(NewsNation) — The Metropolitan District of Columbia Police Department’s gang database has numerous inaccuracies and is an “ineffective” way to address crime in the nation’s capital, according to a new report that describes it as a “racially discriminatory surveillance system.”
“Membership in the DC Gang Database is a better proxy for race and zip code than for criminality,” authors of the report said in a news release Tuesday.
Organizations that authored the report, led by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, include the Chicago Justice Project, Black Swan Academy, Civil Rights Corps and National Immigration Project.
Over 13,000 emails obtained through litigation and Freedom of Information Act requests were used to create the report.
D.C. police have been using a secret Gang Tracking and Analysis System, known as the D.C. Gang Database, since 2009.
There are 1,951 individuals named as “gang members” or “gang associates” in the database, but the report says it “frequently includes people for whom there is no particularized suspicion of criminal activity.”
Nearly 75% of individuals named were only “observed associating with gang members” or being “observed attending gang meetings.” A majority of the “gangs” identified by the D.C. database are named after street corners or apartment complexes that do not necessarily have an affiliation with existing organizations.
As of Oct. 19, 2022, data from the report showed that 83% of those in the database were Black and 12% were Latinx.
“The District’s gang database is stop and frisk policing with a twist that swallows entire families and neighborhoods,” Carlos Andino, associate counsel at the Washington Lawyers’ Committee, said in a statement. “In certain predominantly Black or Brown communities, you or I could be included in the gang database because we are friends with someone deemed a gang member or your cousin is in the system. Once you’ve been labeled a ‘gang associate,’ in your next interaction with law enforcement, there’s a pretext to stop or chase you down.”
D.C. code states that the definition of a gang is a group of six or more people who are actively involved in violent crimes or who need to commit such crimes for membership. Report authors found neither of these is required to be included in the gang database, though. In fact, 28% of the gangs tracked have five or fewer people, and around 10% have only one.
The report said the Metropolitan Police Department also does not review the database for faulty designations, and those listed are not routinely notified.
Just being in the database can have hefty consequences for someone, whether or not law enforcement has information that they’ve been involved in a crime. It provides probable cause to conduct a stop, the report said, and youth on the list have faced placement outside of the home, pretrial detention and school expulsion even if they aren’t convicted of a crime.
A D.C. police spokesperson said because of “pending litigation matters,” they were not able to answer specific questions sent by NewsNation. The spokesperson did not provide details about what they were referring to, but The Washington Post reports that the Washington Lawyers’ Committee is litigating with police over other public records requests.
In a statement, though, Chief Pamela Smith defended the database, saying, “Maintaining an awareness of the affiliations of the people likely to be involved in violence — either as perpetrators or victims — is a critical part of reducing crime in our city.
“Arguments, beefs, and retaliation drive homicides and shootings in the District of Columbia. The Metropolitan Police Department maintains a criminal high-risk database as an investigative tool. The identification of high-risk members, and the validation of specific individuals as high-risk members, are pivotal to supporting the criminal justice ecosystem and safeguarding our communities.”
Findings of the latest report mirror articles published by other news outlets such as The Intercept, which reported in June 2021 on documents that showed the database is “riddled with errors, employs nebulous criteria, and is used to justify aggressive policing of Black communities.”
Now, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee and other report authors want to see legislation dismantling the gang database and mandating that D.C. agencies delete data originating from it in their possession.
“Gang databases provide a ready-made way to justify ongoing surveillance, harassment, and police abuse that are unlikely to elicit widespread public pushback because the people involved are labeled “known gang members,” the study said.