JEREMY COX
Maciarello‘s push represents
the most tangible action taken so far after a string of violent —sometimes
fatal — interactions between police and citizens in Wicomico.
Momentum is building behind a
proposal to create a citizen-run police oversight board in Wicomico County.
The county’s top prosecutor on
Monday called on the county’s two busiest police agencies – the Wicomico County
Sheriff’s Office and the Salisbury Police Department – to form a panel to study
the idea.
State’s Attorney Matt
Maciarello‘s push represents the most tangible action taken so far after a
string of violent — sometimes fatal — interactions between police and citizens
in Wicomico. He also urged police to start wearing cameras on their bodies to
record interactions with the public.
“It’s a ‘who’s watching the
watchman’ situation,’ ” Maciarello said at a news conference at his office in
downtown Salisbury.
Like many boards, the one
suggested by Maciarello would make recommendations to the head of the
department, who would have the ultimate say over an officer’s penalty. He said
he would leave it up to the city and county whether to create a joint board or
separate ones.
Such details could be discussed
in a “blue-ribbon panel,” he said. The governments also need to consider
whether it’s worth the cost.
Wicomico Sheriff Mike Lewis
immediately embraced the oversight board and body cameras proposals. Meanwhile,
the city of Salisbury is already working to equip its officers with cameras,
but Mayor Jim Ireton said he strongly opposes a panel “second-guessing” the
department’s work.
Maciarello can’t act alone, and
he suggested as much during the conference. He emphasized several times that
his intention wasn’t to denigrate the agencies’ ongoing community relations
efforts or the work of their internal affairs departments.
But he was moved to pitch his
proposals by a “confluence of factors” that included a trio of lawsuits
alleging harsh police treatment in the city and a handful of recent
police-involved shootings, he said.
Maciarello also cited clashes
between police and citizens following a white officer’s shooting of a black
teenager in Ferguson, Missouri. The press conference came just hours before the
grand jury in that case announced it had reached a verdict, a milestone that
many feared would stoke more violence.
“The key ingredient in any
community,” Maciarello said, “is trust.”
That trust has been a topic of
much debate in Wicomico this year. It began in ominous fashion, with three
police-involved shootings – two of them fatal – in two months.
That led Mary Ashanti,
president of the Wicomico chapter of the NAACP, to go before the County Council
in April and ask for a police review board.
“The complaints we have is
police are investigating themselves,” Ashanti said at the time.
The Maryland State Police
Homicide Unit regularly investigates police-involved shootings, and for those
incidents, the Wicomico County State's Attorney's Office makes decisions on
whether to prosecute.
The process is similar after a
citizen accuses an officer of, for example, using foul language or being rude.
The matter is investigated by the internal affairs department.
Maciarella suggested following
Prince George’s County, which has had a board since 1990. The county budgets
more than $200,000 a year for its work.
The seven-member board must
include at least one member for three specific fields: medicine, law
enforcement (usually a retired law enforcement official) and the legal
community.
That stipulation helped sway
Lewis, who acknowledged his initial reaction was a flat no. He was worried it
would be run by “special interest groups” with little or no expertise in police
matters, he said.
Ireton, though, said, “I don’t
think there should be someone second guessing a 911 call.”
Having an oversight board
doesn’t address his biggest concern: the causes of crime. The idea merely feeds
on the “emotional energy” buzzing around the country as it grapples with events
in Ferguson, he added.
As for the cameras, Ireton said
the city is prepared to make an announcement in early 2015 about a program. And
Lewis said he is in favor of them, but he will have to persuade a new county
executive and a reconstituted council that they are worth the expense.
Models available online range
in price from $120 to $700.
Merrick Bobb is executive
director of the Police Assessment Resource Center in Los Angeles and a longtime
official police monitor. He applauded Maciarello’s stipulation that the board
must have subpoena power, saying it ensures a degree of investigative
independence.
“You want very honest,
intelligent people who can take and analyze these kinds of incidents
independently,” Bobb said.
