Baltimore Police Monitoring Team To Look For Community Input At Public Forums
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — An independent monitoring team will be going to different parts of the city to ask residents what they think about the Baltimore Police Department's consent decree plan.
The decree was reached earlier this year after a Justice Department Investigation into the Baltimore Police Department following the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray from injuries sustained in police custody. The investigation found widespread discriminatory and unconstitutional policing in particularly poor, predominantly black neighborhoods.
The monitoring team will help the police department carry out mandated reforms which include limits on when and how officers engage individuals suspected criminal activity. The team will also help with training in deescalation tactics as well as interactions with young people, mentally ill, and protesters.
The monitoring team is led by Kenneth Thompson, a partner at Baltimore's Venable law firm and includes policing experts, lawyers, psychologists and criminal justice professors.
There will be four large community forums, one in each of the four quadrants of the city. The first of the four meetings will be on Tuesday night at Mervo High School. The other locations will be at these high schools:
- November 28, Douglas High School
- November 29, Dunbar High School
- December 19, Harford Heights Elementary School
Each forum will run from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.. Registration to the forum is suggested but not required. Registration is being asked so the Team can appropriately plan for seating. You can register by e-mailing info@bpdmonitor.com.
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