GLEN BURNIE. MD. — Maryland's Supreme Court upheld an Appellate Court ruling on how police may handle a fleeing suspect. The 6-1 decision says officers may stop a fleeing suspect if they are in a high crime area.
This is based on a the precedent of several Supreme Court decisions that held that fleeing gave police the suspicion of a crime.
Washington's lawyers argued that there are innocent reasons to flee police, especially in light of recent incidents like the GTTF scandal.
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Trevor Kiessling, a local attorney, feels this ruling swings highly in favor of the police.
"I think it really opens the door to allowing stops when there's no particular good reason to do so. It just causes the opportunity for the police officers to take people into custody," said Kiessling.
We spoke with some defense attorneys who said they were familiar with this ruling and the Maryland Supreme Court could have made this better if there was less gray area.
"If they just simply made it a clear line one way or the other and either said you could always do it or you can never do it. Now by hanging it up in the middle, leaves it completely up to discretion," said Kiessling.
Other defense attorneys we talked to said they understand the ruling and feel it's time we get back to supporting police, but understand how this could possibly be overreaching
"Everyone flees when there is trouble amiss," said Kiessling.
