Wicomico state’s attorney backs police oversight board


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.