Last year, Maryland starting shielding certain arrest records from view. It’s putting the public in danger.

In June of 2020, a woman in West Baltimore fired a gun at her domestic partner. She had assaulted the same partner three months earlier, was a convicted felon and had violated probation and home detention. Police found evidence that corroborated the shooting. Nevertheless, when the case came to court, the prosecutor offered, and the defendant accepted, a plea to probation for charges of misdemeanor assault and reckless endangerment.