Demands to Transform Prince George's County Police Department

As a resident of Prince George’s County, standing in solidarity with PG Change Makers, I have been moved by protest against police brutality across the nation and recently outraged by reports of racial bias in Prince George’s County Police Department that resulted in the resignation of our Police Chief. Based on the movement for Black lives, incremental reforms such as adding new training requirements and pieces of equipment have not made us any safer. I am calling for this workgroup to investigate and recommend transformative changes for and reductions to the Prince George’s County Police Department by addressing these local demands to policy changes.

Demand#1
Use already existing resources from the PGPD operating budget to create an unarmed division of mental health providers, counselors and healthcare workers; in the Health Department, to respond to mental health calls and non violent calls for service: Programs such as the Oregon CAHOOTS program is a model for health care workers instead of armed government employees to respond to community needs for service. See Mother Jones article explaining the success of the CAHOOTS program https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2020/06/theres-already-an-alternative-to-calling-the-police/ See also npr interview on the CAHOOTS program https://www.npr.org/2020/06/10/874339977/cahoots-how-social-workers-and-police-share-responsibilities-in-eugene-oregon

Demand#2
Remove police officers from County Schools: A 2016 study demonstrated that schools with police officers had nearly five times the number of arrests for disorderly conduct as schools without police officers. See http://dignityinschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Resource_Guide-on-CNC-1.pd

Demand#3
Institute transparent processes for hiring the chief of police, negotiating police contracts and appointments to the civilian review boards; with community input.https://smlr.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/ciwo_bcg-memo.pdf https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=bargaining+for+the+common+good&&view=detail&mid=74BD63E775D215B9493F74BD63E775D215B9493F&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dbargaining%2Bfor%2Bthe%2Bcommon%2Bgood%26FORM%3DHDRSC4 https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=bargaining+for+the+common+good&ru=%2fvideos%2fsearch%3fq%3dbargaining%2bfor%2bthe%2bcommon%2bgood%26FORM%3dHDRSC4&view=detail&mid=5089A04862DC086E01565089A04862DC086E0156&&FORM=VDRVSR

Demand#4
Require All payments, judgments and fees against the police department comes from the Police Dept operating budget. https://www.aclu-md.org/en/cases/hnlea-v-prince-georges-county

Demand#5
Eliminate the use of police in traffic and parking ticket enforcement & noise ordinances: In Germany, uniformed but unarmed city employees handle minor offenses such as parking ticket enforcement and noise ordinance complaints. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/world/europe/germany-police.ht

Demand#6
Using the existing resources in the police department operating budget, mandate quarterly mental health assessments for all officers to be conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.michaelshouse.com/blog/trauma-therapy-for-police-officers/