For Immediate Release
September 21, 2020

Contacts:
Gregg Kelley, [email protected] or 202-319-1070
Meredith Curtis Goode, [email protected] or 443-310-9946

HNLEA and UBPOA enthusiastically support PG Office of Public Defenders and community groups for their motions to demand full transparency for PG County Task Force for Police Reform.

GREENBELT, MD – The Hispanic National Law Enforcement Association (HNLEA) and the United Black Police Officers Association (UBPOA) are very pleased that the Prince Georges County’s Office of the Public Defender (OPD), as well as the PG County NAACP and a group of community groups, have separately filed additional papers seeking to unseal portions of the report of their expert, Michael Graham, as well as substantial supporting evidence in the form of Prince Georges Police Department (PGPD) and County documents which County Executive Alsobrooks and the County Attorney are seeking to withhold from any review by the press or public.  Those documents show both racially motivated misconduct by PGPD officers and the continuing efforts of PGPD and the County to withhold such information from the OPD and public.  For example, Mr. Graham reviewed PGPD records that show that 99.8% of nearly 7000 complaints of excessive force by PGPD officers over a four-year period were classified as “justified” by PGPD.  His report provides the details of some of those cases and supports those descriptions with PGPD documents.  The county continues to insist that those descriptions and documents must be sealed, even though they have been filed with the federal district court in response to a motion of the county seeking to limit discussion of those facts at the trial of this matter.

In their filings, both OPD and the community groups agree with HNLEA and UBPOA that the seal is not justified and in fact is contrary to the public’s right to know the details of police misconduct.

“Having the OPD, NAACP and several key community groups demand full transparency of the facts and data to be shared to the PG County Task Force on Police Reform, as well as the press and residents of PG County, demonstrates that the concerns that the HNLEA and UBPOA are legitimate and vitally important to creating change,” said Acting Captain Thomas Boone, president of UBPOA.

In the case, Hispanic National Law Enforcement Association NCR et al v. Prince George’s County et al, the plaintiffs are represented by John Freedman, Peter Grossi, Jr., Adam Pergament, Preston Smith, and Mei-Wah Lee from Arnold & Porter; Jonathan Smith, Dennis Corkery, Joanna Wasik, and Tristin Brown from the Washington Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights & Urban Affairs, and Deborah Jeon from the ACLU of Maryland.

You can view the letter and exhibits that HNLEA and UBPOA sent the PG County Task Force for Police Reform that details twelve recommendations here.

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