The Baltimore Police Accountability Board (PAB) is looking to use other accountability groups as models for their own organization. They discussed their thoughts at their November 4 meeting, held on Zoom.
Comprising 17 members who were appointed by Mayor Brandon Scott, along with Baltimore City Council, the group is responsible for handling police misconduct complaints, holding regular meetings with the heads of law enforcement, and issuing public reports about the state of police misconduct in Baltimore.
This year, PAB’s board sent several of its members to The National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE) conference. NACOLE is a nonprofit organization working to foster the growth of civilian oversight of law enforcement agencies, jails, and prisons. The board attended the conference to identify solutions to improve civilian oversight in Baltimore.
Samuela Ansah, the board’s liaison, said she attended a panel on transparency surrounding the Chicago Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA).
“They’re definitely a model to aspire to,” said Ansah on the possibility of PAB adopting COPA’s strategies, adding that the panel was “informative.” She left feeling reassured that police accountability issues aren’t exclusive to cities like Baltimore.
Like Baltimore’s board, members of COPA can only investigate cases of potential police misconduct and make recommendations.
“It happens everywhere. It’s just the reality of doing oversight, and there are definitely strategies for overcoming it.”
Jesmond Riggins, a board member, divided his takeaways from the conference into three segments, the first being that Baltimore needs its own independent office of civilian oversight. (Like Ansah, Riggins cited COPA in Chicago as a suitable example.)
Riggins’ second takeaway was that community education should be PAB’s primary outreach tool, while the third—which Riggins said was inspired by the New York Civilian Complaint Review Board—involved identifying more efficient methods for collecting complaint data.
Riggins said that an important topic raised during the conference was a lack of public knowledge of police oversight strategies.
“People tend to forget why they need civilian oversight until another tragedy happens.”
Jesmond Riggins
“People tend to forget why they need civilian oversight until another tragedy happens,” said Riggins.
“If memory—or keeping the public engaged—is an issue, then how do we institutionalize memory? How do we perpetuate memory in the community?”
During the meeting, PAB also gave updates on the number of complaint cases they have. Megan Kenny, the board data chair, explained that while a data report is being drafted, it awaits some updates.
“Right now I can’t [share any information], because we’re still building and making sure that the machine is tight. If you have bad data, you have bad conclusions,” said Kenny.
The board also discussed working with the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) to find better ways for officers to disarm suspects without the use of excessive violence. This came about as the board received body camera footage of a fleeing subject carrying a gun.
Joshua Harris, the board chair, said that it was extremely important for both PAB and BPD to come up with a non-lethal way to disarm people carrying weapons, imploring the PAB board to develop a strategy—along with potential policy recommendations—to address these situations.
Joshua Harris, the board chair, said that it was extremely important for both PAB and BPD to come up with a non-lethal way to disarm people carrying weapons, imploring the PAB board to develop a strategy—along with potential policy recommendations—to address these situations.
Police regulations allow officers to use deadly force in situations involving perceived threats. He said that while this context is important, a concern is that officers shouldn’t shoot people for carrying weapons.
“There has to be a way to de-escalate situations,” said Harris. “Figuring out what that looks like, from a policy perspective, is something I think that we’re tasked with here. [We want to] make sure that we’re creating a safer environment for everyone across the board.”
Another major point of business was discussing how to protect complaints against officers from both inside and outside the BPD.
Board members argued that the laws of police accountability should be expanded to include officer-to-officer complaints in addition to civilian-to-officer interactions. This issue was raised in response to a 2018 altercation wherein on-duty Baltimore police officer Marlon Koushall assaulted then-Sgt. Henrietta Middleton, who was off-duty.
While a federal jury has since awarded $5.2 million to Middleton, Kenny noted that both officers remain with BPD, meaning that Middleton still has to work alongside her abuser. Board member Peter Bodde agreed with Kenny that this should have been addressed in addition to financial compensation.
“No person should ever be forced to work in an environment where these things have occurred,” said Bodde.
“[Situations like this] can have lifelong effects. It’s just wrong. That’s why we exist.”
The meeting closed on Harris reiterating the importance of data in the board’s work and speaking on further collaboration with NACOLE and other organizations such as Chicago’s COPA, along with The Engaging Center for Policing Equity. He encouraged the board to refer to these organizations as models to help PAB improve.
“We can move in that direction if we push forward, and if we educate the community and citizens about it and why it’s necessary,” Harris said.
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