Targeted, Labeled, Criminalized: Early Findings on the District of Columbia’s Gang Database
Report on DC Gang Database
On January 16, 2024, a coalition of civil rights advocate organizations led by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs released a report, entitled “Targeted, Labeled, Criminalized: Early Findings on the District of Columbia’s Gang Database.” The other organizations that authored the report are the Chicago Justice Project, Black Swan Academy, Civil Rights Corps, and National Immigration Project. The report was further contributed by the Public Defender Service for DC and Upturn.
Membership in the DC Gang Database is a better proxy for race and zip code than for criminality, according to this research. The report describes the secret Gang Tracking and Analysis System, the official name for the DC Gang Database, as a racially discriminatory surveillance system without real procedural safeguards to protect the civil liberties of DC Black and Brown residents. Further, the database proves to be an ineffective tool to address crime, as records demonstrate numerous inaccuracies. The list of 1,951 individuals deemed “gang members” or “gang associates,” frequently includes people for whom there is no particularized suspicion of criminal activity. As of October 19, 2022, 83 percent (1,619) of those in the database were Black, 12 percent (288) were Latinx, and .05 percent (one) was White. Underscoring the arbitrariness of the surveillance, the database contains a one-year-old baby.
Read report here.
Read news release here.
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To download the records and sources, including over 13,000 emails, relied upon in this report, please click here.