D.C.’s Attorney General to survey ‘best practices’ for cops interacting with Black children
Several incidents in which police encounters with Black kids led to unnecessary detainments have prompted officials to look into how officers can best interact with them
After several high-profile incidents involving Black children, officers in Washington D.C.’s police force are looking for answers from other police departments on how their officers routinely interact with children while on their beats.
The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) announced it will survey “best practices” around the country and compare them to the Metropolitan Police Department’s policies. After which, the MPD will “recommend what changes, if any, should be made to the manner in which police officers are trained on the proper way to interact with children,” according to a press release sent out by the office.
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“This is an urgent priority for the Office of the Attorney General. In coordination with the Chief and the Mayor’s office, we are moving quickly to determine a timeline to assess MPD’s current practices and reach out to experts in the District and across the country,” an OAG spokesperson said in the press release, according to hyperlocal news website DCist.
The latest incident occurred last Tuesday, when Washington station WTTG ran a video that showed a police officer chasing a 9-year-old boy in circles and later grabbing and handcuffing the scared and distraught boy. But officers were seeking to detain him simply for reportedly leaning against a car. D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine said in the statement that the video is “obviously concerning,” reported DCist.
The boy’s mother, Autumn Drayton, told DCist that her son was not a threat to officers and shouldn’t have been manhandled as if he were.
“His use of force was unnecessary. My son was not a threat. He was not committing a crime. He was not harming anyone,” Drayton said in the interview.
MPD has not released the incident report, despite requests by reporters.
“Whenever you have an incident like this and it upsets the community, it upsets us,” Police Chief Peter Newsham told DCist, which has reported that the officer involved is under investigation. “We’ll take a close look at it and see if we can make some changes.”
But this isn’t the only questionable incident involving children.
In the Capitol Hill neighborhood last December, seven police officers stopped and frisked three young Black boys. And in February, MPD officers detained a group of Black children outside of the Petworth Metro station for almost an hour.
In March, officers were seen in a viral video handcuffing an innocent, 10-year-old boy after an armed robbery. The boy was later released to his mother. In MPD’s official policy, officers are required to notify the Youth and Family Services watch commander before arresting a child who is 12 years of age or younger. Ultimately the watch commander makes the decision as to whether to arrest the child.
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In that case, Racine put out a press release that exonerated the boy.
“He is totally innocent,” the release read, according to DCist. The release went on to state that the officers “acted in accordance with MPD policies and procedures.”
In the MPD survey, it remains unclear how long the review is expected to take and if the department will seek community involvement.
