Special Police Research

The D.C. Special Police project is a research project dedicated to bringing
transparency and accountability to the for-hire private police force in D.C. Currently, under D.C. stature, certain private security companies and their officers are being given police arrest and pursuit powers while being under trained, underpaid, unaccountable, and oftentimes armed. There is currently no one central agency to report special police malfeasance to, as well as lax training standards for even the armed special police officers. This research project is analyzing:
  • current job and training requirements for special police officers
  • the different jurisdictions that have statutes in place that allow for special police officers current and past legislation proposals in Washington, D.C.,
  • types of companies that are being granted special police powers
  • the federal agencies and private companies that contract special police officers
  • misconduct special police officers have been involved in.
The D.C. Special Police project plans to publish a whitepaper with the findings of their research in mid-August.
There are currently six interns and volunteers working on this research project:
Maddelynn Spencer, Aubrey Wieberg, Iva Petrova, Olivia Martel, Cristina Penate, and Sue Brady. Should you be interested, email our Nation Leads at [email protected].