MARYLAND LAWMAKERS OVERRIDE VETOES ON POLICE REFORM BILLS

Use-of-force rules set, Officers’ Bill of Rights repealed

Maryland enacted historic police accountability measures Saturday, becoming the first state to repeal its powerful Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights and setting new rules for when police may use force and how they are investigated and disciplined.

The Democrat-dominated Legislature dealt Republican Gov. Larry Hogan a sharp rebuke, overriding his vetoes of measures that raise the bar for officers to use force; give civilians a role in police discipline for the first time; restrict no-knock warrants; mandate body cameras; and open some allegations of police wrongdoing for public review.

Each bill had been hailed by criminal justice advocates as having the potential to make policing in the state fairer and more transparent. Democrats, who hold large majorities in the Legislature, made enacting them a top priority after months of protests over the police-involved deaths of unarmed Black men and women.

“Maryland is leading the nation in transforming our broken policing system,” said House Speaker Adrienne Jones, D-baltimore County, who sponsored the repeal of the officers’ bill of rights and is the first Black person to hold her leadership role. “I am proud to lead the House in overriding the governor’s veto and showing the nation exactly where we stand as a state.”

The changes are not as sweeping as criminal justice advocates had hoped: Civilians will have input on disciplinary decisions, for example, but will not control the process.

Still, the legislation imposes one of the strictest police use-of-force standards in the nation, according to experts; requires officers to prioritize de-escalation tactics; and imposes a criminal penalty for those found to have used excessive force.

During months of debate, many White Republican lawmakers talked about the dangers police officers face on the job and said the bills would remove needed protections. Black Democratic lawmakers responded with passionate and personal arguments for why police officers need better training and said they hoped the legislation would change policing culture and attitudes toward Black people.

Hogan, who is weighing a presidential bid in 2024, has built a varied record on criminal justice issues — championing drug treatment rather than jail time for nonviolent offenses but aggressively seeking tougher penalties for violent crimes. He has refused to free many prisoners approved for release by the state’s parole board and has consistently sided with police unions in matters regarding officer protections and accountability.

In his veto letter Friday night, Hogan wrote that the three policing bills would “erode police morale, community relationships and public confidence.”

“This will result in great damage to police recruitment and retention, posing significant risks to public safety throughout our state,” the letter said.

Also on Saturday, the General Assembly overturned an earlier Hogan veto of a bill that would abolish life sentences without parole for juveniles. The legislation allows prisoners who were juveniles when they were convicted to appeal to a judge for release after they have served 20 years.

Hogan said the parole measure would upend the state’s parole process, cause additional trauma to victims’ families and potentially lead to the release of violent offenders who should remain behind bars.

Sen. Chris West, R-baltimore County, the bill sponsor, said the measure was about redemption, arguing that teenagers convicted as adults eventually deserve the right to prove to a judge that they have turned their lives around.

Hogan allowed two other police accountability bills to become law without his signature. One puts in place a process to return the Baltimore Police Department to local control for the first time since 1860. The other, which takes effect in October, shifts the investigation of police-involved fatalities from local authorities to an independent unit in the state attorney general’s office. It also bans police departments from acquiring surplus military equipment.

Clyde Boatwright, the president of the state’s Fraternal Order of Police, thanked Hogan in a statement Saturday for “standing with the men and women of law enforcement.”

In an interview, he said his members are most concerned about the new useof-force standard, which says a police officer may not use force against a person unless “under the totality of the circumstances, the force is necessary and proportional.” Republican critics of the standard have called it too vague and said courts will have to decide what the language means.

Boatwright said the repeal and replacement of the bill of rights still allow officers to have due process, which is what the union sought. The new disciplinary process takes effect July 1, 2022.

Some protections that were in the bill of rights — such as a five-day waiting period before officers accused of wrongdoing must speak to investigators for internal investigations, and the scrubbing of police complaints after a certain period of time — are not included in the replacement statute.

The new disciplinary process for officers requires local jurisdictions to create administrative charging committees that include civilians.