General Assembly Proposes Police Conduct Reforms

By Nate Rabner, CAPITAL NEWS SERVICE

The Maryland General Assembly responded in this year’s legislative session to public concern about police misconduct.

Freddie Gray’s death Sunday after Baltimore police arrested him April 12 is just the latest in a series of incidents in Maryland and around the nation that have sparked outrage over law enforcement officers’ interactions with citizens.

• Police Identify 6 Officers Involved in Freddie Gray’s Arrest
• Baltimore Police: 6 Officers Suspended After Freddie Gray Death

House Judiciary Committee Vice Chair Kathleen Dumais, D-Montgomery, said more than 400 witnesses came to Annapolis to testify on more than a dozen law enforcement bills.

“It is very concerning, the allegations made by many community members from across the state,” she said.

In response, legislators passed several bills aimed at protecting citizens from police misconduct, though they stopped short of a few measures critics said would exert too much control over law enforcement agencies, such as a bill to amend the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights.

Delegate Alonzo Washington, D-Prince George’s, sponsored a successful bill that would require law enforcement agencies in the state to submit a detailed report to the Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention for deaths involving police actions.

Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, will sign the reporting bill, spokeswoman Erin Montgomery said.

Other bills passed by the General Assembly would increase the amount of money a person can receive in damages from a successful civil tort case against the state, a county or a city. Those initiatives were propelled in part by the story of Estela Espina, who received the legal maximum of $400,000 after a Prince George’s County police officer fatally shot her husband; some legislators said she should have been awarded more, citing a jury’s $11.5 million verdict.

Critics say increased liability for local governments, from $200,000 per single claim with a $500,000 maximum per incident to $400,000 and $800,000, respectively, would prompt cities and counties to stop offering certain services for fear of expensive cases.

“We basically undermine the public service” with the tort reform bills, said state Senator Robert Cassilly, R-Harford, during a debate on the Senate floor April 9.

• Maryland State Troopers Arrive in Baltimore City Amid Rallies
• Demonstrations for Freddie Gray Continue for Fourth Day
• Justice Department to Investigate Death in Baltimore Police Custody

The federal Justice Department announced Tuesday it would investigate the death of Gray, an African-American man, who police say was injured while riding in the back of a police van. Protesters in Baltimore have accused police of racism.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, whose administration requested two officer misconduct bills during the legislative session, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday that she is “determined to make sure that we have a full investigation and we follow all of the rules and procedures, so if there is a finding of wrongdoing that we have done everything possible ... so we can hold those individuals accountable.”

Rawlings-Blake also said that “because of our (state) Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, we have yet to fully engage those officers” involved with Gray’s death.

Two bills Rawlings-Blake requested died in committee.

One would have amended the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights to deny hearings to officers convicted of certain misdemeanors. Currently, officers convicted of felonies are denied hearings. The other would have created a felony, misconduct in office, which could land an officer in prison for up to 10 years in addition to any sentence for the misconduct itself.