What is the opposition?

State Del. Caylin Young, has introduced an amendment that would limit the City Council’s power over the police department. The amendment creates an exception for “any management decision, including personnel or staffing matters, and deployment or investigative strategies.”

What is proposed?

State lawmakers have been meeting privately and in committee hearings to hash out differences over the language governing the powers of the City Council and the police commissioner. From those talks, a proposed amendment has appeared.

State Del. Caylin Young, a Democrat who also is an employee of the city’s Office of Equity and Civil Rights, has introduced an amendment that would limit the City Council’s power over the police department.

The amendment creates an exception for “any management decision, including personnel or staffing matters, and deployment or investigative strategies.” Those powers would be left to the commissioner.

Several members of Scott’s administration, including Harrison, appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday to argue in favor of the amendment.

Harrison said striking the language about the police commissioner’s powers without exceptions would run the risk of City Council interference with day-to-day operations. The commissioner said he has fielded suggestions about promotions or deployment strategies from lawmakers in the past, but those should remain police powers, he said.

Opponents of the amendment argue the proposed carve-out would limit the City Council’s ability to legislate changes to police operations.

Councilman Mark Conway, a Democrat and chairman of the council’s Public Safety and Government Operations Committee, told state legislators that the amendment would limit council’s powers to such a degree that there would be “nothing left to legislate.”

Conway argued that police policy issues like body cameras, redistricting, and restrictions on facial recognition technology would be considered “management decisions” that council would be unable to legislate.

Harrison told members of the Judiciary Committee that he considers body cameras and facial recognition software to be technology or tools, but they are not themselves strategies or deployment decisions which would be restricted.

David Rocah, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, argued the amendment would be creating special restrictions on Baltimore City Council’s ability to legislate over its own police department that other jurisdictions across Maryland do not have. Baltimore’s charter already has a separation of administrative and legislative powers that establishes powers of agencies as well as the council.

“That doesn’t mean for any city agency that the City Council doesn’t get to set policy,” Rocah said.

What’s next?

The House Judiciary Committee will likely call for a vote on the bill and the proposed amendment, sending the measure to the full House if it passes. The House and the Senate both will need to consider the measure before it could be sent to the governor.

A competing bill proposed by Young that would have delayed full implementation of local control until October 2024 has been withdrawn and will not be considered.