New laws taking effect Oct. 1: More access to police misconduct records, and you must lock your scooter - The Washington Post

An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that laws on scooters and on hate crimes take effect in the District on Oct. 1. In fact, parts of those two laws are already in effect, while some parts of the laws begin that day. The article has been corrected.

Some police misconduct records in Maryland will be available to the public and the investigation of officer-involved deaths will be handled by an independent unit in the state attorney general’s office, under two new police accountability measures that take effect on Friday.

On the same day, a slew of new laws will go into effect in the District, ranging from a requirement that renters of electric scooters lock them to a pole instead of leaving them loose on the sidewalk, to longer paid sick leave for workers.

Maryland’s new police transparency law is named for Anton Black, a 19-year-old college student who died in 2018 after being restrained by officers on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Black’s family, who filed a wrongful-death lawsuit last year, spent months after his death trying to get information from authorities.

“This law opens up the opportunity for victims to not only be able to get information but to provide closure for themselves and their family and indeed hold government accountable,” Caylin Young, the director of public policy at the ACLU of Maryland, said of the police transparency law.

Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D) announced in July that he hired Dana Mulhauser, the former chief of St. Louis County’s Conviction and Incident Review Unit, to lead the independent unit that the General Assembly created under the other police accountability measure. The new law also bans police departments from acquiring surplus military equipment.

Young said the ACLU will be closely watching the implementation of Anton’s Law to ensure that complaints are not being shielded. Many completed investigations of misconduct would be releasable under the new law, although officials could still withhold records by determining the disclosure is “contrary to the public interest.”

“If we are finding that custodians are denying or frivolously denying records, then that’s going to raise an alarm,” he said. “It’s not just passage of the law but seeing what information we will be able to get for these families is going to be part of our next steps.”

In the District, many policies enacted as part of the fiscal 2022 budget go into effect Friday, including expanding D.C. workers’ right to paid medical leave from two weeks to six weeks, sending $500 payments to workers whose unemployment payments were previously delayed and hiring mental health clinicians and librarians at public schools that previously did not have any.

And portions of anact regulating the electric scooters that several private companies offer across the region take effect in the District, with a long list of rules for the scooter companies and scooter riders. Riders will need to take note: As of Friday, they are required to lock their scooter at the end of their ride to a bike rack, street sign or similar object, rather than leave it on the street.

The District will begin a new program promoting public restroom access, including the construction of two public restrooms and the formation of a working group to consider installing more, as well as financial incentives for certain businesses to open their bathrooms to the public.

The city will also create several new offices, including a Commission on Poverty to study the effectiveness of programs designed to reduce poverty; an Ombudsperson for Children to inspect the city’s services for children who have been reported to be abused or neglected; and an office to help connect deaf and hard-of-hearing residents to city services and to advocate for their needs. The law requires that the director of that new office be someone who is deaf or hard of hearing.

Another new Maryland law abolishes life without parole sentences for juveniles, making Maryland law consistent with statutes enacted in the District and about 20 states.

The police and juvenile justice reform bills were part of a larger effort during the 2021 legislative session to make the justice system fairer — for victims of police misconduct who could not obtain information about an officer’s record, and for Black men who make up 70 percent of the prison population in the state, the highest percentage in the country.

Del. Jazz Lewis (D-Prince George’s), who sponsored the Juvenile Restoration Act, said he proposed the sentencing bill after learning that 82 percent of juveniles charged as adults who received life and life-equivalent sentences in Maryland are Black.

The legislation also includes a provision that allows anyone who was convicted as a juvenile and has served 20 years or more to petition a judge for release. Lewis said about 400 prisoners could qualify.

Gov. Larry Hogan (R) vetoed Anton’s Law and the juvenile sentencing measure earlier this year, but the Democratic-controlled legislature overturned his actions before the session ended in April.

Maryland will also become one of the first states in the country to limit law enforcement’s use of consumer genealogy websites. Sen. Charles Sydnor (D-Baltimore) sponsored the legislation that only allows police to use the websites and their databases while investigating serious violent crimes and only after they have exhausted other methods.

Also taking effect in Maryland are new laws that expand the number of early voting centers and that increase the amount of time the centers are opened. One new law will make it illegal for anyone 13 years or older to intentionally release a balloon into the air and another will lower the age for consenting to mental health treatment from 16 years old to 12.

This year, Gov. Ralph Northam’s (D) office said that just two new statutes take effect on Friday: The first renames the state’s Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy to simply the Department of Energy. The second is a provision in a sweeping Housing Bill of Rights, passed this year, that sets out specifics for the notice that is required before a trustee can sell a property in a foreclosure sale.

source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/maryland-dc-laws-police-misconduct/2021/09/30/67fc530c-1c82-11ec-8380-5fbadbc43ef8_story.html

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