Baltimore police agree to overhaul

Decree requires changes in wake of prisoner’s death.

BALTIMORE — The Baltimore police department committed to a sweeping overhaul of its practices Thursday under a court-enforceable agreement with the federal government reached in the wake of riots that followed the 2015 death of a prisoner in police custody.

The Justice Department agreement, which was approved by the city government and will be submitted to a judge, mandates changes in the most fundamental aspects of police work. Known as a consent decree, it is the culmination of months of negotiations with the federal government and is meant to correct constitutional violations identified in a scathing report released last year.

The filing of the agreement, in the waning days of U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s tenure, is meant as a capstone for an administration that has made civil rights enforcement a priority and that has pursued similar consent decrees with other large American police forces.

“Through this agreement, we are moving forward together to work to heal the tension in the relationship between the Baltimore Police Department and the community that it serves,” Lynch said at a news conference.

The agreement is intended to remain in place long after Lynch leaves office, though civil liberties advocates are concerned that U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican who has been nominated to replace her, may not enforce consent decrees with the same vigor. On Thursday, she addressed those concerns.

“It is binding,” she said, “and it will live on past this administration.”

A hearing will allow for public comment on the agreement before it is approved by a federal judge.

The Justice Department began investigating the Baltimore force following the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray, a young black man who was fatally injured while in the custody of officers. Officers tried in Gray’s deaths were cleared, but the Justice Department report last August found that officers were routinely stopping large numbers of people in poor, black neighborhoods for dubious reasons, and unlawfully arresting residents merely for speaking out in ways police deemed disrespectful.

The consent decree discourages arrests for minor offenses, requiring a supervisor to sign off on any request to take someone into custody for such infractions, and also mandates basic training for making stops and searches. In addition, it commands officers to use de-escalation techniques, thoroughly investigate sexual assault claims and send specially trained units to distress calls involving people with mental illness.

The agreement also lays out policies for transporting prisoners, a likely acknowledgment of the death of Gray, who suffered a critical spinal cord injury while bouncing around, handcuffed but unsecured in a seat, in the back of a police van.