 Release the Bodycam Footage from Deanwood Mayor Bowser has pledged transparency and accountability from her administration. Tell her to live up to that pledge. | | | | | | If you forward, the links will open to a page with your personal information. | Dear Theodora, By now, you may have heard of a troubling stop-and-frisk incident that occurred outside a barbershop in the Deanwood community on June 13, and another incident at the same location on June 25 when Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers clashed with community members. Now, the MPD is denying our request for their officers' bodycam footage of what happened on these two occasions. Ask Mayor Bowser to live up to her pledges of transparency and release this footage immediately. On Wednesday, June 13, several D.C. police officers jumped out and confronted a group of young black men peacefully sitting outside a barber shop. Watch video of the incident. On Monday, June 25, a large group of officers returned to the scene and were involved in a confrontation with community members that resulted in several arrests and the pepper-spraying of a three-year-old girl. The D.C. police department's stop-and-frisk practices are an area of grave concern to us and our communities. Just last week, we filed a lawsuit against one MPD officer for another exceptionally abusive encounter with a D.C. resident. This month, as part of the ACLU-DC's investigation of the Deanwood incidents, we submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the MPD seeking the release of all body-worn camera and surveillance camera footage, but the MPD FOIA office denied our request. We are appealing this denial, which we feel was made without proper justification. But Mayor Bowser has the power to release this footage on her own, with or without a FOIA request, because it is a matter of significant public interest. Please join us in calling on Mayor Bowser to demonstrate her commitment to transparency and accountability. Thank you, Nassim Moshiree
Policy Director
ACLU of the District of Columbia | 
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