Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is seeking tougher penalties for bad cops from the General Assembly as part of the legislative wish list she released Monday.
Two bills to be introduced next week would give the police commissioner greater authority to punish misbehaving cops more quickly.
The first would add a provision to the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights that would take away the right to a disciplinary hearing before a police trial board if an officer accepts a plea of probation before judgment for a felony or a misdemeanor punishable by at least one year behind bars.
It’s designed to allow the police commissioner to suspend an officer without pay without going through a departmental process.
A second bill would create a new felony charge of "misconduct in office." It would apply to officers charged with misdemeanors that carry a jail sentence of more than a year stemming from their actions while on duty. For example, 2nd degree assault is a misdemeanor that carries a sentence of up to 10 years. An officer charged with that would also face the felony misconduct charge.
The Baltimore City delegation is working on a bill that would allow the civilian review board to hear a wider range of citizen complaints.
The proposals are likely to face powerful police opposition in Annapolis. Rawlings-Blake said anyone who would oppose the bills is tone deaf.
"The notion that they're not willing to stand with the community and say that this is wrong and that everybody deserves better; I just don't see a way out of coming to that place," she said.
The Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights has been heavily criticized by demonstrators protesting the deaths of unarmed men at the hands of police. The demonstrators say it grants more rights to officers than regular citizens.
The mayor said she is still looking at other potential reforms.
Mayoral spokesman Kevin Harris said other legislators will introduce more bills addressing police accountability and that Rawlings-Blake will review those on a case by case basis.
Del. Curt Anderson, chairman of the city's team in Annapolis, says what the mayor is proposing doesn't solve all of the problems but it's a start.
"I think the things that the mayor has proposed are things that we can probably pass this year," Anderson said, "I don't think there's much in that package that folks would disagree with."
Anderson added there could be significant changes to the mayor's proposals because there are at least 10 bills being proposed that would change police practices in Maryland.
In addition to police officer misconduct, the mayor is seeking a personal property tax credit for supermarkets in food deserts, traffic enforcement officers would have the power to cite drivers who use their cell phones illegally or block the flow of traffic among other items.
Here are the legislative priorities for Baltimore City:
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