© 2024 WEAA
THE VOICE OF THE COMMUNITY
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Help us keep this community resource alive by making a contribution today!

In the Media: BPD to Share Misconduct Complaints with Review Board; City Water Rates to Increase

Baltimore City skyline.
Phil Gold
/
Flickr

A digest of Baltimore news from local sources.

From the Baltimore Sun: Baltimore police failed to share misconduct complaints with civilian oversight board; promise to do so now

"Baltimore police have agreed to share complaints about officer misconduct with the Civilian Review Board, a beleaguered group created nearly two decades ago to provide citizen oversight of city law enforcement, after the department failed to forward hundreds of cases.

"According to a Baltimore Sun analysis, Baltimore police did not forward to the board from 2013 to 2015 more than two-thirds of the police misconduct cases that are under its purview. The board takes complaints alleging excessive force, abusive language, harassment, false arrest and false imprisonment.

"Under the agreement facilitated by City Hall last month, police will send the Civilian Review Board all citizen complaints but withhold investigative and personnel files until the board obtains a notarized copy from the complainant. The board had planned to go public with allegations that police were not following the law.

"Police officials said they did not share citizen complaints that had not been notarized, which they believed was legally required. Rodney Hill, who oversees internal affairs investigations as chief of the Office of Professional Responsibility, said that while police and the board interpreted the law differently, there was no effort to conceal complaints.

"'Baltimore police are not intentionally keeping cases from the Civilian Review Board,' Hill said.

"Established by the General Assembly in the late 1990s as an outside check on police misconduct, the board has been beset by vacancies and questions about its relevancy. It has limited powers, and most of the time agrees with the findings of police investigations into misconduct. When the board has recommended that police reverse a decision in a case, the commissioner has rarely followed its advice.

"The board can only recommend changes in how police misconduct cases are adjudicated and has no authority to discipline officers or appeal decisions by police.

"State law requires that citizen complaints filed with the Civilian Review Board be notarized. For a document to be certified by a licensed notary public, complainants need identification and often must pay a fee.

"State law also requires that police hand over complaints to the board within 48 hours.

"Critics said police were being unnecessarily selective about which complaints to share with the board."

Read the full article at the Baltimore Sun

From the Baltimore Sun: Baltimore water, sewer rates to increase

"Baltimore residents will pay about 33 percent more for water and be charged two new fees under a three-year plan to help pay for repairs to the city's crumbling infrastructure and fix an error-prone water billing system.

"Baltimore's spending panel approved the city water rate increase on Wednesday during a nearly three-hour public hearing at City Hall. More than a dozen people testified against the plan at the hearing.

"The yearly water bill for a typical family will increase about $170 by the third year of the plan, the Department of Public Works said.

"The Board of Estimates voted to increase the water rate an average of 9.9 percent annually and sewer rates 9 percent a year through fiscal year 2019. The plan also calls for new 'infrastructure' and 'account management' charges.

"City Council President Bernard C. 'Jack' Young and Comptroller Joan M. Pratt voted against the increases. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake controls the other three votes on the five-member board."

Read the full article at the Baltimore Sun

From the Washington Post: Donor to Baltimore police surveillance program calls privacy debate ‘healthy’

"The public uproar over the secrecy of the Baltimore police department’s test of an aerial surveillance technology is a 'healthy' part of the process to decide whether the city will support the program with taxpayer money, one of the philanthropists bankrolling the initiative said.

“'We haven’t created a position as to whether Baltimore should use it. This is the first of many steps to evaluate whether the technology should be used,' said Laura Arnold, a Houston-based philanthropist who is paying for the surveillance with her billionaire husband, John. 'No program would be successful unless they address these issues [of privacy]. They’re never going to reduce crime in Baltimore or any city unless the community is part of the solution. This is all very healthy.'

"The couple personally gave $360,000 to the Baltimore police department to fund a surveillance project that began in January by Persistent Surveillance Systems, based in Ohio. The firm has flown a single-engine airplane 8,000 feet above Baltimore with a bank of high-powered cameras to record hundreds of hours that can help police track the movements of people involved in crimes.

"Police officials have said the program was not a secret, but Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and City Council members learned about the program only recently, after a Bloomberg Businessweek cover story revealed its existence.

"The Baltimore City Council intends to hold a hearing on the program. And Maryland Public Defender Paul DeWolfe is calling for a halt to the surveillance.

"Laura Arnold said such scrutiny is crucial for the community to evaluate the value of the technology.

“'As supporters of the ACLU we deeply recognize the concerns and the tradeoffs that need to be made on privacy,' Arnold said Sunday in an interview with the Baltimore Sun. 'Not only do we fully respect and support that process; for us, we don’t see it as a contradictory thing. We should have this conversation.'

"The Arnolds, she said, would never 'presume to tell you what’s best for your neighborhood.'

“'With the Baltimore system, we became interested in it as a special tool that may or may not be successful in improving what we all consider to be unacceptable clearance rates in urban areas like Baltimore,' Arnold said. 'The jury is still out on if it works. It’s an alternative that we should learn about — whether it’s worth doing, whether communities will accept it. Does it impermissibly infringe on civil liberties? These are all important questions that need to be answered.'

"The couple’s extensive philanthropic efforts focus on using technology and data analysis to help reform big public-policy questions in criminal justice, public education and public pensions. The Chronicle of Philanthropy estimates that the couple has donated $1.2 billion over the past five years personally and through their Laura and John Arnold Foundation.

"The 43-year-old former corporate attorney runs the foundation full time with her 42-year-old husband, a former Enron and hedge-fund manager with a fortune approaching $3 billion."

Read the full article at the Washington Post