This story was updated at 11:50 a.m. March 12, 2020, to correct when some amendments were made to the bill.
A bill to establish community policing guidelines and new data requirements was unanimously passed Tuesday after the County Council delayed a vote last week.
The new law passed after Council Member Will Jawando offered an amendment. The amendment, recommended by the Public Safety Committee, requires the county police department to provide data reports to the policing advisory commission.
The data reports include documentation on: training standards and practices, use of force resulting in injuries caused by an officer, civil complaints of verbal offenses, the number of calls regarding substance abuse or mental health problems, and detainee demographics.
The bill’s lead sponsors, Council Members Nancy Navarro and Craig Rice, supported the amendment.
Navarro, who was council president last year, said she spent time working with various community groups on racial justice issues while forming the bill’s framework.
“I feel very strongly that our advisory groups provide such important and productive input,” she said. “I think this will be a real positive step forward for us in Montgomery County.”
Jawando said the amendment would strengthen the bill.
“No matter who you are in Montgomery County, you should have a positive relationship with the police,” Jawando said. “Right now, we know that depending on who you are and where you live, those opinions vary greatly and that’s unacceptable.”
The requirement for additional data will help propel changes in policing, he said, and address questions that don’t have direct answers.
“Why are 50% of the people arrested in 2018 African American when we represent 19% of the population? What are people being arrested for? Have we looked at this data? Have we analyzed it?” Jawando said. “The answers have been insufficient.”
A few controversial actions by police in the the last few years were a motivation for the bill. These include the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man in Silver Spring in 2018 and a police officer’s use of a racial slur toward four black men at a McDonald’s in White Oak last year.
The policing advisory commission was formed in December and will propose new policies and programs and in May, council members passed legislation to require officer-involved shootings to be investigated by a law enforcement agency outside of the county.
Previous amendments the Public Safety Committee made to the bill made on Feb. 24 included removing requirements for police to maintain and expand the school resource officer program. It also called for expanding requirements to expand reports on demographic information and for officers to increase their knowledge of the county’s diverse population.
Opponents in the community have been vocal about their concerns of expanding the school resource officer program. They were skeptical of the need for more officers in the schools and told the council about bad experiences they had with them.
Under the Feb. 24 amendments, police must designate a liaison to vulnerable populations and incorporate mental health and positive youth development initiatives.
An annual police report must include police force demographics, use of force statistics, officer suspension information, the number of youths officers refer to intervention programs, and community policing efforts.
The bill was originally brought forward for a vote on March 3, but council members were evenly split in whether to proceed.
Jawando, Council Vice President Tom Hucker and Council Members Hans Riemer and Evan Glass favored tabling the measure for more work.
Rice, Council President Sidney Katz, and Council Members Gabe Albornoz and Andrew Friedson voted to proceed. Navarro was absent.
With a deadlocked first vote, the council voted again and unanimously agreed to postpone a vote.
Rice said the bill will be a starting point for acknowledging some of the community’s challenges.
“We still have more work to be done and it should not be a surprise to anyone,” he said. “But it doesn’t mean that we throw up our hands and say therefore, ‘We’re just going to give up.’ We have to commit ourselves to make it better.”
