skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

MD Groups: Policing Bills a Good Start, But Not Enough

play audio
Play

Wednesday, April 14, 2021   

Correction: The Montgomery County boy was handcuffed after leaving his school building. An earlier version incorrectly stated it was because he got into a fight. (3:27 pm EST, April 15, 2021)


ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Maryland is receiving national praise as the first state in the nation to repeal its police bill of rights and enact other police accountability measures, but a coalition of criminal-justice reform groups says the moves don't go far enough to curb police misconduct.

At the ACLU of Maryland, public-policy advocate Yanet Amanuel said the new measures - including restrictions on use of force and no-knock warrants and greater transparency in police offenses - are positive steps. However, lawmakers failed to include independent community oversight, which Amanuel said she thinks is the most important element of police accountability.

"The bill allows for civilian participation in an internal process," she said, "but it is not a separate process from the police department that is community controlled and truly accountable to the community."

Gov. Larry Hogan had vetoed the bills -- Senate Bill 71, SB 178 and House Bill 670 -- but the Democrat-controlled state Senate and House overrode the veto. Hogan said he opposed the bills because they would erode police morale and pose significant risks to public safety.

Amanuel said the new reforms did not take away trial boards, which can overturn disciplinary decisions by civilian charging committees. The coalition also was also hoping to pass a bill to remove school resource officers. She cited a recent case in which officers were called about a kindergartener who got into a fight.

"We have children being punished just for being children," she said. "What we saw a couple weeks ago in Montgomery County is just another example of that and how a child, a five-year-old child, will be put in handcuffs for simply doing things that children do."

In the 2018-2019 school year, about 3,100 Maryland students were arrested and about 80% of those arrests were by school resource officers, according to the Maryland Department of Education.


get more stories like this via email
more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021