By The Policing Project at the New York University School of Law

The Policing Project at the New York University School of Law, in partnership with Microsoft and with funding from the Joyce Foundation and Microsoft’s Justice Reform Initiative, has developed the SAJETM Policing Assessment – a comprehensive tool to define and measure the characteristics of a Sound, Accountable, Just, and Effective policing agency. This assessment of approximately 100 metrics was developed in partnership with police leaders, researchers, and community advocates, and reflects the latest developments in social science, constitutional law, and industry best practice. Agencies respond to each metric with a simple yes/no and provide evidence (e.g., policies, training manuals) to support their responses. SAJETM is not designed to find a “perfect” police department. Rather, the goal is to provide an assessment of a department’s current standing across the four pillars, identifying both areas of strength and areas in need of improvement. In addition, because SAJETM relies on documentation rather than personal observation, it leans toward policy review over actual practice. While some of the metrics do seek to capture specific practices, they do not assess how comprehensively or effectively these practices are being carried out. Future audits may wish to delve deeper into these issues. Insights provided through this tool will help municipal leaders, police departments, and the communities they serve understand agency performance and collaboratively identify challenges and opportunities. At the request of the Office of the District of Columbia Auditor, the Policing Project conducted a SAJETM Assessment of the District’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). Dr. Aili Malm, an independent social science researcher, and policing subject-matter expert, assisted the agency in completing the tool as a neutral third-party evaluator. The process took approximately five months to complete. This report outlines MPD’s SAJETM Assessment results. Overall Score MPD’s overall SAJETM score is 81.66%. As MPD is the only agency to complete the tool at the request of an auditor’s office, insufficient benchmarks are available. However, the Policing Project team anticipates that agencies scoring over 70% should be considered well-performing police departments and MPD is over this level. There are some areas in which MPD is performing exceptionally well, and other areas in which improvement may be needed, particularly in the Just Policing pillar. The following sections describe MPD’s results across the four pillars. 

Washington, DC: Office of the DC Auditor, 2024. 45p.