A bipartisan effort in both the House and Senate chambers of the Maryland General Assembly has brought about the first substantial reforms to the civilian review process for police misconduct in Maryland.
Although prior bipartisan efforts have failed, 2025 was the first year police reform in Maryland saw a substantive change since the passage of the original legislation in 2021. The new provisions – enacted by SB 533 – effect how and when investigations are undertaken following a complaint of police misconduct by a member of the public. The most significant shared concern for stakeholders in the discussion was the need to separate the investigation timelines of an incident potentially giving rise to both a criminal case and civilian complaint of misconduct.
While other measures, listed below, were attached to SB 533 the need for a tolling provision in the instance of a criminal case was the most widely shared priority of the new law. An independent report on the implementation of police reform from the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention and Policy indicated that every single jurisdiction statewide referenced this as an issue.
The problem stemmed from the current law requiring all claims of police misconduct, made to a police accountability board, to be investigated, reviewed, and have charges filed within a year and a day from the filing of a complaint. To meet this deadline a law enforcement agency would be required to due concurrent criminal and administrative investigations, which carry the potential for a 5th or 14th amendment violation, which could lead to a mistrial, and the forfeit of potential justice and accountability for residents. For this reason, the law allows for the resolution of the criminal case before the timeline on the administrative investigation begins.
The language in SB 533 states that if the conduct giving rise to a complaint is potentially the subject of a criminal investigation then administrative charges are to be filed within one year and a day after:
- the investigating agency determines the incident is not related to criminal activity;
- final disposition of related criminal charges are filed; or
- notification that prosecutors declined to file criminal charges
Additional changes included in SB 533 are:
- a deadline of about 11 months for investigations to be handed off to a civilian charging committee
- clarification that a civilian charging committee has at least 30 days for review
- specifies any cases needing further review, have an additional month to be completed and filed
- extension of the full investigation and filing timeline to 13 months from 12
- administrative charges that do not require civilian review need to be filed within one year and a day from when a law enforcement agency became aware of the incident
- clarified the process is strictly for complaints made by the public and not members of law enforcement
