Montgomery Co. creating board of citizens to investigate police complaints
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. - Montgomery County is ushering in a new way to investigate complaints against police.
The council voted unanimously Tuesday to create a board of citizens to do those investigations: a nine-member investigatory board and a five-member panel that will review investigations.
County Executive Marc Elrich is now taking applications and will make selections for the boards. Those who are selected must be confirmed by the county council.
Lee Holland, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 35, said officers feel this could be a positive change if it’s done right.
"The boards, if they’re going to be successful, they need to be fair and impartial, well-vetted people and that has to be done," Holland said. "Unfortunately, that solely relies on one person and that’s the county executive, to be confirmed by the county council, but the officer has no say in this. The public actually has no say in this. It’s elected officials who have the say on who’s picked on these boards."
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Holland said the county continues to lose a lot of officers, and it’s critical police have faith in the new process. He said currently it’s taking about 200 days to complete an investigation, and he’s hopeful that will come down to 90 days or less.
A Maryland law requires every county to establish a police accountability board by July.
There has been much debate in Montgomery County about how to do it.
"Every jurisdiction has handled this differently and I appreciate where we have landed," said Montgomery County Council President Gabe Albornoz at Tuesday’s meeting. "I appreciate and respect the feedback we received from all sides on this critically important issue."
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"We did these conversations in an expeditious and I believe a fair manner and now the difficulty is going to be having the executive branch send over the names so that we can make certain that everyone on these boards is going to be fair and impartial for all sides," Council Member Sidney Katz said.
If you’re interested in being part of the Police Accountability Board (PAB) and Administrative Charging Committee (ACC), you can find information on Montgomery County's website.
These are paid positions with salaries ranging from $10,000 to $22,000.