Montgomery County councilmember calls for stronger police reform

SILVER SPRING, Md. - A Montgomery County councilmember is calling for stronger police reform after recent police involved incidents. Will Jawando has commissioned a study on traffic stops and introduced a bill aimed at better training for police.

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FOX 5's Maureen Umeh reports that the recommendations range from shifting some responsibilities away from police to revising training and finding alternate responses to crime.

One of the main calls, Umeh says, is to move traffic enforcement out of the police department. Task force members believe it will help stop the overly aggressive and sometimes deadly police encounters that we've seen.

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There have been several of those cases in recent years in Montgomery County, Umeh reports. One incident of note where use of force has been widely questioned happened last January. It wasn't a traffic issue but general policing when officers responding to an incident at east Silver Spring elementary school ended up handcuffing a 5-year-old and berated the child while he sobbed.

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Councilmember Jawando who has been outspoken in his calls for police reform says it should have never happened. He says he himself has been a victim of aggressive policing. His tweet and video of the traffic stop in June 2019 went viral.

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Jawando says along with the task force's recommendations, he's calling for tougher policing changes that include more detailed data. He believes that data will give a much clearer picture of what is really happening in the County.