Police misconduct requires an independent review
Maryland Sen. Bill Ferguson deserves kudos and special thanks for proposing legislation and leading the call for an independent commission intended to restore public trust and the integrity of Baltimore’s police (“Baltimore senator proposes commission to investigate police corruption surrounding Gun Trace Task Force,” March 13).
The eight convictions of an elite squad of detectives and a supervising sergeant provided police testimony that illuminated a decade of systemic criminality and corruption, causing the public to rightfully ask questions about how such a widespread practice remained undetected and thriving, whether officers can be trusted and whether others engaged in similar conduct or allowed it to persist.
Senator Ferguson recognizes the necessity of an independent body with subpoena power to answer these questions. Greater diversity on the commission will ensure an open inquiry and full investigation required for community credibility and approval. Senator Ferguson should embrace friendly amendments that allow the commission to include representatives of the Baltimore City Council (as councilman Brendan Scott recommended), a community representative active in police reform and a former law enforcement officer with a track record of reform. They would join the representatives of Gov. Larry Hogan, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch. The six members would select the commission chair.
City policing remains at a crossroads. It can forge a cooperative venture with community leaders’ comprehensive approach to fighting crime or it can return to the failed 50-year policies of harsher sentences and over-incarceration of this generation’s black youth and younger adults. Nothing short of an independent commission, modeled after New York City’s approach in the 1970s and 1990s, will reassure the public that the crime and corruption virus remains limited to the few or must be addressed and eliminated within the police culture.