Metropolitan Police Department

The governing board of the Office of Police Complaints (OPC), also known as The Police Complaints Board (PCB), released a report on July 16th 2009 giving Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Chief Cathy L. Lanier a set of recommendations on why and how MPD needs to serve more efficiently the Limited English Proficient (LEP) population of the D.C. area.
They stressed the importance of clear communication during police encounters with LEP individuals, especially considering that police encounters may lead to physical injury and/or loss of liberty. Although MPD has taken several steps to ensure that they are able to provide the essential services to the LEP population, there have still been complaints about the police treating LEP individuals unfairly. With this in mind the PCB stated “MPD has a heightened duty to ensure that its officers view language access as fundamental to justice and understand that providing Language assistance is a mandatory legal obligation, not a discretionary act of good customer service”. MPD has taken many initiatives to improve the quality of services provided to LEP individuals, but they also recognize that there is a lot more work to be done.

Report and Recommendations of the Police Complaints Board

Metropolitan Police Department