Attorney general’s role could grow in Md.
Bill tied to who makes charging decisions in police-involved deaths
Maryland lawmakers who adopted sweeping changes to police accountability two years ago want to further alter how police-involved deaths are addressed by placing charging decisions in the hands of the state attorney general.
The legislation builds off a package of bills the General Assembly passed that, among other things, created a division within the attorney general’s office to investigate the deaths and then hand its findings over to local prosecutors.
Sen. William C. Smith Jr. (DMontgomery), a lead sponsor of the bill, which received preliminary approval in the Senate on Tuesday, said the measure should boost public confidence in the process.
“For me, there are inherent conflicts when you have the same entity that works with law enforcement officers to make cases and they work with each other all the time, to then be put in a position and have to make a decision as to whether to prosecute that same person that they work with,” he said.
The leader of an influential association of local prosecutors has lobbied against the measure, saying lawmakers are responding to the perception of bias and not actual bias among its members. Of the 30 cases probed since the Independent Investigations Division launched 17 months ago — more than half of which involved Black people — none so far have resulted in a charge, agency data shows.
The change in how deaths are investigated came during a time of national introspection on systemic racism after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020. Maryland passed bills, designed to increase transparency and to improve trust between police and the communities they serve, that established new rules for when police can use force and how they are investigated and disciplined.
In recent years, states across the country have moved to expand the role of the attorney general — the state’s top lawyer — in police misconduct. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada and Virginia empowered their attorneys general to investigate and pursue civil pattern and practice suits, an authority that Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown is also seeking this year.
Maryland’s 2021 bill that created the new investigation division originally stripped local prosecutors from being involved in both the investigation and prosecution of fatal police encounters. But after pushback from local prosecutors, the bill was amended to only give the attorney general’s office authority over investigations.
“This is about public confidence,” Brown (D) told the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee during a recent hearing on the bill. The Senate measure is on track to be sent to the House for consideration before the end of the week. The House version of the bill was heard by the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
During Tuesday’s debate on the bill, Sen. Mary Beth Carozza (RWicomico) said the legislation lowers the public’s confidence in their local state’s attorney.
“Taking this from the state’s attorney is a message even to the people that these state’s attorneys can’t be trusted with this authority,” she said.
But Sen. Charles Sydnor (DBaltimore) said during an interview that he did not understand why the local prosecutors were opposed to having the attorney general take over, similar to what is done in other states.
“In essence, the attorney general is the lead law enforcement officer of the state. Why would you oppose having the lead law enforcement officer having the ability to enforce the law?” he said.
Rich Gibson, president of the Maryland State’s Attorneys Association, said 23 of the group’s 24 state’s attorneys voted to oppose the legislation.
“I understand the desire to fight the perception of bias, but I think the real enemy is actual bias and cases of actual bias,” said Gibson, the Howard County state’s attorney.
Gibson said Howard turns the decision on whether to prosecute in a police-involved death over to Montgomery County officials and that other jurisdictions have the ability to outsource as well.
Gibson said he thought the legislation makes assumptions about the relationship between local prosecutors and the police and wrongly removes the decision from the community that is affected by the incident.
“Just because the person has a badge and a gun and is in law enforcement doesn’t mean we believe it or accept it, whole cloth. We evaluate it, decide for ourselves what we believe,” he said.
Minority Leader Stephen S. Hershey Jr. (R-kent) asked Smith if the bill was designed to make it easier to prosecute officers.
“It’s neither pro nor con for the officer. It is independent,” Smith said.
Since the independent division was established on Oct. 1, 2021, it has investigated 30 fatal police encounters. Local prosecutors have declined prosecution in 16 of the cases, and the other cases remain active.
The data shows that 18 Black people, eight White people and three Hispanic people were killed in the encounters and that 17 of the incidents were shootings, 10 involved police vehicles and three were in-custody deaths.
Smith said one of those incidents involved a Harford County case in which the state’s attorney said he would not pursue charges even before he received the investigatory report from the state.
But Minority Whip Justin Ready (R- Carroll) said he still thought the measure was unwarranted.
“Seems to me we’re taking a bazooka to a gnat problem,” he said during the debate.