Bill enabling Maryland AG to prosecute police advances

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A Maryland measure that will give the state’s legal professional basic impartial authority to prosecute police after investigating deaths, or accidents more likely to end in loss of life, when officers are concerned moved ahead within the state Senate on Tuesday.

The invoice would broaden part of a bundle of police reforms accredited two years in the past in response to issues about police accountability after the loss of life of George Floyd in Minnesota in 2020.

The measure was given preliminary approval, and a Senate vote is predicted later this week.

The Impartial Investigations Division was shaped within the legal professional basic’s workplace to analyze police-involved deaths of civilians all through the state. Whereas present regulation empowers the division to probe the circumstances and supply details to native prosecutors, it is native prosecutors who determine whether or not to carry prices.

Supporters of the invoice say it goals to finish potential conflicts of curiosity between native prosecutors and police. Opponents say it is an overreach of state powers over regionally elected prosecutors.