Riders call for more oversight of the Metro Transit Police at a DC Council hearing
Metro police need more oversight and transparency—that’s the message that continued to bubble up over four hours of testimony at the DC Council’s joint roundtable on Tuesday, November 12. A small but vocal group of residents, advocates, and attorneys testified about how the Metro Transit Police Department’s practices impact people of color, while police testimony largely revolved around fare evasion.
At-Large Councilmember Robert White and Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen led the roundtable as heads of the Committee on Facilities and Procurement and the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, respectively.
“The topic of today’s hearing lies at the intersection of two topics that are incredibly important to me and District residents: public safety and transit equity,” Allen said in his opening statement. “MTPD’s connection to public safety is an obvious one; as a police department, much of MTPD’s operations are dedicated to the prevention, detection, and response to crime. And while the bread-of-butter of MTPD’s operations are focused on public safety, the MTPD also plays a significant and related role in transit equity.”
Allen also pointed out that while the main focus is about Metro’s policing policies, fare evasion also comes into play.
“This is not a hearing about fare evasion decriminalization. It’s a hearing around policing practices and communities of color on our public transportation system,” Allen said. “But when the Washington Lawyers’ Committee finds that 9 in 10 individuals cited for fare evasion by MTPD were Black, it is clear to me that alleged fare evasion is the main way Metro Transit Police and riders interact, and integrally, must be part of the discussion.”
The violent arrests that sparked the meeting
There have been a slew of incidents, some videotaped, of Metro Transit Police arresting riders in such a violent fashion that they were injured. One involved Diamond Rust, a then-21-year-old woman Metro police arrested for fare evasion in February 2018. According to her lawsuit, she suffered broken front teeth and a fractured knee. In another case from this past June, Tapiwa Musonza, 28, was tased at the U Street Metro station when he tried to intercede on behalf of a 13-year-old child in handcuffs.
What followed was a raw testimony from people of color about painful interactions with Metro Transit Police Department, and possible ways forward.
Che’mere Jones, a DC resident and a witness at the hearing this week, was also the person who captured a video of the altercation between Musonza and police. Jones told me she felt trepidation for speaking out at the hearing.
“Initially I was hesitant about it,” Jones said. “I mean, we can see that when black people go up against the police or against the system, it doesn’t always end well for the victims or for the witnesses.”
And what is Jones hoping will come out of the meetings? “Oh, effective change, complete and effective change,” Jones said. “Not six months from now, not nine months from now.”
“What can we do in 30 days? What can we do in 90 days? I want to see rookie cops in the communities for a year before you’re allowed out on the streets. I want to see you engage with the churches and with the communities, with your community centers, with the children.”
What’s standing in the way of change?
One of the roadblocks on the way to transparency between the MTPD and the public is the WMATA compact, which is a legal document which offers very robust protections for Metro police. One of the key complaints about the WMATA compact from critics is that while an individual officer could be sued, neither Metro transit nor WMATA can be.
“These episodes of police violence continue happening against passengers, and the state of the law right now is that none of them can sue WMATA as an entity,” said Yaida Ford, the attorney who represents both Rust and Musonza. “So WMATA will never be held accountable to the victims of their police officers for the injuries that they inflict on people. So that law needs to change.”
Emily Gunston from the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs told councilmembers how trust can be built between MTPD and the public.
“A civilian oversight board of some kind is important,” Gunston said. “That can take many forms as you look at different police departments around the country. But it could be included in the compact. And Maryland and DC and Virginia can work together, to have something like that put in the compact.”
Gunston also said there are other efforts Metro can take to build trust and establish transparency. “Just public access to information goes a very long way in terms of oversight that the public has access to data, to its policies, to information about practices and its training,” Gunston added. “The other thing I’ve noticed, the department can waive immunity in the compact.”
Fare evasion was a big part of the conversation
Also providing testimony was MTPD Chief Ronald A. Pavlik Jr., who opened with “I appreciate the opportunity to provide the community an overview of MTPD’s training, community relations, and youth initiatives.” He was flanked by Maurice McKinney, Youth Liason for the department, as well as Assistant Chief Mike Anzalo.
Pavlik went over the types of training officers receive—about 1,000 hours to become an officer as well as additional training after—and a new initiative for officers to receive training at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. The conversation turned more prickly when White and Allen questioned Pavlik about de-escalation practices and procedures for approaching someone officers suspect of fare evasion.
White brought up the Rust case and asked if, after the incident with Rust, there had been any new policies or procedures implemented. To which Pavlik answered, “to this specific incident, no.”
Allen asked Pavlik about a November 7 quarterly fare evasion update report which stated that WMATA was losing $40 million on fare evasion.
“Do you believe [the fare evasion report] to be correct?” Allen asked Pavlik.
“If anything, the numbers might be a little higher,” Pavlik responded.
Allen acknowledged that fare evasion was a problem, but took umbridge to idea that a rise in fare evasion and decriminaization were linked. He pointed out that Maryland saw a higher jump in fare evasion during this time, despite the fact that the state had not decriminalized fare evasion, and noted that the number of fare evasions in 2018 was higher than 2019, if you look at the third and fourth quarter year by year.
Allen also pointed out that some 15,000 students in DC, who by right can ride for free but do not have their Metro cards right now due to a city error, were included in the count for fare evasion—a point Gunston later tweeted about.
.@MetroTransitPD Chief Pavlik acknowledged that included in its fare evasion numbers are the rides of 15,000 DC students who have not received their Kids Ride Free cards. @charlesallen @RobertWhite_DC
— Emily Gunston (@EmilyGunston) November 12, 2019
“So this fallacy of trying to say that decriminalizing fare evasion has led to a spike in fare evasion is simply not correct,” Allen concluded, after a lengthy back and forth.
Councilmembers also asked Pavlik about data on use-of-force, contact and stop numbers, and other contextual crime data. Pavlik responded, “I don’t really have an answer for that, the subject has never come up before.”
What could happen now?
After the roundtable, White spoke of the importance of the meeting and about the crucial task of doing something with the information gleaned.
“The next steps are just as important as this hearing,” White said. “Going into the communities with Metro transit police [and] building that trust and building those relationships are important. I think looking at the idea of having a civil police complaints board for MTPD is important to look at and increasing public access to information on arrests, use of force, and everything else that the public deserves to know from agencies.”
Allen added, “I’m going to have a conversation with my co-chair, Robert White and talk about some different ideas here. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if there was some legislation that comes out of it.”
WMATA’s Riders’ Advisory Council is also looking for public input about this issue. We’ll continue to follow what happens.