NBC4: Bill Would Increase Transparency, Oversight of Policing in DC Schools
NBC4’s Cory Smith covered our recent testimony on the School Police Incident Oversight and Accountability Amendment Act of 2021, a bill aimed at providing more transparency, oversight and accountability when students interact with law enforcement in school.
Some D.C. Council members are calling for more transparency and oversight when students encounter law enforcement in schools.
“The presence of police in schools has a disproportionately negative impact on Black and brown students and students with disabilities,” Children’s Law Center policy attorney Danielle Robinette said. The bill would require schools to keep additional data on school-based disciplinary actions involving law enforcement. It would force the Metropolitan Police Department to keep records of school-involved arrests by race, gender, age and disability and make data related to school involved incidents publicly available.
“Transparency does not on its own ensure accountability,” Robinette said.
Robinette, a former public school teacher, supports the bill but says the data paints an incomplete picture.
“The data collected under this bill will not encompass the full range of concerns that students have regarding misconduct or harassment by law enforcement in their schools,” she said. “The data required by this bill will reflect the perspectives of schools and MPD, but not those of students.”