Ben Jealous
In past 30 years, 120 people have lost their lives due to encounters with Baltimore Police. Many of them were unarmed. Yet before the Freddie Gray case, only five police officers had faced criminal prosecution related to on-duty deaths.
Last week the Campaign for Justice, Safety and Jobs released our six-point agenda for police reform in Baltimore. This week and every week moving forward, our campaign needs the support of residents of Baltimore to pressure lawmakers at every level to finally, after all these years, begin to reform the Baltimore Police Department.
The first level is the city of Baltimore itself. City leaders will frequently hide behind the argument that state-level reform needs to come first, but the fact is that each of the Campaign’s six demands can be enacted or committed to starting tomorrow, if our leaders are brave enough to take a stand.
For instance, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Interim Police Commissioner Kevin Davis can take steps to fire bad cops by bolstering the Internal Affairs Division and committing to release an annual report that details which officers are involved in citizen complaints. Similarly, Mayor Rawlings-Blake can immediately remove the stifling “gag order” on victims of police misconduct who agree to legal settlements with the city.
These are common sense demands that the Baltimore Sun endorsed and the spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department called “reasonable” last week. The members of our campaign plan to meet with the mayor, police chief and other elected officials in the coming weeks to ensure that they feel pressure to act on these demands. We will be able to make our case more forcefully if residents of Baltimore stand up to let their leaders know that they too want a change.
The second level for reform is the Maryland state legislature. A statewide statute known as the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, or LEOBR, provides police officers with significant legal protections not enjoyed by other citizens. For example, LEOBR allows officers to enjoy a 10-day delay before being investigated in matters involving possible discipline. Many people argue that this helps officers get their stories straight before speaking with those who can hold them accountable – and this is a right that the average citizen of Maryland does not enjoy.
A major part of the reason that LEOBR is law in the first place is because of the power of police unions. Over the past decade, the largest police associations in Maryland have donated nearly $2 million to state politicians in Maryland. The best way to counter the power of organized money is to harness the power of organized people. In this upcoming election year, our legislators need to hear that the people of Baltimore will not stand for police officers having special rights.
Finally, beyond city and state policies, the last level of reform is on the federal level. This summer U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski introduced the “BALTIMORE ACT”, which would address many of the core issues that have led to an erosion of trust among communities and police. It would both encourage police departments to improve training and adopt body cameras, and address democracy issues by providing voting rights to former offenders.
Senator Cardin has also introduced the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act, which would provide incentives for police departments to adopt performance-based standards to ensure that incidents of misconduct are addressed. Both of these would be important pieces of legislation that would address police issues in Baltimore and other cities around the nation.
We are at a unique moment in Baltimore’s history, when the eyes of the nation are on our city and our leaders feel pressured to reform a police department that has long been able to act with impunity. We must not let up until our demands for reform are met.
Benjamin Todd Jealous is a partner at Kapor Capital and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, as well as former president of the NAACP. He is also chair of the Southern Engagement Foundation, which is part of the Campaign for Justice, Safety and Jobs.
