Montgomery County residents interested in commenting on proposed revisions to local law enforcement policies can now do so in a public portal recently launched by county police.
Monday’s official launch comes more than two years after an audit of the Montgomery County Department of Police by the nonprofit Effective Law Enforcement for All, which provides education and guidance on policing and accountability with the goal of “reinventing police departments,” according to its website.
In November 2022, Effective Law Enforcement for All released its final audit report of the department’s practices related to explicit and implicit bias after the county selected the nonprofit to help support its Reimagining Public Safety initiative.
The nonprofit recommended the department find a way to incorporate public comments into policy decisions, according to Capt. Eric Stanhill, director of the department’s Policy and Planning Division.
“I think we could learn a lot from the [public] comments, and ultimately we hope that the comments will help give us a better understanding of the community’s expectations of us and the concerns that they have,” Stanhill told Bethesda Today on Monday.
The portal, which currently lists five policies under revision and open to public comment until April 30, was soft-launched about a month ago, Stanhill said. The portal is located on the department’s homepage in the section titled “MCPD Policies Open for Comment.”
“This initiative reflects MCPD’s ongoing commitment to transparency and community involvement,” the department said in a press release announcing the portal’s launch. “By inviting public input, the department aims to ensure that its policies align with the needs and expectations of our community.”
The policies currently under revision by the department are those dealing with:
- Department Mission and Organizational Values,
- Position Vacancies and Transfers,
- Mobile Video System,
- Body Worn Camera System, and
- Auto Theft
The webpage will be updated monthly with policies under revision that are available for public comment. The comment period is typically open for 30 days but could last longer, Stanhill said, depending on the complexity of the policy.
“It’s important to remember that when we write policy, we want to not write it based on feelings or emotion, but on best practices, and we rely on organizations like the Police Executive Research Forum, International Association of Chiefs of Police and the [Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies] to guide us,” Stanhill said.
Policy revision process
Stanhill said the department has a “very involved” policy revision process that can take more than a year to complete. The process typically begins when a unit in the police department requests that the planning division consider revising an existing policy, he said.
The division will then work with the unit to “craft the directive,” which it will organize into a “proper format,” Stanhill said. During this process, the policy will be available for public comment and division staff will share the feedback with the unit to “see if they can incorporate the recommendations into the policy,” he said. After that, the proposed policy is sent to the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) for review.
“We want to make sure that our policy is consistent with what CALEA recommends, and since we’re accredited by them, we need to make sure our policies do fall within their standards,” Stanhill said.
When that process is complete, the department’s training academy reviews the policy, followed by the department’s executive staff and assistant chiefs, according to Stanhill. The county attorney also reviews the policy, as well as the county’s Office of Labor Relations. Once the county’s reviews are finished, the policy is sent to the local police union — the Fraternal Order of Police — for a 45-day review.
“If [the union sees] a concern with [the revised policy], then we’ll communicate with them and work out what their concerns are to try and make everybody comfortable with what we’ve done,” Stanhill said. “Once we get through that entire process, it goes to the [police] chief to be signed, and then it’s policy.”
Stanhill said that some policies can be more complex than others and take far more time or have a committee dedicated to working on them. For example, when the department first introduced body-worn cameras to the police force, a committee was formed to work on policies related to using the technology.
When asked how the department would communicate proposed policy revisions or changes to the public, Stanhill said his division would consider sharing updates in announcements or press releases. But currently, that is not the practice, he said.
The county’s Police Accountability Board did not immediately respond to Bethesda Today’s request for comments on the portal’s launch Tuesday afternoon. The Board works with law enforcement agencies to review, provide advice and report on disciplinary matters, advises the County Executive and Council on policing matters and receives complaints of police misconduct filed by members of the public.
