More than 60 organizations are calling on Maryland lawmakers to support police reforms, including taking officers out of schools, making investigations into police misconduct more transparent and limiting the use of force.
The groups calling for the changes include the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, Common Cause, the Innocence Project, the League of Women Voters of Maryland and several chapters of the NAACP.
Maryland lawmakers are being asked to act on proposals to take school resource officers, or SROs, out of schools. Montgomery County’s Board of Education recently proposed re-evaluating its memorandum of understanding with the county police force on the role of SROs in schools.
Among the other changes the groups want to see: the elimination of the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights.
The LEOBR has long been targeted by civic groups as an obstacle to police accountability. For example, under the LEOBR, when an officer’s actions prompt an investigation, that officer has five days before having to respond to questioning.
The law was enacted in 1973 and has been the target of police reform efforts in the past.
State Sen. William Smith Jr., D-Montgomery County, has already outlined his plans to reform policing in Maryland.
Many of the issues cited in the release from the ACLU of Maryland have been cited by Smith, who chairs the state’s Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.
