Associated Press
- The NAACP can review Maryland State Police documents that contain allegations of racial profiling, a judge has ruled, granting a victory to the civil rights organization in a drawn-out legal fight.
Baltimore County Circuit Judge Timothy J. Martin decided Friday that a panel of three lawyers chosen by the NAACP’s Maryland conference will have 120 days to review the documents and select those they want copied. The names of the officers and the people who filed complaints against them will be redacted.
“I believe the fair approach is to find a middle ground,” Martin told The (Baltimore) Sun. “I know state police fear a precedent, but I believe the NAACP is entitled to disclosure of these documents.”
The Maryland conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Civil Liberties Union alleged in a lawsuit last year that state police had withheld information about how complaints of racial profiling are investigated.
Betty A. Stemley, an assistant attorney general representing state police, had argued that the documents should be considered private personnel records. But she said the agency would comply with the judge’s decision.
Brian L. Schwalb, lead attorney for the NAACP and ACLU, said he was pleased with the decision.
“We are not on a witch hunt against troopers,” he said.
Martin’s decision comes almost three months after the state settled a related lawsuit known as the “Driving While Black” case. Plaintiffs in that suit, filed in 1998, accused state police of pulling over drivers because of their race. The six remaining plaintiffs received a total of $400,000.
As part of a federal consent decree, state police made sweeping changes in traffic-stop procedures in 2003. Since then, troopers have documented the race of drivers they stop.
According to the Maryland attorney general’s office, state police have provided detailed information about racial-profiliing complaints, including the race and gender of those making the accusations and the race of the troopers involved.
But NAACP officials said several requests for such documents were denied, prompting the civil rights organization and the ACLU to file a lawsuit last September.
