D.C. police have until Sept. 9 to release a sample of stop-and-frisk data to determine if they are fully complying with the Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results (NEAR) Act.
A D.C. Superior Court judge ruled on Wednesday that the department will have to show data collected from police stops between July 22 and Aug. 18, as part of a lawsuit that was brought by Black Lives Matter D.C., the ACLU, and Stop Police Terror Project D.C.
The groups filed the lawsuit in May of 2018, claiming that the city and police department hadn’t fully implemented the NEAR Act, which was passed by the D.C. Council in 2016. The act requires that police collect more data — including the race of subjects stopped — during officer interactions like traffic stops and “stop-and-frisks.”
In court documents, the department said that the act had been fully implemented as of July 9, but the groups argued that it was impossible to know that without looking at the data that’s been collected. Attorneys for both sides agreed to the timeline, and judge signed off on the order.
After the data is released, the groups will have until Sept. 23 to review it and decide whether to proceed with the lawsuit.
A city website indicates that all 20 provisions of the law have been implemented.
