BALTIMORE (AP) - A group that advocates for improvements in Baltimore’s criminal justice system has filed lawsuits against the city’s police department, state’s attorney’s office and civilian watchdog panel in an effort to compel the release of police misconduct records.
Baltimore Action Legal Team filed the three lawsuits “to promote accountability around local police investigations and improve trust and relationships with law enforcement,” the Baltimore Sun reported Wednesday. Open Justice Baltimore, another advocacy group, is also part of the lawsuits.
Police personnel records in Maryland are off-limits from the public, but recent misconduct scandals have exposed how officials missed complaints against officers and other warning signs. The legal director of Baltimore Action Legal Team, Matthew Zernhelt, told the newspaper he has found exemptions that allow for some records to be made public.
“We found some laws that have been hidden in plain sight,” Zernhelt said. He had filed public records requests seeking redacted officer misconduct files from the police department, use-of-force cases submitted by police to the city prosecutor’s office, and records created by the Civilian Review Board after their review of protected internal police files.
The state’s attorney’s office said it would charge more than $15,000 to provide the records that the legal group sought from prosecutors. The police department “all but ignored plaintiff,” according to the lawsuit.
Acting City Solicitor Dana Moore told the newspaper she was unaware of the lawsuits and could not comment. The State’s Attorney’s Office did not immediately return a request for comment from the newspaper.
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