“I was happy to hear that [the contest] was ended quickly,” White said. “But to be clear, the existence of the competition unfortunately only further undermines community trust in the Metro Transit Police.”
Metro board vice chairman Michael Goldman, who chairs the panel’s public safety committee, declined to comment, deferring to board chairman Paul C. Smedberg.
Smedberg said in a statement the board will consider a broad range of ideas and looks forward “to hearing from a broad range of stakeholders.”
“As Board Chair, I share the view that community trust is absolutely essential for any police department to be effective,” Smedberg said, adding that the board has full confidence in Metro Transit Police Chief Ronald A. Pavlik Jr. and police leadership. “We are also committed in ensuring that everyone reaches their destination safely and that people are made to feel welcome on their Metro system.”
The hearing was a regularly scheduled review of Metro’s overall performance, but it was dominated by discussion of Metro Transit Police.
Several former transit officers testified about a department culture where they felt pressured to make arrests and where complaints from black and Hispanic officers were ignored or resulted in retaliation, including demotions, poor assignments and firings.
“There are officers who are put under investigation, under increased scrutiny, they are given undesirable assignments, they are transferred,” said Tiffany Washington, who worked for the department for 18 years before, she said, she was fired last April for medical reasons. “Numerous types of retaliation.”
A former assistant chief said officers had arrest “quotas” they were expected to meet each quarter.
Pavlik told council members that the officers lied in their testimony and said the department has worked to improve community relations, including partnering with schools. He noted that the department receives fewer than 100 citizen complaints a year.
“I wish they had taken an oath like I did today,” Pavlik said of the former officers who testified. “Some of what they said wasn’t truthful.”
The Washington Post reported last week that Metro Transit Police in one district held a contest last summer that awarded officers points for arrests and other enforcement actions. Metro said the contest was unsanctioned and limited to about 50 officers who worked the day shift in Fort Totten in District 1.
Officials said the competition was ended as soon as superiors found out about it. Pavlik said he learned of the contest from an officer who was concerned it would reinforce perceptions of targeted enforcement.
Pavlik said the contest was created by a lieutenant in charge of the day shift who was trying to motivate her officers.
Testifying Wednesday, Metro General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld called the contest “unacceptable.”
“It was not sanctioned by us at all,” Wiedefeld said.
Pavlik has said the department does not use arrest quotas. However, former assistant chief Rodney Parks told council members Wednesday that judging officers chiefly on arrests and tickets was a long-standing practice when reviewing performance.
“Why does it still exist after so many years and so many police chiefs?” asked Parks, who said he was fired after 11 months for what Metro Transit Police said was his performance and what he said was his refusal to endorse department procedures. He told the council he had come to the department from D.C. police where he had retired as an assistant chief.
Both Parks and Washington are contesting their firings. Metro said it could not discuss the nature of the dismissals as the transit authority does not comment on individual personnel matters.
Metro has acknowledged that it requires officers to meet performance standards that include a minimum number of arrests annually but said that it’s so low — six for day-shift officers, for instance — that it does not drive officers’ decisions.
Pavlik told the council that he is studying whether enforcement actions weigh too heavily in evaluating officers’ performance, but he stressed that they are also judged on positive interactions, such as attending community events.
He gave council members a rundown of the summer contest, saying once he learned of it, he ordered an investigation that took four days. He said he viewed the incident as isolated and left follow-up to commanders in District 1 to handle. He did not discipline the lieutenant who created the contest, nor did he order training because of it.
Because the contest was limited to one section in a district, Pavlik said, he didn’t feel the need to send departmentwide notices until news reports of the contest broke last week. Then, he said, he sent out a departmentwide message with a hyperlink to The Washington Post story and warned officers not to engage in any such competition.
Pavlik said his message was, “This is not what we should do and that we should focus on our jobs.”
He said he saw no need to drop charges made during the contest period or rescind tickets or citations issued because he compared enforcement statistics to previous years and the contest didn’t result in spikes. District 1 day-shift officers arrested 24 adults and two juveniles and issued 681 tickets and 65 citations during the contest period, according to Metro.
Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) said the police department’s response to residents’ concerns about the “game” have been “dismissive, opaque, and decontextualized from the harmful effects even an isolated incident could have on current and prospective riders.”
Said Allen: “Contact with the juvenile or criminal justice system — either through the use of force, the issuance of a citation, or an arrest — profoundly affects riders, their families, and their communities, harms police-community relations, makes officers less safe, and is not a ‘game’ to be trivialized.
“[Metro’s] board of directors must investigate recent incidents, but more broadly, must wholly reevaluate the agency’s oversight structure for [transit police].”
Allen said he also supports the creation of an independent, external, civilian complaint review panel, which he said should be made of representatives from Maryland, Virginia and the District who have no affiliation with law enforcement. He said Metro should regularly publish data, broken down by jurisdiction, of incidents involving force, police stops and arrests.
Until then, he said, complaints about officers’ conduct in the District should be reviewed by the District’s Office of Police Complaints.
White said he intends to introduce a resolution seeking the full council’s backing for a civilian review board. He said his office has had “fruitful conversations” with Pavlik and Metro board members about the proposal.
Ultimately, however, it will be Metro’s call. A Metro spokesman said Wiedefeld deferred comment to Smedberg because it’s a policy matter.
“I hope that I will have the partnership of [Metro’s] Board and management team in making [police] data transparency and civilian review of complaints a priority this year,” White said.
White noted that allegations of the contest were first brought to him after a council hearing last year and that a letter he sent Pavlik questioning him about its authenticity went unreturned.
Requests to meet with Pavlik to discuss allegations of abuse from D.C. residents have also gone unreturned, perpetuating a perception that transit police ignore serious concerns from communities of color, said Nia 2X, the D.C. branch president of the National Action Network, a civil rights organization founded by the Rev. Al Sharpton.
“Nothing has occurred,” she said. “I’ve reached out to him in numerous phone calls and a letter that wasn’t returned. We are talking about abuse of authority.”
Pavlik was not asked to respond to claims that the department wasn’t responsive, but he did say his lack of response to council members was an error on his part.
The police department has been taking steps to ensure its internal investigations are impartial, even hiring non-law-enforcement supervisors for the first time, Pavlik said.
He denied that promotions or assignments were used to punish officers for speaking out, saying the department relies on an external company for most promotions.
While he indicated an openness to the idea of a review panel, he said the union contract also limits how officers can be disciplined. He said he has thought of bringing in independent representatives from all three jurisdictions to review his agency’s internal affairs department and procedures to ensure investigations are fair.
Allen said he would like to help bring all the parties together to discuss oversight.
Following the hearing, White said the department needs work to help move it into an era where residents demand more transparency from law enforcement.
“It’s time for them to jump into 2020,” he said.