Baltimore County PAB will receive quarterly redacted ACC opinions under confidentiality agreement

The Baltimore County Police Accountability Board voted May 11 to accept quarterly hard-copy, redacted opinions from the Administrative Charging Committee (ACC), with each packet released to board members under a confidentiality agreement.

Aiden, ACC staff, told the board the opinions would be "redacted in in accordance to MPIA uh requirements" and that staff would provide opinions that reached a final disposition between meetings. He said the PACKETS would be prepared for pick-up rather than distributed electronically to limit inadvertent disclosure.

The proposal specifies that opinions finalized between the meeting date and the preceding Friday will be included in that quarter’s packet; ACC staff set a practical cutoff to avoid unequal access for members attending on different days. Aiden said the practice will be quarterly because "it'll be less burdensome on me and Kelly to ensure proper coordination," citing limited staff capacity for redactions.

Don, an ACC member, described the committee’s drafting process and emphasized that the opinion text beyond the findings is factual material drawn from reports and evidence. "It is not the opinion of anyone except the committee ultimately," Don said, adding that the ACC collaboratively edits factual summaries and that the attorney adviser reviews opinions for legal sufficiency.

Board members voted in favor of receiving the redacted opinions and were asked to email Kelly to indicate whether they want hard copies available at the June meeting. Aiden said packets would include opinions that reached final decision through the ACC process, including cases not sustained, officer-accepted resolutions, trial board outcomes when accepted, or circuit court rulings.

The board will review how the approach works at subsequent meetings; Aiden and Kelly will track who receives packets and the number distributed to maintain an internal log.