Should the Public Have Access to Police Misconduct Reports?
BALTIMORE (WJZ)-- A Baltimore state senator is calling for more transparency. The issue is how much information in misconduct investigations should be made available. Some say right now, there's virtually none.
Policing by nature is not an easy job, but a Department of Justice investigation found patterns of misconduct in the Baltimore Police Department that are currently being addressed.
Now Baltimore Senator Joan Carter Conway is sponsoring a bill to make information in police misconduct investigations open to the public.
"Especially if in fact I'm the victim and I file a complaint against the police then I should be able to see the file to know the outcome or what the status of or whether or not they're investigating and they currently do not do that," Conway says.
Right now many cases are designated personnel files and not released. Dorothy Copp Elliott's son was killed by by police in Prince George's County.
"We didn't get the police reports that they promised us," Elliott says.
Baltimore Councilman Brandon Scott says it's a transparency issue.
"I think this is something everyone can come together to agree on," Scott says.
But there is some opposition from law enforcement.
"It just opens up the whole investigative file and does nothing to provide anything other than a means for a lot of information for a lot of individuals outside of just even the officers involved would just be out in the public sphere," says Vince Canales of the Maryland FOP.
Opponents feel the bill is too broad. This is not a direct result of the Baltimore Consent Degree. The bill was also introduced last year.
More testimony is scheduled for next week.
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