SUN INVESTIGATES Residents weigh in on monitor

Organizations also offer suggestions on who should oversee consent decree

Forty-six individuals and groups submitted letters to city and U.S. Department of Justice officials offering their opinions on who should be appointed to oversee sweeping police reforms in Baltimore.

The letters were submitted as part of the process in selecting an independent monitor that will oversee implementation of the consent decree reached between the city and Justice Department officials, and approved by a federal judge in April.

Twenty-six teams applied for the job, some with experience overseeing consent decrees in other cities and others with experience in law enforcement, law and politics.

City and Justice Department officials whittled the list to six finalists last week. Their final choice will be sent to a federal judge for approval next month. The consent decree allocates up to $1.475 million annually over a three-year term to pay for the monitor.

The majority of the letters, which were released last week and reviewed by The Baltimore Sun, stressed the importance of selecting a team that is based in Baltimore, includes minority members, and focuses on communicating with and involving the community in the process.

Nine of the letters were submitted by organizations, including the Baltimore City NAACP, No Boundaries Coalition of Central West Baltimore, and Disability Rights Maryland.

The NAACP letter mentions several qualifications it would like to see in the monitor team. One is ensuring the team is made up of diverse members with varying backgrounds, not just law enforcement.

The No Boundaries Coalition, a West Baltimore advocacy group, asked that consideration be given to teams that would make monitoring the consent decree a priority.

Billy Murphy, the Baltimore attorney who represented Freddie Gray’s family in its civil lawsuit against the city, wrote a letter in support of the Venable law firm, which is among the six finalists.

Many of the letters expressed support for a team headed by Susan Burke, an attorney who lives in Baltimore and has a national reputation as an advocate for victims in military sexual assault cases.

In addition to the Burke and Venable teams, the finalists are CNA Consulting, an Arlington, Va.-based consulting firm; Baltimore law firm DLA Piper, headed by Charles P. Scheeler, a local attorney; Exiger, a team led by Jeff Schlanger, a former official in the Manhattan district attorney's office; and the Powers Consulting Group, headed by Tyrone Powers, a Baltimore resident and retired FBI agent.

The public is invited to submit comments or questions for the finalists by August 13.