On April 12th, Baltimore police officers made eye contact with Freddie Gray at North Avenue and Mount Street. Gray ran, the police chased, and you know the rest of the story: the 25-year-old Gray suffered a spinal injury while in police custody and died a week later. Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, in announcing charges against the officers on Friday, said the officers did not have probable cause to arrest Gray.
Even before the Freddie Gray case, the state’s attorney’s office wanted Baltimore police to bring more expertise in deciding when and how to stop someone on the street (or in a car), and what makes a valid arrest. The city has approve $50,000 to put 300 police officers through 12 hours of training. The lawyer who created the training, Byron Warnken, joins us by phone to talk about it. He’s a University of Baltimore Law Professor and the senior member of Warnken, Attorneys At Law, which he founded with his wife.
