County blocking intent of state mandate for cop accountability
Before arriving at a crime scene, we see a police roadblock with police tape or flashing police lights warning us that there is trouble ahead, and we must turn around and go no further. A stone-faced officer tells us that law enforcement is on the scene, no one is allowed in the area, and that it’s “official police business.”
Since January, police reform has met a metaphorical roadblock with the administration of County Executive Steuart Pittman’s proposed Anne Arundel County Police Accountability Board. Advocates for reform were essentially ordered to turn around and go home because the county’s state-mandated Police Accountability Board is “official police business.” Most advocates feel betrayed by the administration’s drafting and position on Bill 16-22, and, for many of us, that is an understatement.
We are not turning around now. Instead, advocates joined together to form the Anne Arundel Coalition for Police Accountability. In our coalition, we have civil rights lawyers, experts in police practices, members of the National Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, former police, and a member of the Baltimore Civilian Review Board. Our members include Black-led social justice organizations, groups led by directly impacted Black women, immigrants’ rights organizations, and community groups.
These organizations joined together for one purpose: to ensure that the County Council creates a strong Police Accountability Board.
In February, the coalition asked County Council members to support our recommendations to implement best practices and fix the inequitable and misguided provisions of a poorly drafted bill. Council member Sarah Lacey and Chair Lisa Rodvien agreed to co-sponsor a number of amendments to the bill. Unfortunately, the administration opposed all of the substantive amendments regarding membership and investigatory powers.
During the council meetings, the panel invited to sit at the table to address the council’s amendments was limited to the people who drafted the bill: the county executive’s administration, the county’s Office of Law, the Anne Arundel County police chief, and an Annapolis Police Department representative. Our coalition believes this panel has real conflicts of interest, has made false statements to the council, and has failed to provide the council with facts and updates that disfavor their position.
Their biased perspective was never more present than when five council members followed the administration’s lead in voting against an amendment to give the Police Accountability Board investigative powers. Before the vote, members only heard from the county executive’s director of government relations and the assistant county attorney. They argued, as they have in the past, that the Maryland legislature intended for the Police Accountability Board to be advisory and not an investigative body.
Earlier that same day, however, the Maryland House of Delegates voted 92-41 in favor of HB991, which creates the Baltimore City Police Accountability Board and gives it full power to investigate. This General Assembly is involved in the creation of the Police Accountability Board for Baltimore because the state currently controls the Baltimore Police Department, and they created the city’s Civilian Review Board, which will need to change with the creation of a Police Accountability Board.
No one on the county’s panel informed the council of the fact that 92 delegates voted to give a Police Accountability Board investigative powers, which undermines the administration’s primary argument against giving our proposed board the same.
Our analysis is that the state intended for counties to create their own police accountability boards, leaving room for them to create one here with investigative a powers.
The administration wants us to believe that police reform has met a dead end. What it actually has met is a roadblock. Our county government is ignoring civilian oversight best practices that don’t support their position. They have ignored the 21 organizations in our coalition by blocking every one of our recommendations. Their position is based on what the police department and their lawyers want.
The coalition’s message regarding civilian oversight of law enforcement remains that police cannot police themselves. No more roadblocks.