BALTIMORE — After Baltimore residents overwhelmingly voted in favor of the city having control of its police department last November, debate swirled early this year around the timeline of formalizing the city’s authority.
Advocates came out in force against a proposed delay — and appear to have gotten their way.
Now, there’s a new wrinkle emerging, pitting the police commissioner and Mayor Brandon Scott’s administration against those same advocates and some of the Baltimore City Council. It centers around a line of the city charter that needs to be changed in order for the city to be able to pass bills affecting the police department.
Those who hope to see the language stripped entirely say it would align with City Council authority over other agencies and effectively realize what voters already said they supported.
But Police Commissioner Michael Harrison and members of Scott’s team hope to see the provision amended, with language meant to protect the commissioner’s authority over day-to-day operations of the police department.
Whether that amendment is necessary is a heated dispute that’s spilled into meetings of the Maryland General Assembly in recent weeks and split members of the city delegation. A vote has yet to be taken and it’s still unclear where the rest of the legislative body will land on the issue.
Here’s what to know:
—What language are people fighting over?
Baltimore’s City Charter states that no ordinance or municipal action can “conflict, impede, obstruct, hinder or interfere with the powers of the Police Commissioner.”
The city’s law department found last summer that language would need to removed — by members of the Maryland General Assembly — in order to grant power to the City Council to legislate on matters around the police department.
The effect of that language, the June 2022 memo from city lawyers said, should be “addressed,” in order to “ensure that the necessary tools will be available” for the city.
Supporters of stripping that language from the city charter entirely, including sponsors of legislation in the Maryland General Assembly, say it should be a simple call, as it is tying the hands of City Council members from legislating “much-needed” reforms to the police department.
The powers of Baltimore Police commissioners that the City Council can’t impede, obstruct or hinder are laid out in city code. They range from deciding the form and organization of the department to assigning duties to police to personnel matters, such as determining ranks, regulating attendance, training or discipline and creating a performance evaluation system.
—What is proposed?
State lawmakers have been meeting privately and in committee hearings to hash out differences over the language governing the powers of the City Council and the police commissioner. From those talks, a proposed amendment has appeared.
State Del. Caylin Young, a Democrat who also is an employee of the city’s Office of Equity and Civil Rights, has introduced an amendment that would limit the City Council’s power over the police department. The amendment creates an exception for “any management decision, including personnel or staffing matters, and deployment or investigative strategies.” Those powers would be left to the commissioner.
Several members of Scott’s administration, including Harrison, appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday to argue in favor of the amendment.
Harrison said striking the language about the police commissioner’s powers without exceptions would run the risk of City Council interference with day-to-day operations. The commissioner said he has fielded suggestions about promotions or deployment strategies from lawmakers in the past, but those should remain police powers, he said.
—What is the opposition?
Opponents of the amendment argue the proposed carve-out would limit the City Council’s ability to legislate changes to police operations.
Councilman Mark Conway, a Democrat and chairman of the council’s Public Safety and Government Operations Committee, told state legislators that the amendment would limit council’s powers to such a degree that there would be “nothing left to legislate.”
Conway argued that police policy issues like body cameras, redistricting, and restrictions on facial recognition technology would be considered “management decisions” that council would be unable to legislate.
Harrison told members of the Judiciary Committee that he considers body cameras and facial recognition software to be technology or tools, but they are not themselves strategies or deployment decisions which would be restricted.
David Rocah, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, argued the amendment would be creating special restrictions on Baltimore City Council’s ability to legislate over its own police department that other jurisdictions across Maryland do not have. Baltimore’s charter already has a separation of administrative and legislative powers that establishes powers of agencies as well as the council.
“That doesn’t mean for any city agency that the City Council doesn’t get to set policy,” Rocah said.
—What’s next?
The House Judiciary Committee will likely call for a vote on the bill and the proposed amendment, sending the measure to the full House if it passes. The House and the Senate will need to consider the measure before it could be sent to the governor.
A competing bill proposed by Young that would have delayed full implementation of local control until October 2024 has been withdrawn and will not be considered.
—Who has legislative authority over the police department now?
That’s the subject of debate. During a February City Council hearing on local control, Elena DiPietro, a solicitor with the city’s Law Department, told members that neither the City Council nor the General Assembly had the power to enact new laws governing the police department at the moment. Existing Public Local Law, however, remains in place, DiPietro said.
Baltimore’s Law Department has since issued a formal legal opinion that further refines DiPietro’s statement. The passage of the local control ballot question in November, which established a Baltimore Police Department, “theoretically” gave legislative authority to the City Council, the opinion states. However, the language forbidding council from superseding the powers of the commissioner is “still an obstacle to the enactment of a significant amount of legislation.”
