A D.C. public defender has filed a federal lawsuit against the District saying that a whistleblower alleges the D.C. police maintain a “watchlist” of reporters, advocates and public officials whose records requests are flagged for “special review” because they might embarrass the department.
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Amy Phillips, a lawyer at the D.C. Public Defender Service who brought the suit Wednesday as an individual, alleged that people are put on the watch list when they “publicly criticize MPD [Metropolitan Police Department] or when they request information that has the potential to embarrass MPD or its officers.”
Those on the watch list who make Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests “face hurdles that the general public avoids,” such as fees or request denials, the suit said. The suit seeks an injunction stopping the alleged watch list policy and a declaration that the policy violates the Constitution.
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“Phillips is on the list because she requested information that had the potential to — and in fact did — embarrass MPD, and she intends to continue requesting potentially embarrassing information,” the suit said.
In an interview, Phillips said the police department’s failure to release information prevents families of victims of excessive police force from learning the truth and derails “the responsibility we have to hold our government accountable.”
“It’s obviously very troubling that our police department essentially has an enemies list,” she said. “They treat those people differently. They deny them a basic government service.”
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said Phillips learned of the watch list from Vendette Parker, a 21-year veteran of the department who retired in 2020.
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In a declaration filed with the suit, Parker said she was told then-D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham felt “blindsided as the media and others confronted him with questions regarding records they had obtained from FOIA; records he was unaware had been released.”
Parker was told to flag “any request coming from a person who has previously published a negative media article about Chief Newsham or MPD,” the declaration said, and send weekly emails to Newsham detailing all FOIA requests received.
Those whose requests were supposed to be flagged included a WUSA9 reporter, a Fox 5 reporter, two D.C. neighborhood advisory commissioners and Phillips, according to the declaration.
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Once FOIA materials were compiled, according to the declaration, Newsham had the chance to inspect them “to prepare in case any of the records being released would have a reputationally detrimental impact.”
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Parker estimated that D.C. police “delayed, denied, or improperly altered” about 20 requests because of the watch list policy, the lawsuit said. Parker did not alert the D.C. attorney general to the watch list policy because she “felt intimidated,” according to her declaration.
“I was demoted from commander to inspector after speaking up about a different incident and perceived that if I spoke up about the issues described in this statement that I would be retaliated against once more,” the declaration said.
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Parker referred questions to her attorney, who declined to comment. Newsham, now police chief for Prince William County, and the office of D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine declined to comment on the lawsuit. A spokesman for Prince William police said Newsham “does not comment on pending litigation involving MPD.”
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In an email, D.C. police spokesman Hugh Carew said the department hadn't been served with the suit and will not discuss pending litigation.
“We do acknowledge the serious nature of the claims,” Carew wrote in an email. “Transparency with our community partners is necessary to maintaining trust and agency accountability. A thorough review of the assertions will be completed and appropriately acted upon.”
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Phillips and others named in the suit sought records from D.C. police related to some of the most controversial issues in policing, including alleged brutality by officers and D.C.'s stop-and-frisk policy.
In 2019, for example, Phillips attended a hearing for a D.C. police officer who allegedly “conducted unnecessarily invasive genital searches,” the lawsuit said. When Phillips sought a transcript of the hearing she had attended, it was denied in less than 90 minutes, according to the suit.
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“That was wrong, and it was strange,” the suit said. “Usually, MPD takes weeks or months to provide any substantive response.”
Other FOIA issues appeared related to politics. In another case discussed in the suit, a reporter sought police records after an employee of Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) was “involved in a drunken altercation after an office party in the Mayor’s office building” in 2018.
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Parker flagged this request, the suit said, and the mayor’s office was consulted. The reporter eventually received two copies of the records — a copy redacted by the D.C. police FOIA office and an unredacted copy directly from the police district.
Bowser said Thursday that she hasn’t read the lawsuit, though she plans to, and declined to comment on its allegations specifically.
“All FOIA requests should be handled as expeditiously as possible. I expect that from every agency. I’ll be looking into that,” she said while visiting a day-care center in the Deanwood neighborhood. “The speed at which we respond to it should be agnostic to who’s asking for it.”
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Anthony Lorenzo Green, who represents the Deanwood area as an advisory neighborhood commissioner and was allegedly on the list, then addressed the mayor about the issue.
“Why are my First Amendment rights being violated here in the District of Columbia?” he asked. “I am a native. I am from this community. And I am very offended that anybody would put me on a watch list just because I ask questions about my community.”
In an interview, Denise Krepp, an advisory neighborhood commissioner for Hill East whose name allegedly appeared on the list, said the D.C. Council should act on the lawsuit’s allegations. She said she laughed when she received a bill for more than $5,300 from D.C. police after filing a records request.
“I’m a locally elected official,” Krepp, who did not pay the bill, said. “I asked for information, and they asked me to pay for it. … That’s why I’m on a blacklist? Because I’m doing oversight?”
Emily Davies contributed to this report.