The Consent Decree Overview:
It's a legally binding settlement to a lawsuit agreed to by the Department of Justice and the Prince George's County Police Department and accepted by the court. It specifically focuses on canine policies and procedures, adoption of a Guard a Bark Methodology, the review of canine deployments, enhanced training, and the development of an automated Risk Management System for maintaining, integrating, and retrieving data necessary for the supervision and management of the canine section.
Memorandum of Agreement Overview:
The Memorandum of Agreement, also referred to as the MOA, is a written document governing an agreement between the Department of Justice and the Prince George's County Police Department. It specifically focuses on responding to incidents involving Mentally Ill Persons, Use of Force Policies, and the evaluation, documentation, and review of Use of Force. Additionally, it covers updated and enhanced training for all officers, the provision of additional less-lethal weapons for patrol officers, revision to policies and training covering the Use of OC Spray, an enhanced FTO program, improvements in the intake, processing, and disposition of citizen complaints, expanded use of video cameras in patrol vehicles and an expanded and enhanced Early Warning System.
Benefits
These agreements are designed to improve police-community relationships. These partnerships help improve job performance, improve attitudes and practices of employees, enhance standards ensuring efficient use of all resources, additional accountability and improving the Department's image. They also help the Department avoid costly civil litigation. By conforming to the agreements, the Police Department will gain the confidence of the citizens they serve. This will continue to develop the continuing partnership between our community and your police department. This will also help to establish a more efficient and effective agency, with personnel that are dedicated to serving the citizens and residents of Prince George's County.
Accomplishments
- Executive Committee and Compliance Coordination Team established
- Three Select-Workgroups established and conducting bi-weekly work sessions
- Separate briefings were conducted for the Citizen Complaint Oversight Panel, the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 89 and Chief's Citizens Advisory Council.
- Per the Consent Decree the Canine, Standard Operating Procedures was submitted to the Department of Justice for review.
- Hearing held in U.S. Federal Court
- Compliance Coordination Team Action Plan completed April 2004.
- The preliminary EIS/RMS plan was submitted to the County's Office of Law and the USDOJ for review.
- The first status reports on the Memorandum of Agreement and Consent Decree have been completed.
- Several community meetings were held with efforts to educate and inform our citizens
- The Independent Monitor was chosen in June of 2004. The team is now headed by Mr. Eduardo Gonzalez, a former Chief of Police for the city of Tampa, Florida, and a former Director of the U.S. Marshals Service. The team consists of eight members, seven have served as law enforcement officers, with four of them serving as current and former Police Chiefs, and one highly respected and noted academic authority. All members of this team are highly regarded nationally for their experience and expertise, and three of the members have served on teams monitoring Consent Decrees between police departments and the U.S. Department of Justice before.
- Two Compliance Coordination Team Analysts added to the staff.
- The Independent Monitor conducted their first quarterly site visit July 17-23, 2004.
For More Information
- Call the Compliance Coordination Team at 301-772-4722 or 301-772-4819
- Additional Information at:
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