The omnibus Public Safety and Policing Bill (SB 1026) has been voted out of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee with amendments to the composition of police trial boards.

As reported in The Baltimore Sun:

The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee voted to empower police chiefs across the state to put a citizen on police trial boards, something not allowed under current law.

But the panel stipulated that those members would only have an advisory role unless local leaders voted to grant them full voting rights.

“Any mayor of Baltimore City is out of their mind not to have a voting member,” said Sen. Nathaniel J. McFadden, a Baltimore Democrat on the committee.

Committee chairman Sen. Bobby Zirkin praised the compromise as a way to let local governments make choices about how to discipline police without imposing unwanted reforms on small, rural departments.

For more information read the full article in The Baltimore Sun.

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