Civilian group reviewing internal BPD investigations finds work ‘needs to be done’

Over the last few months, a handful of city residents tasked with reviewing the Baltimore Police Department’s internal misconduct investigations have been scouring nearly two dozen cases per week, flagging issues with missing video footage, incomplete reports and policy discrepancies. Since its first meeting in mid-June, the five-member “administrative charging committee” of the city’s Police Accountability Board has reviewed more than 370 cases, according to the city’s Office of Equity and Civil Rights, which oversees its work. Of those cases, the committee has differed from the department’s internal conclusions in seven instances, the civil rights office said.