BALTIMORE — Another year down, another milestone reached for the Baltimore City Police Department.
On Thursday a federal judge indicated BPD was in full compliance with another two core elements of the consent decree; first amendment protected activity and working partnerships with City School Police.
This comes after the court found BPD properly reformed its prisoner transport and officer assistance policies.
The consent decree was implemented following a DOJ investigation into the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, who died while being transported inside a police van.
As result the police department overhauled its fleet, adding new passenger safety equipment and updated policies.
Now all transports are tracked, including any injuries to detainees.
RELATED: BPD announces significant consent decree progress
During a quarterly public hearing Thursday, Judge James Bredar said the consent decree monitoring team found police made great progress in their interactions with young citizens.
While noting recent scrutiny of the juvenile justice system, Bredar suggested police have respected the fundamental, constitutional, and legal rights of Baltimore's youth.
"The decree mandates policing policies that promote the least intrusive action that will be most effective addressing the juvenile conduct issue," said Bredar.
While BPD has made massive strides, there's still a long road ahead to reach full compliance.
"2024 marks another year in which the Police Department and the City have made significant progress on the road to full compliance with the Consent Decree," said Bredar. "Almost eight years into this project, all involved now fully appreciate just how massive a task was undertaken back in 2017 when the Court order was signed.. Nearly eight years later, most of those barriers have been knocked down, and there has been true progress in the reinvention of this Department as a fully modern and even enlightened law enforcement agency...2024 has been a good year. Do we expect 2025 to be even better? Absolutely."
