Maryland
panel recommends major changes to police practices
By Ovetta Wiggins
Washington Post
A Maryland legislative panel on
Monday offered sweeping changes in police policies, including giving officers
periodic psychological evaluations and allowing the public to attend police
trial boards.
Under the proposed changes,
residents would also be given more time to file brutality complaints.
The Public Safety and Policing
Work Group voted to submit 21 recommendations to Senate President Thomas V.
Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) and House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel)
for the General Assembly to consider. It spent the past six months reviewing
police practices and devising ways to improve police-community relations.
“It’s a very strong working
package of proposals for reform,” said Sen. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Montgomery), a
member of the panel.
As the national debate continues
over the use of force by police officers, particularly against minorities, the
recommendations send a strong signal that efforts to bolster criminal justice
and police reforms will take place in Maryland during its 90-day legislative
session.
Criminal justice reform advocates
said they were pleased with many of the proposals, specific¬ally those that
would create more transparency when police officers are accused of wrongdoing.
“It’s a really good first step,
and we look forward to working with the General Assembly to strengthen it,”
said Sara Love, the public policy director at the American Civil Liberties
Union of Maryland.
An official with the Maryland
Fraternal Order of Police said the union will work with the legislature to
ensure that police officers receive due process and are treated fairly. The
union has concerns about the psychological evaluations, and a recommendation
would change how quickly officers must cooperate with internal investigations.
The panel called for reducing the
state’s “10-day rule,” which gives officers 10 days to get a lawyer before
cooperating with an investigation, to five days.
“This is just the beginning of
the process,” said Vince Canales, president of the state police union. “We know
there are potential changes coming up in the legislative session.”
The panel’s recommendations are
the third set of proposals from committees recently investigating criminal
justice and policing issues in Maryland. A second committee made recommendations
on the use of police body cameras, and a third recently submitted a 10-year,
$247 million plan to reduce recidivism and the state’s prison population by
focusing more on community-based programs.
The legislature’s focus on police
reform this session will unfold as juries in Baltimore decide the fate of six
officers who were arrested in connection with the death of Freddie Gray.
Gray, 25, died in April after his
spine was severed while in police custody. His death sparked riots in Baltimore
and renewed calls from criminal justice reform advocates for the state to
review policing practices.
[Judge declares mistrial in case
of officer charged in Freddie Gray death]
Busch and Miller created the
panel after the unrest, hoping to repair the relationship between the police
and the community, which is fraught with distrust.
“The workgroup heard from almost
100 witnesses and incorporated many recommendations from members of the public
and law enforcement,” Busch and Miller said in a joint statement. “We believe
these recommendations will make measurable progress in improving policing
practices in Maryland.”
The panel was expected to finish
its work in December, but it ran into trouble reaching a consensus on a number
of issues, including mandatory psychological evaluations for officers.
Police officers are given
evaluations before they join the force, but Sen. Catherine E. Pugh
(D-Baltimore), who was a ¬co-chairman of the panel, wanted routine psychological
evaluations. Del. Curtis S. Anderson (D-Baltimore), who also served as
co-chairman, said he thought officers should have to undergo regular
evaluations, much like they have to requalify to be able to use their service
weapons.
But the idea ran into resistance
from the state police union.
“I think mental-health issues are
a concern and something that should be addressed,” Pugh said.
After a lengthy debate Monday
about whether psychological evaluations should be required every five years,
the panel voted instead to require officers to receive them periodically and
after “traumatic” incidents.
The panel also called for the
creation of an independent Maryland Police Training and Standards Commission
that would focus on setting standards and training for all police agencies.
Panel members said they
repeatedly heard complaints about a lack of uniformity in standards in
departments across the state.
The police training commission
would also develop and require “anti-discrimination” and “use of force de-escalation”
training for all officers. It would also set up a confidential early
intervention policy for dealing with officers who receive three or more citizen
complaints within a 12-month period.
The panel suggests that the
commission require annual reporting of “serious” officer-involved incidents,
the number of officers disciplined and the type of discipline that was given.
Other recommendations include
developing a police complaint mediation program, creating recruitment standards
that increase the number of female, African American and Hispanic candidates,
and offering incentives, including property tax credits and state and local
income tax deductions, to officers who live in the jurisdictions where they
work.
Ovetta Wiggins covers Maryland
state politics in Annapolis.
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