Washington County commissioners OK police accountability board ordinance ahead of deadline
With a July 1 deadline approaching, the Washington County Board of Commissioners this week approved an ordinance establishing a county police accountability board, putting seven people on the state-mandated panel.
The Maryland Police Accountability Act of 2021 is a sweeping police reform law passed by the state legislature last year. Each of Maryland’s 23 counties and Baltimore City are on the hook to create their own citizen-led police accountability boards before the end of June.
The boards are tasked to work with local government to improve policing and review complaints of police misconduct filed by members of the public. The new system replaces the Law Enforcement Officer’s Bill of Rights, which provided additional protections to police under investigation, and had been the state’s law since 1974.
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The Washington County commissioners are responsible for appointing board members and naming the chair of the board — ensuring the makeup of the board is reflective of the general population.
To meet that requirement, the commissioners voted 4-0 on June 7 to adopt the Washington County Police Accountability Ordinance to include seven members on the panel. The members would be appointed by majority vote of the board of commissioners, but two of those members would be individuals recommended by the county's four municipalities — Boonsboro, Hagerstown, Hancock and Smithsburg — that have a police force.
Commissioner Vice President Terry Baker was absent during Tuesday's commissioners meeting.
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A major issue raised during the meeting by Andrew Bright, attorney for the Washington County Sheriff's Office, was ensuring the smaller municipalities of Hancock, Boonsboro and Smithsburg get representation.
"Since they have their own municipal police forces, we'd probably want to have some representation (on) the accountability board," Bright said.
Commissioner Wayne Keefer suggested that the towns could come together with a recommendation of one appointee that the commissioners could then vote to appoint or not.
He added that each of the municipalities could vote on a recommendation, with one town equating to one vote.
The new state law requires Washington County to have at least five members on the board. Some counties in Maryland, such as Frederick County, have appointed up to 11 board members.
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What was considered for the number of police accountability board members?
Bright said that Washington County Sheriff Doug Mullendore asked that the number not be too large "because it becomes a cumbersome and unwieldy process."
"But, in order to preserve the kind of balance in representation, it may be necessary to go above five (members)," he said.
Commissioner Charlie Burkett said he thought up to nine board members was good "just from the standpoint that it allows the other municipalities" to have representation.
"And if a municipality doesn't put anybody forward, then ... the county (still) has the ... five on that board," Burkett said.
President Commissioner Jeff Cline, along with Keefer and Commissioner Randy Wagner supported the seven-member panel to avoid having too big of a board.
The Police Accountability Act of 2021
The Police Accountability Act of 2021 passed in the 2021 General Assembly and goes into effect on July 1. The piece of legislation repeals the law enforcement officers' bill of rights and prohibits officers from preventing citizens from recording the officers' actions if the citizen is otherwise acting lawfully and safely.
The law also requires each county to have a police accountability board.
According to the Washington County Police Accountability Ordinance, the board will be responsible for receiving complaints of police misconduct, review outcomes of disciplinary matters considered by charging committees, submit an annual report that identifies trends in the disciplinary processing of officers, and give recommendations on policy changes that would improve police accountability in the county.
The full language of the county ordinance can be found on the county website.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Commissioners approve state-mandated police accountability board
