A charter amendment that could prove the penultimate step in Baltimore securing local control of its police department received full support from residents during a city council hearing on Wednesday.
The Baltimore City Council met to consider two items, one of which is a proposed amendment that would enshrine the overall governing structure into the city’s charter; any change to that would require a vote from the residents. The other is a bill that outlines more mundane daily department procedures that could be changed by the council without requiring a vote from the public.
A diverse group of residents urged the council to take no delays in passing the amendment, which would still go before the voters in 2024.
“You're actually modeling what local control was all about. You're using your ordinary lawmaking authority to begin to regulate the BPD. And it's really very exciting to witness,” said Toby Ditz, a District 11 resident who came on behalf of Jews United for Justice.
“We've been doing this work for years… We have overwhelmingly proven that we can lead ourselves. We can do what every other jurisdiction in our state has done. We can supervise and provide direct oversight for our own police department,” said Sergio Espana of District Seven.
The Baltimore Police Department has been under state control since 1860 but in 2022, voters overwhelmingly voted to make the department a city agency once again. Yet, hurdles have remained.
In order for the city to have full sovereignty of the police, councilmembers say the General Assembly must strike language in state law– a choice it ultimately declined to make during the last session. Conway has said that he hopes that with this amendment, the state legislature will have the confidence in the city to remove the clause.
“We want to make sure that we outline the basic structure of the department in our law, and that the state then can strike limiting language [in it’s law] so that it can be very clear that the city council and the mayor have full authority over the police department,” he said during Wednesday’s hearing.
The council is on a rapid timeline to get the charter passed before the General Assembly starts its session in January although on Wednesday the council learned there are currently no bills on local control yet pre-filed with the legislature.
The amendment, if passed by the council, would have to before the voters in 2024 for approval.
“It also feels like this can is still being kicked down the road,” said Adiena Britt, a third district resident and member of the West Coalition, a police accountability group.
Britt also objected to a clause in the proposed amendment allowing for qualified immunity– a practice that protects individual officers from most lawsuits.
“I would just really like for you all to consider that and think about victims of police brutality,” said Britt.
Those are tweaks the council could look at and potentially consider amending before the final language is passed, said Conway in an interview after the meeting.
There will be two more town halls on December 4th and 7th where city residents can weigh in on the proposed bill and charter amendment.
