For years communities across Maryland have been demanding access to police misconduct records. In 2021, after years of work by advocates, the General Assembly passed Anton’s Law, which gives members of the public expanded rights to records of police misconduct under the Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA). These rights to timely access are essential to the transparency and accountability required by Anton’s Law and other policing reforms enacted by the Maryland General Assembly.

Earlier this year, County Executive Marc Elrich signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with our local police union, the FOP Lodge 35, which contradicts the letter and intent of Anton’s Law. The MOA gives officers and the FOP 10 days notice before misconduct records are released so that they can sue the County to block the release of records that the public is entitled to receive.  

In a recently-reported case, we learned that the FOP has taken advantage of the MOA to file a frivolous lawsuit blocking the release of records to a member of our community who was harmed by a police officer. This lawsuit seeks to use our County as a testing ground to challenge the boundaries of Anton’s Law.