Adult Arrests

The Metropolitan Police Department collects race and ethnicity data according to the United States Census Bureau standards (https://www.census.gov/topics/population/race/about.html). Hispanic, which was previously categorized under the Race field prior to August 2015, is now captured under Ethnicity. All records prior to August 2015 have been updated to “Unknown (Race), Hispanic (Ethnicity)”. Race, ethnicity and gender data are based on officer observation, which may or may not be accurate.

MPD cannot release exact addresses to the general public unless proof of ownership or subpoena is submitted. The GeoX and GeoY values represent the block location (approximately 232 ft. radius) as of the date of the arrest and offense. Arrest and offense addresses that could not be geocoded are included as an “unknown” value.

Arrestee age is calculated based on the number of days between the self-reported or verified date of birth (DOB) of the arrestee and the date of the arrest; DOB data may not be accurate if self-reported, and an arrestee may refuse to provide his or her date of birth. Due to the sensitive nature of juvenile data and to protect the arrestee’s confidentiality, any arrest records for defendants under the age of 18 or with missing age are excluded in this dataset.

The Criminal Complaint Number (CCN) and arrest number have also been anonymized.

This data may not match other arrest data requests that may have included all law enforcement agencies in the District or all arrest charges. Arrest totals are subject to change and may be different than MPD Annual Report totals or other publications due to inclusion of juvenile arrest summary, expungements, investigation updates, data quality audits, etc.