BALTIMORE — The Baltimore Consent Decree Monitoring Team has released their first "comprehensive re-assessment" of the performance of the Baltimore Police Department and the city of Baltimore under their consent decree.
The report, which is more than 100 pages long explains the progress BPD and the City have made toward compliance with the requirements of the consent decree 30 months into the process. It also highlights the areas of greatest achievement, as well as the areas that continue to pose the most significant challenges.
According to the report, BPD’s "substantial progress on foundational reforms has given the Monitoring Team greater confidence in BPD’s capacity to achieve compliance."
They say that while this is promising, these reforms have not yet translated into consistent, observable change on the street. This is due to training on the reforms not being complete and "BPD’s outdated record-keeping systems continue to render inaccessible or unusable the key data required for rigorous performance assessment."
In terms of achievements, the report says BPD has successfully revised most Consent Decree-mandated policies. They've fortified their Training Academy by adding sworn and civilian staff, they've moved to modern facilities and have adopted new training methods that employ adult learning principles.
They've also conducted "effective, Consent Decree-mandated in-class training and/or e-learning on use of force, impartial policing, stops, searches and arrests, body-worn camera use, and sexual assault response" among other achievements.
In the next six months, the Consent Decree Monitoring Team will conduct reviews of use of force incidents and quantitative assessments in areas where data is available.
To read the full report, take a look below:
