BALTIMORE — How much closer is Baltimore to controlling its own police department? The answer: a little closer than it was before Wednesday.
Mayor Brandon Scott signed a pair of bills which get the ball rolling on the last steps toward local control of the Baltimore Police Department.
Let's be totally clear: Baltimore does not have full control over its police department yet. Two components need to materialize in 2024 before that can be a reality: a ballot referendum this fall must be approved by city voters, and action from state lawmakers to allow it to happen.
For Ray Kelly, a local police accountability advocate and executive director of the Citizens Policing Project, this would be the culmination of work dating back to 2011.
Kelly told WMAR policy to do with Baltimore's police force should be under the control of people who live in the city.
"The police department should be held accountable to the people they are sworn and paid to serve," Kelly explained, "So, we didn't have that when they weren't really a local agency. They work here, but locally, if we had issues, that was decided on the state level."
At a Wednesday news conference, Mayor Scott signed into law two measures, laying out the locally-controlled police department into city charter and code - voters would need to approve the charter change on a referendum - and paving the way for Annapolis to conclude its own role controlling the BPD.
"I thought it was ridiculous," Scott explained, "that a state senator in Frederick County or Allegheny County could actually pass laws on our Baltimore Police Department, but we couldn't here, locally, in the City Council."
"It seems like we've made this great step," Kelly said, "but in actuality, this is the wake-up- we have to now advocate for this next step."
As Kelly explained to WMAR, if the two measures prove successful this year, the Baltimore City Council would decide police policy, like body-worn cameras, for example.
Larger picture: it would mean the end of a long loss of police control.
"164 years of injustice will finally be undone," Kelly added.
A state measure to strike certain wording from state law has not been acted on yet in the statehouse in 2024.
