Voters’ intent: Put BPD back in city’s hands now, not later
Horrifying footage of the brutal killing of Tyre Nichols by the Memphis Police has once again underscored the need to overhaul policing across the nation — including right here in Baltimore City.
The most immediate action we can take is clear: Put control of the Baltimore City Police Department (BPD) back in the hands of our city’s elected officials. Despite the clear choice of voters this fall to amend Baltimore City’s charter to do just that, our City Council still does not have the power to regulate its own police department, and Mayor Scott’s administration seems poised to delay it.
Baltimore is the only locality in Maryland, and one of only two localities in the entire country, that does not control its own police department. Since 1860, the Maryland General Assembly has held the exclusive power to legislate any reforms to how the BPD operates. Even in the wake of Freddie Gray’s death and the 2015 uprising, and after each subsequent example of our police department, and departments across the country, using brutal and deadly force against residents, our own elected City Council representatives have remained powerless to change the policies and procedures under which the BPD operates, including officers’ use of force.
Jurisdictions within and outside of Maryland have used local control of their police departments to prohibit chokeholds and no-knock warrants, to collect data on use-of-force incidents and arrests, and to create stronger consequences for police officers who abuse their power. Baltimoreans deserve this same opportunity. As
Mayor Scott himself has said, “local control of BPD is about police accountability, it’s about representative democracy, and it’s about racial justice.” Which is why, for nearly a decade, our organizations have been working to restore local control of the BPD to the city it’s sworn to serve, rather than the Maryland General Assembly.
This organizing and advocacy culminated in November after months of pounding the pavement, knocking on thousands of doors, and educating our neighbors and fellow Baltimoreans about Question H, a City Charter amendment that would bring us one step closer to making the BPD a city, rather than a state, agency. On Election Day, voters overwhelmingly — more than
82% — voted in favor of Question H, giving City Hall a clear mandate: make the BPD answerable to Baltimore.
A final change to the City Charter must now be made by the Maryland General Assembly to finally enact local control and enable our City Council to legislate change in the BPD. However, in a Feb. 3 meeting of the city’s Local Control Advisory Board, Mayor Scott’s administration indicated that they plan to delay implementation of local control, which is already long overdue, until 2024. Further delay on local control is unacceptable.
Baltimore voters were told in November that they could do something about Baltimore’s powerlessness to regulate its own police department: Get out and vote. And they did. We call upon Mayor Scott and Baltimore City’s General Assembly delegation, especially Senate President Bill Ferguson, to honor the will of the people by supporting legislation this session to strike the last, conflicting provision in the City’s Charter and immediately implement local control. Our Baltimore leaders must move this forward after more than 160 years, so that our City Council can regain legislative oversight of its own police department.
For residents in Baltimore’s Black communities, all politics are local, and from the civil rights movement to the current movement for Black lives, communities historically impacted by oppressive policing in Baltimore City — particularly Black, trans, immigrant and poor communities — have had little to no influence or representation in matters concerning the police department. As Mayor Scott said in a 2018 Baltimore
Sun op-ed advocating for local control, “Baltimoreans feel as if they are helpless to hold their police department accountable for their misconduct and for keeping their neighborhoods safe. This feeling is compounded when they realize that their city officials outside of the mayor have limited power over the department.”
Since before the killing of Freddie Gray, Baltimore advocates have been demanding our city be given the common sense authority given to every other municipality in the country, and in November, the voters echoed that sentiment, loudly. We expect our elected officials to adhere to the vote and immediately advance the will of the people who elected them.