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WASHINGTON — A new report from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of the District of Columbia exposes troubling racial disparities in the Metropolitan Police Department’s (MPD) stop-and-frisk practices. Entitled “Bias at the Core?: Enduring Racial Disparities in D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Stop-and-Frisk Practices,” the analysis scrutinizes data collected from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2023.
The ACLU’s findings are stark. Despite Black residents making up just 44% of D.C.’s population, they account for a staggering 70% of those stopped by MPD. The report, which draws from a total of 136,805 stops, suggests that the practice disproportionately targets Black people, raising significant concerns about racial bias within the police department.
This analysis, which follows two previous ACLU reports on similar issues, underscores a troubling trend. The first …