D.C. complaints director may file separate complaints over officer misconduct

The Office of Police Complaints’ director may file a separate complaint against an officer. The complaint concerns the officer whose conduct the director has found evidence about. The director must discover evidence of abuse or misuse of police powers that the original complainant did not allege. This can include an officer’s failure to step in or report another officer’s excessive force or misconduct, or to report certain police rule violations or uses of force. This authority ends when section 105 of the 2022 policing law starts to apply, or by January 20, 2027, if sooner.

The act sets the Police Complaints Board at nine members. The board has one member from each D.C. ward and one citywide member. After the current Metropolitan Police Department member’s term ends, no board member may be affiliated with a law enforcement agency. These membership rules end when section 105 of the 2022 policing law starts to apply, or by January 20, 2027, if sooner.

The act limits certain victim-related wording in three D.C. Code sections to victims under 18. The wording appears in sections 14-310, 14-311, and 14-312; the last section names sexual assault victims. This wording ends when section 4 of the 2026 LEARNS law starts to apply, or by January 20, 2027, if sooner.