Ten current and former Black female D.C. police officers filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the District, alleging its police department has engaged in “repeated, coordinated and relentless retaliation” against Black female officers who have complained about discrimination or other police misconduct.
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The lawsuit, filed in federal court in the District, accuses D.C. police of cultivating a culture that degrades women and turning on those who have tried to raise alarm about race and gender discrimination and sexual harassment.
The women contend the problems have plagued the department for more than two decades under at least three police chiefs. Attorneys are seeking a class-action status that would include more than 700 current and former Black female D.C. police officers who served from Jan. 1, 2011, to present day.
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“The days of ignoring and disbelieving women who come forward when they are mistreated are over,” said Pam Keith, an attorney with Donald Temple Law in Washington who is representing the women. “No one should have to endure relentless denigration, just to be able to go to work.”
The suit asks for a court-appointed official to overhaul the department’s personnel division and a $100 million fund to compensate officers who have been harmed over the past decade.
A spokesman from the D.C. police responded to the lawsuit in a statement Wednesday, declining to discuss specific allegations but affirming the department’s commitment to treating all members equitably.
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“We take these allegations seriously and we will be reviewing them thoroughly and responding accordingly,” D.C. police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck said in the statement.
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At the center of the complaint is the D.C. police department’s Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) division, which is supposed to investigate and address internal complaints of unfair or discriminatory treatment. Plaintiffs said it instead recorded their interviews and then wielded those tapes against them to undermine their credibility and label them as “troublemakers.” In some cases, the suit says, female officers who made accusations were themselves put under investigation.
The suit named the office’s director, Alphonso Lee, as responsible for perpetuating a “hostile and toxic” environment and alleges he prevented claims of race or gender discrimination from being substantiated. An employee who worked directly under Lee submitted a 12-page affidavit that described the director’s behavior as “disturbing,” retaliatory and with “inappropriate bias.”
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Lee declined requests to comment and directed press inquiries to the police department.
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The plaintiffs in the suit include current and former officers who, with the exception of one officer, have served with D.C. police for more than 15 years. Among them is Chanel Dickerson, a current assistant chief and one of the most senior Black female officers to serve in the department.
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In the complaint, Dickerson laid out what she described as decades of mistreatment as an employee of D.C. police. She highlighted multiple instances of alleged sexual harassment that she says were ignored by her superiors — including one from 2008, when she reported that a male employee from the D.C. government’s Department of General Services knowingly walked in on her while she showered in a female locker room. The suit says she was put under investigation for instigating the complaint.
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Dickerson also said in court filings that she raised concerns about the mistreatment of Black female officers as recently as February of this year, but they fell on deaf ears and resulted in backlash.
“I leave all Black women with this,” she said at a news conference Wednesday. “Be careful when you have a seat at the table, because there will be some meetings where your seat is empty.”
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Dickerson is among many plaintiffs who accused D.C. police of routinely giving women in management positions fewer resources and less desirable divisions and departments than others with the same title.
She also alleged that her upward trajectory in the department has been continually stalled by chiefs. Many plaintiffs accused the department of promoting Black women less than any other group.
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Women make up less than 23 percent of the D.C. police force and less than 22 percent of its command staff, according to data provided by the department.
The lawsuit describes a “male-dominated” culture in the department that plaintiffs say has degraded women for decades. It alleges that, in one instance in the 1990s, a lieutenant and a detective together told a Black female officer she needed to agree to intimate dates and sex acts to receive a promotion and better assignments. It also highlights multiple incidents decades later, such as one where the lawsuit says a White male sergeant urinated into a bottle while riding in a police vehicle with a Black female officer. The Black female officer was retaliated against for making “a big deal” of the incident, while the White man was promoted shortly thereafter, the lawsuit alleges.
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The lawsuit also said that the office of D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, the D.C. Council and the D.C. attorney general’s office, among others, have received multiple complaints against Lee and the EEO but have not taken “any meaningful action” in response. At the news conference Wednesday, attorneys for the plaintiffs urged city government to take this lawsuit as an opportunity to resolve the injustices in its police department, not “grind these litigants into oblivion.”
D.C. police officer sues department claiming retaliation by superiors
Bowser (D) responded to a question about the lawsuit at a separate news conference Wednesday, saying that she will “investigate any issues that we deem need to be investigated and take appropriate actions.” She also said she takes pride in running a government in which people advance based on the merit of their performance alone, and she “won’t tolerate anything less.”
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D.C. Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), who chairs the public safety committee, called the allegations “incredibly disturbing in describing both individual incidents and the workplace culture the women experienced.” He said he respected the officers for coming forward and would carefully review the court filings.
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Hiram Rosario, chief steward in the police union, spoke at the Wednesday news conference on behalf of the police union. He cast the allegations in the lawsuit as an “embarrassment” to the department and said they only scratch the surface of discrimination and other problems.
Some of the allegations echo those in a lawsuit filed in 2018 by a group of Black and Latino officers of both genders in neighboring Prince George’s County. The concerns of those officers — that they were being discriminated against in hiring, promotions and discipline because of their race — also started as internal complaints that were not addressed by police leadership.
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The county fought the suit for nearly three years, before finally settling with the plaintiffs this summer and agreeing to a host of reforms. The county paid the group of about a dozen officers a total of $2.3 million.
Katie Mettler and Peter Hermann contributed to this report.
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