPD failed to release critically important policing data since March of 2020, despite the NEAR Act requiring data be released twice per year

For Release: Tuesday, February 16th, 2021

Contact: Jonathan McNair

Washington, DC – Today, Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie renewed his call for the Metropolitan Police Department to release certain policing data as statutorily required. The Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results (NEAR) Act, authored by Councilmember McDuffie and passed unanimously by the Council in 2016, requires MPD to publicly release comprehensive stop-and-frisk data twice per year. This call for transparency and accountability comes amid recent national and local calls for racial justice and policing reforms.

“At a time when police practices have come under deservedly higher scrutiny, I find it disturbing that the MPD is, yet again, being sued over claims that it failed to release data that it is required to provide by law, said Councilmember McDuffie. “District residents deserve to know how the MPD is policing all communities—especially communities of color. Publication of stop-and-frisk data is not only required by the NEAR Act, it is essential to increasing transparency and building trust between the police and the community. The MPD must immediately release this data.”

This call for transparency comes as the ACLU-DC filed suit today, once again requiring MPD to comply with the NEAR Act data provisions. In 2018, the ACLU-DC and Black Lives Matter DC filed and later won lawsuits that forced MPD to release the first rounds of data. However, the lawsuit claims that the MPD has not published any new metrics since last March.

###