Wayne Silver: PAB should receive redacted ACC outcomes, not investigative files

Wayne Silver, executive director of the Maryland Police Training and Standards Commission, told the Calvert County Police Accountability Board on the meeting's training segment that the Administrative Charging Committee (ACC) and the Police Accountability Board (PAB) have distinct roles and different information needs. "The ACC's responsibility is to look backwards ... the PAB's role is to look forward," Silver said, urging the PAB to focus on trends and policy recommendations rather than individual investigative details.

Silver said state guidance and his discussions with the assistant attorney general have led to a common practice: the ACC should provide the PAB with an "outcome"—a short, redacted summary of each case (for example, complaint type, ACC decision, and the ACC's recommendation)—but not names of officers or complainants, nor full investigative files. "You wouldn't receive an individual's name," he said. "You would just basically give an overview."

The distinction matters for how the PAB performs oversight. Silver argued that outcome-level data lets the PAB identify repetitive patterns (such as repeated complaints about discourteous behavior) that can prompt training or policy changes without exposing private or case-specific information. He offered concrete options for sharing that information, including a brief verbal report from the ACC chair, a simple redacted narrative, or a spreadsheet that lists complaint types and resolutions.

Silver also advised ACC members to avoid "rabbit holes"—pursuing every minor detail visible in body‑worn camera footage—and recommended returning investigative files to the agency if substantive issues arise that are not already addressed in the investigative file. He noted timing constraints: returning a file for additional information pauses and then restarts the ACC's 30‑day review clock, and the ACC loses jurisdiction after a year and a day.

County officials and board members said Calvert already benefits from a cooperative flow of complaints from the sheriff's office to the ACC, which Silver described as a "nice situation." PAB members discussed practical formats for receiving information and accepted Silver's counsel to prefer outcomes and trend summaries in order to protect privacy while enabling the PAB to recommend system-level changes.

The board discussed implementing Silver's suggestions at future meetings and how to present the information in quarterly and annual reports to provide a fuller picture than raw complaint counts.