* Warning: This is an unofficial, introductory copy of the bill.
The official copy considered by the City Council is the first reader copy.
Introductory*
City of Baltimore
Council Bill R
(Resolution)
Introduced by: Councilmember Scott
A Resolution Entitled
A Council Resolution concerning
title
Request for State Action - Create a Board of Police Commissioners and Transfer Full Control Over the Baltimore City Police Department to The City of Baltimore
For the purpose of calling on the Maryland General Assembly to enact, and the Governor to sign, legislation to remove the Baltimore City Police Department’s status as an instrumentality of the State of Maryland and place the Department completely under the control of the citizens of Baltimore acting through the Mayor, City Council, and a new Board of Police Commissioners.
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Recitals
The Baltimore City Police Department occupies an unusual legal position as a creature of State, rather than City, law, officially an “agency and instrumentality of the State of Maryland”, that operates only on territory controlled by Baltimore City and that for most, but not quite all, purposes is treated like any other City Agency.
The handful of ways that this unusual arrangement causes the Police Department to differ from other City departments are unfortunately not all trivial. In fact, they seriously undermine the City’s ability to quickly, efficiently, and effectively respond to some of its most pressing problems.
Provisions in the State Public Local Laws exclusively affecting Baltimore City, and in the basic powers granted by the State to Baltimore in the City Charter, have been interpreted as m...
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