Councilmember Robert member Charles Allen
Attia. Aa ol
Councilmember ary M. Cheh
SS Orme
Councilmember Vincent C. G{ Councilmember David G)
Buren lk Nake
Councilmember inne K. Nadeau
A PROPOSED RESOLUTION
IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
27
28 To declare the sense of the Council in support of enhanced Metro Transit Police Department
29 oversight by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, including through the
30 creationofan independent civilian complaint review body.
31
32 RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this
33 resolution may be cited as the Senseof the Council in Support of Enhanced Metro Transit Police
34 Department Oversight Resolution of 2020.
35
36 Sec. 2. The Council finds that:
37 (1) The Metro Transit Police Department (MTPD) of the Washington
38 Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) was created by Congress in 1976 with
39 responsibility for a variety of law enforcement and public safety functions in transit facilities
40 throughout the Washington Metropolitan Area.
41 (2) MTPD - with its more than 500 police officers is the only tri-jurisdictional
42 police department in the United States, and is overseen by the WMATA BoardofDirectors.
43 (3) MTPD officers authority extends to all transit facilities owned, controlled, or
44 operated by WMATA, and MTPD is responsible for policing and assisting millions of residents
45 and visitors in the region annually.
46 (4) MTPD has the exclusive authority to police conduct on the Metro system, and
47 may, when necessary, use force.
48 (5) Law enforcement officers should act as guardians, building legitimacy through
49 interactions with the community that display respect, fairness, cultural humility, and transparency.
50 (6) The hallmarksof a strong law enforcement agency include robust standard
51 operating procedures and both internal and independent oversight mechanisms that ensure officers
52 represent the agency and profession well at all times.
33 (7) MTPD officers and other WMATA personnel regularly interact with young
34 people particularly in the District, where many students rely on the Metro system for safe passage
55 to and from school.
56 (8) Law enforcement agencies across the country including in the District are
37 reevaluating their policies, procedures, and practices regarding interactions with young people to
58 ensure that they are developmentally appropriate, maintain strict limits on the use of force, are
59 centered around de-escalation and reducing young peoples contact with the juvenile justice
60 system, and are developed in consultation with subject matter experts.
61 (9) Although the Council does not have direct oversight of WMATA or MTPD,
62 Council Committees have held public oversight hearings to discuss the MTPDs policing of
63 residents of color, including young people.
64 (10) In several recent incidents, MTPD officers have used force against riders, with
65 at least one incident leading to public outcry when officers used force against and arrested a
66 teenage African American boy.
67 (11) It was also revealed that some MTPD officers had created and were
68 participating in a game in which officers were rewarded for making arrests and issuing citations.
69 (12) Although two Council Committee Chairs sent MTPD a formal request for
70 more information about the game, no written response has been provided to date.
7 (13) Several WMATA Board members have expressed concerns about the game,
n but MTPDs responses to the publics concerns have been dismissive, opaque, and
B decontextualized from the harmful effects even an isolated incident could have on current and
14 prospective riders.
75 (14) Although WMATA Board members may investigate circumstances
76 surrounding the game further, the larger process for investigating complaints regarding MTPD
77 officers conduct is not transparent, public facing, systematized, or independent.
B Sec. 3. It is the sense of the Council that:
79 (1) MTPD officers strive daily to maintain a safe Metro system for all riders, often
80 in challenging and unpredictable situations;
81 (2) Law enforcement agencies are stronger and safer when they acknowledge and
82 seek to improve relationships between police and communities of color, and this process requires
83 an understandingofthe historical use of policing to inflict violence and support systemsofpower;
84 (3) Alll law enforcement agencies must continually and intentionally reevaluate
85 their policing practices regarding the use of force and interactions with young people and riders of
86 color;
87 (4) Contact with the juvenile or criminal justice system either through the use of
88 force, the issuanceof a citation, or an arrest profoundly affects riders, their families, and their
89 communities, harms police community relations, makes officers less safe, and is not a game to
90 be trivialized;
91 (5) Every arrest must be constitutionally sound and used asalast resort to protect
92 the arrestee or others from immediate harm, and the use of any quota system or game to make
93 arrests runs counter to these foundational principles;
94 (6) The use of this game to incentivize arrests, especially after a number of
95 controversial uses of force by MTPD, has resulted in distrust in MTPD within the community it
96 serves;
97 (7) WMATAs Board of Directors must investigate recent incidents, but more
98 broadly, must wholly reevaluate the agencys oversight structure for MTPD;
99 (8) WMATA should regularly publish data, broken downbyjurisdiction, regarding
100 uses of force, stops, and arrests; and
101 (9) WMATA should create an independent, external, civilian complaint review
102 body composed of representatives from the three jurisdictions who have no affiliation with any
103 law enforcement agency; in the interim, complaints about officers conduct in the District should
104 be reviewed by the Districts Office of Police Complaints.
105 Sec. 4, The Council shall transmit a copy of this resolution, upon its adoption, to each
106 memberof the WMATA Board of Directors and theChief of the MTPD.
107 Sec. 5. This resolution shall take effect immediately upon the first date of publication in
108 the District of Columbia Register.