Baltimore County Police Accountability Board adopts 2025 annual report, asks for redacted ACC opinions

The Baltimore County Police Accountability Board on Dec. 15 adopted its 2025 annual report and voted to seek greater access to final, redacted Administrative Charging Committee (ACC) opinions to improve trend analysis and oversight.

The board’s motion to accept the draft, made by Scott Richmond and seconded by another member, passed unanimously following a detailed review of the report’s charts, figures and recommendations. Chair (speaker 3) said the board would post the final report online and send it to the county executive and the chair of the county council.

Abe (speaker 4), who walked the board through the draft, said the report’s core changes include a new paragraph acknowledging Baltimore County’s redistricting and formatting fixes to make the ACC data easier to read. The ACC’s quarterly summary, presented by Dawn (speaker 1), showed the ACC had rendered 54 opinions over the reporting period; 12 involved use-of-force allegations and 53 involved county police members. The report’s graphics distinguish charged cases (gold) from not-charged cases (blue) and include both raw numbers and percentage breakdowns.

The board approved three policy recommendations in the report: (1) maintain the longstanding request to remove departmental car accidents from ACC jurisdiction except when filed by a member of the public; (2) again ask the Maryland Police Training and Standards Commission to increase training frequency and post an annual schedule; and (3) a new recommendation to provide the PAB with redacted copies of ACC opinions upon final disposition, subject to confidentiality protections and signed confidentiality agreements for board members.

"To enhance the PAB's ability to identify trends and discipline issues, we are going to provide redacted copies of ACC opinions upon final disposition," Abe said during the discussion. He noted the change aims to give the board sufficient detail to spot recurring issues while protecting sensitive information.

Several members and public advocates urged additional transparency steps. Peter Ritschke (speaker 11), an advocate with the Baltimore County Police Accountability Coalition, renewed a long-standing request that the board consider independent outside counsel rather than relying solely on the county Office of Law. "There is an obvious conflict with using the Office of Law in the first place because their fiduciary responsibility is to the county," Ritschke said, urging the board to consider a recommendation to the county council or state legislature.

County staff (speaker 6) told the board the Office of Law recently assigned separate attorneys to the PAB and the ACC, but acknowledged the board could consider pursuing outside counsel in the future. Board member Scott Richmond (speaker 7) said the board also needs clearer parameters on what constitutes an "outcome" versus a "final disposition," and how much redaction is necessary so the board can use opinion content for policy analysis without exposing protected personal information.

The report also summarizes recent trial-board activity: several trial boards were convened or scheduled, one cancelled by resignation, and at least one officer accepted discipline via settlement that included short loss-of-leave penalties and written reprimands. When asked whether settlement means the officer accepted charges and discipline, Aiden (speaker 4) explained that an accepted settlement does indicate the officer accepted the discipline packaged in that agreement.

Board members recommended several editorial and formatting changes — adding totals to certain graphs, moving numbers for clarity, and keeping table formats where they aid readability — and asked staff to coordinate with BCStat about possibly including ACC-specific visualizations on the county dashboard.

The board set a submission deadline for the report ahead of Dec. 31 and scheduled its next meeting for March 16, 2026. The board voted unanimously to adopt the annual report as revised.