Police reforms largely will have positive impact; more work to do

As expected, Gov. Larry Hogan took quick action on major police reform bills delivered to his desk on Wednesday, vetoing three on Friday night.

The Democrat-led General Assembly acted just as quickly and began the process of overturning his vetoes two hours later. By Saturday, the vetoes were done and Maryland became the first state in the nation to overturn the police officer bill of rights that began in this state 48 years ago.

The easiest of the bills to support is the one Hogan let go into law without his signature, creating a unit in the Attorney General’s Office to investigate civilian deaths at the hands of police and turn results over to local prosecutors. It addresses a basic conflict of interest in having a police department investigate its own, or of relying solely on local prosecutors’ discretion.

There is no reason to believe that this new process will result in vastly different outcomes.

Hogan and other critics of the Maryland Police Accountability Act of 2021 are wrong to oppose this measure. Sponsored by House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, HB 670 will restore balance to the way officers in Maryland are disciplined and how complaints are handled. It repeals Maryland Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, with its guarantees of job protections and due process for officers, and replaces it with a system controlled largely by civilians.

There are plenty of police chiefs who will gladly tell you the Maryland Law went too far. Jones’ bill asks officers to rely on the same protections anyone facing work discipline or criminal charges has, not more.

The new civilian oversight boards are another overdue change, part of a new statewide process for removing officers with a history of disciplinary problems. There is no reason to see these panels as inherently anti-police or without experience and perspective on law enforcement.

This measure, which also raises civil liability for police departments, is so reasonable that House Minority Leader Nic Kipke voted for it.

The governor was also wrong to veto SB178, allowing the public to obtain disciplinary records and complaints against officers.

Like many of these bills, it had more than one subject and also put new limits on so-called “no-knock” search warrants. Hogan’s objections focused on the warrants, a tool rarely used in this community and one that would be available under higher standards.

Arcane secrecy surrounding police disciplinary hearings is a problem in this community.

The lack of official information on a hearing set to start Wednesday makes clear that disciplining officers must be more open to public scrutiny if the public is to have confidence in the process.

The one-piece of this package that needed more thought was SB71. It needlessly combines an obvious good — requiring body-worn cameras for on-duty officers by 2026 — with a not-so-obvious change to the standards of police use of force.

There is a legitimate debate about whether the current standard, outlined by a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision, gives police too much freedom to use force against civilians.

Hogan called the new standard “a vague and undefined test,” and there are plenty of law enforcement professionals officers who agree.

The right choice would have been a statewide commission to study and create a Maryland standard that both protects members of the public from abusive police and allows police officers’ power to protect themselves and others in dangerous situations.

The political pressure to get this done now was strong and based on real problems that affect the lives of residents of Maryland. But this last measure was rushed and Marylanders should look for future General Assembly sessions to fix come back to this issue after the 2022 elections.