Annapolis, Maryland (AP) — This week, several new and widespread legislation aimed at increasing accountability in police shootings and investigating complaints against police officers has swept the country. Responding to a large-scale protest against racial injustice in police last year.
Ambitious police reforms were approved by the Democratic-controlled Maryland State House earlier this year after lawmakers overturned three vetoes from Republican Governor Larry Hogan. This change followed last year’s public protests against the death of blacks and other abuses in encounters with police across the country.
Maryland lawmakers spent months drafting a bill in response to the death of George Floyd, who was detained by police in Minnesota last year.
One of the most prominent laws coming into force on Friday will create a unit at the Attorney General’s office to investigate the deaths of all civilians by Maryland police. Has full investigative powers of state lawyers, including the use of grand juries in any county.
“What the law is trying to do, and what the office is trying to do, is to treat the police like anyone else,” said Dana Malhauser, director of the Independent Investigation Division of the General Prosecutor’s Office. Said.
Maryland Speaker of the House Adrian Jones was the first black and first woman to sponsor one of the laws and become Speaker of the House, and her own experience with law enforcement earlier this year. , And testified about her brother and two sons. ..
“Our community cannot afford to wait for substantial involvement in law enforcement and the rebuilding of trust,” Jones said in a statement Thursday. “Independent investigation is an important step in giving public confidence that justice is provided.”
Another law, which will come into force on Friday, will increase public access to disciplinary action records of police officers traditionally protected under state public relations law.
“Police are a public event and it is correct that disciplinary action is accessible to victims of illegal activity and the general public,” said Senator Jill Carter, a Democrat of Baltimore who sponsored the legislation. .. “This is a necessary step in creating transparency and accountability. Police have done a sad job of secretly cracking down on themselves.”
The law, which increases public access to law enforcement records, is named after 19-year-old Anton Black, who died in 2018 during police detention in a rural town in Greensboro, on the east coast of Maryland.
Keirin Young, director of public policy at the American Civil Liberties Union in Maryland, said ACLU would help victims’ families get information from past incidents under the new law.
“There’s still more work to be done for true community oversight and transparency, but in fact these laws are a very important step in the right direction,” says Young.
Police supporters say the law is overkill and can lead to unintended consequences, especially in police recruitment efforts.
Clyde Boatwright, chairman of the Maryland Police Fraternity Association, said other civil servants in the state would be monitored by police under a new law that would increase access to records even if complaints persisted. He said he would not be monitored. He said the law would make the profession less attractive to younger people as older officers retire.
“We don’t have people warming up with a bullpen ready to join the game,” Boatlight said. “This profession doesn’t exist now because it’s not very attractive to our youth. It’s the worst ever and all police stations have a hard time hiring people.”
Police also have restrictions on when a knock-free warrant can be used in an investigation under another law that comes into force on Friday. Maryland police can only search someone’s home between 8 am and 7 pm without notice, except in an emergency.
Maryland has been suffering from police accountability issues in recent years. The Baltimore police station signed a federal consent decree after a black man, Freddie Gray, died in 2015 after a broken neck while in police detention, causing widespread anxiety in the city. It wasn’t enough.
Calls for Maryland legislators to adopt search warrant reforms also came after the black woman Breona Taylor was shot dead in March 2020. She was killed by police at her home in Louisville, Kentucky, during a warrant without knocking. Her death spurred intensified protests only after Floyd’s death in May of that year. Sentence.
Also, starting Friday in Maryland, law enforcement agencies will be banned from purchasing certain surplus military equipment, such as weaponized aircraft, drones, and vehicles.
Other police reform legislation approved in Maryland this year will come into effect next year. This includes the abolition of employment protection in police disciplinary action. Maryland approved the United States’ first law enforcement rights bill in 1974, and about 20 states adopted similar legislation that set up due process procedures for investigating police illegal activity. Maryland was the first law to abolish the law and replaced it with a new procedure that gives civilians a role in police disciplinary action.
The new use of force standards approved by the legislature will come into force later, and new requirements for most police in the state to use body cameras will also be enforced.
Calculating Racial Protests: Maryland Police Reform Act Begins | WGN Radio 720
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