Caroline County ACC reviews draft police accountability ordinance; votes to send recommendations to commissioners

The Caroline County Administrative Charging Committee (ACC) reviewed a draft ordinance to convert existing resolutions on the Police Accountability Board (PAB) and Administrative Charging Committee into local law and voted to send a letter with recommended changes to the County Commissioners.

The ACC meeting convened on April 22, 2025, at the Caroline County Health and Public Safety Building in Denton. Committee members focused discussion on a proposed provision that would require the ACC to submit questions in writing to the law enforcement agency before summoning an officer, membership restrictions tied to affiliation with police unions or immediate family relationships, and whether those procedural rules belong in county ordinance or the ACC’s rules of procedure.

The committee’s recommendations — cleared in a motion that passed unanimously — instruct the chair to send a letter to the commissioners with three core items: move the new written-question/subpoena procedure from the ordinance into the ACC’s rules of procedure; remove language in the draft that goes beyond the state statute; and change membership language so immediate-family disqualifications…