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 Legislators hope that the death of Freddie Gray, 25, can galvanize
the Democratic-controlled state Assembly after bids for reforms,
especially one that would alter a state law giving police special
rights, went nowhere in the last legislative session.
"Unfortunately for Freddie Gray, he becomes symbolic of similar type
of issues facing police departments across the nation," said state
Senator Catherine Pugh, co-chair of a 20-member bipartisan working
group appointed this month to study police issues.
Maryland, one of the most liberal U.S. states, is the latest to
grapple with reforms after the death of Gray and those of other
unarmed black males at the hands of police in Missouri, New York,
Ohio, South Carolina and elsewhere.
"The problem of policing is not just a Baltimore problem, not just a
Maryland problem, but it's a nationwide problem," said Pugh, who
represents the impoverished neighborhood where Gray lived.
South Carolina recently passed legislation approving body cameras
for all police and California's state senate has approved a bill
barring prosecutors from convening secret grand juries to
investigate claims of police brutality. New York Governor Andrew
Cuomo, a Democrat, and Ohio's John Kasich, a Republican, have also
called for reviews of police use of force.
 The protests in Maryland following Gray's death last month increased
the sense of urgency for action there, said Pugh, who is also the
senate majority leader.
Gray sustained spinal injuries while being arrested, and six
officers were charged in his death, including a murder count. Unrest
after Gray's funeral grew so violent that Republican Governor Larry
Hogan ordered the National Guard into the largely black city of
about 620,000 people and a curfew, now lifted, was put in place.
Underscoring the challenge police face in Baltimore, the city has
recorded 107 homicides this year as of Monday, up from 74 at the
same time last year. Although police did not provide a total number
of murders since Gray's death on April 19, the Baltimore Sun said
there had been 47 killings in that period.
109 KILLED
The U.S. Justice Department is investigating the use of force by
Baltimore police and potential civil rights violations in the
3,200-member department.
The American Civil Liberties Union said in a report in March that at
least 109 people in Maryland had died in police-related killings
from 2009 to 2014. Seventy percent of the victims were black.
Pugh said her group could start hearings next month to consider
increasing economic opportunities for ex-convicts, job rotation for
officers and other reforms. Maryland's next legislative session
starts in January.
The Maryland Fraternal Order of Police, which opposed several
initiatives in the last session, is eager to work with Pugh's group,
said Frank Boston, the union's lobbyist.
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"We think that the work group itself is balanced and we're looking
forward to constructive dialogue and dealing with the aftermath of
the Freddie Gray situation," he said.
FOP opposition helped scuttle more than a dozen bills in the last
session, including measures to mandate state prosecutors investigate
all killings by police officers and to add a civilian review
process.
One target of new reforms could be the state's Law Enforcement
Officers Bill of Rights, which requires that police misconduct
probes be carried out only by fellow officers.
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake had lobbied to change that
restriction by giving the city police commissioner more power to
discipline officers.
"We'll be watching the work in Annapolis to see what ideas they come
up with to help us to achieve those objectives," a spokesman for the
mayor said.
PACKAGE OF MEASURES
Although some reforms were turned back, Hogan this month signed a
package of police-related bills. They featured creating a commission
to study the use of body cameras by police and ordering the
reporting of deaths in police custody to the governor's office.
Todd Eberly, a political analyst at St. Mary's College of Maryland,
said the damage the Gray case had done to the state's image could
overcome longstanding reluctance in the Assembly to increased
scrutiny of police.
Lawmakers also could face voter anger if they fail to act, since
blacks are disproportionately victims of police brutality and
African Americans are the core of the Democratic Party in the state,
Eberly said.
"To be seen as sort of ignoring this or dragging the feet and hoping
that it sort of goes away, it would just be a bad political
strategy," he said.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Scott Malone and Lisa Lambert)
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