Maryland bill would expand attorney general’s powers in police probes

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A measure earlier than Maryland lawmakers would give the state’s lawyer common impartial authority to prosecute police in instances that the workplace already investigates when somebody is injured or dies when officers are concerned.

The invoice, which had a listening to Tuesday, would increase part of a bundle of police reforms accepted two years in the past in response to issues about police accountability after the demise of George Floyd in Minnesota in 2020.

The Impartial Investigations Division was fashioned within the lawyer common’s workplace to analyze police-involved deaths of civilians all through the state. Whereas present legislation empowers the division to probe the instances and supply info to native prosecutors, it is native prosecutors who resolve whether or not to convey costs.

To this point no officers have been charged after such investigations. Supporters of the brand new measure say it can assist get rid of potential conflicts of curiosity between native prosecutors and police.

Sponsor Will Smith, the chairman of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, stated the measure is required to “spherical out and finalize our much-needed and necessary reforms.”

“It will likely be extra clear, and it is going to be extra attentive to our residents’ wants,” stated Smith, a Montgomery County Democrat.

Lawyer Normal Anthony Brown, additionally a Democrat, referred to as it “the pure evolution within the reforms that the Normal Meeting started to undertake” when it first enacted the legislation.

“I imagine that if this invoice is handed, it’ll improve public confidence in each the investigation and the prosecution of police-involved deaths,” Brown testified. “We will do our job in a good and balanced method as we have finished for the final two years with the investigations, and we’d take the similar strategy to prosecutions.”

However some on the committee questioned why the legislation needs to be modified when there isn’t any proof that native prosecutors have didn’t be neutral.

“With out having any info to necessitate this transformation, I simply discover it extremely insulting to the state’s attorneys who do an impressive job,” stated Sen. William Folden, a Frederick County Republican.

Senate President Invoice Ferguson, talking to reporters earlier than the listening to, stated he believed a measure would advance this 12 months that may lead to an growth of powers within the lawyer common’s workplace, although the invoice is likely to be modified. He stated state’s attorneys may have issues if they’re faraway from the method fully, and so they could retain some function within the prosecutorial course of relating to police-involved fatalities.

“I believe that is an possibility on the desk,” stated Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat. “It is definitely one thing the committee will think about earlier than transferring ahead.”

The lawyer common’s workplace investigated 23 fatalities involving police within the legislation’s first 12 months. Not one of the investigations resulted in officers being charged, the workplace stated in a report launched in November overlaying the primary 12 months the division was operational. They comprised 13 instances of deadly shootings by police, seven individuals who died throughout automobile pursuits and three who died in custody.