BALTIMORE — A city board that investigates certain complaints against Baltimore law enforcement officers is set to dissolve, members of the decades-old committee said, expressing concern over the city losing independent civilian oversight of police misconduct investigations.

The Civilian Review Board, established in 1999, said in a statement that city officials notified members that it would be dissolved because of legislation returning control of the Baltimore Police Department to the city. The seven-member board will stop taking new cases after Dec. 31.

Its termination would effectively end civilian-led investigations of police misconduct cases in Baltimore. The Civilian Review Board probes complaints of excessive force, false arrest, false imprisonment, harassment and abusive language. Itmakes recommendations for discipline but has been called a “toothless tiger” due to its lack of enforcement capabilities. The Civilian Review Board investigates complaints submitted by civilians about Baltimore Police, the sheriff’s office, school police and Morgan State University Police.

The city’s newer Police Accountability Board and the Administrative Charging Committee, which would handle future civilian complaints, do not have investigatory powers. Those boards were established in each Maryland county, as well as the city, in recent years as part of the state’s police reform package passed in 2021.

The Civilian Review Board’s demise came from legislation passed by the City Council last year as one of the final steps needed to bring back local control of the Baltimore Police Department, which has been under the purview of the state since the 1860s. The bill repealed a lengthy statute that governed the police department and also gave the Civilian Review Board its authority to operate. That legislation, passed early last year, was put into motion when voters elected to pass Question E in November.

In a statement, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s office said that the Civilian Review Board had been established to improve civilian oversight and accountability of the police department “understanding the intricacies of Baltimore City’s lack of local control,” which Scott has long been a proponent of.

With local control now close, the city’s “oversight apparatus is coming in line with other jurisdictions around the state,” the statement said. The mayor’s office noted the Civilian Review Board had “served as a model” for the newer boards mandated throughout the state and that “the necessary civilian oversight and investigatory powers will continue” under those boards.

The Civilian Review Board’s dissolution is “one of the collateral damage elements” of the generally positive push for local control, said Aaron Maybin, the former NFL player turned artist and civic activist who was sworn in as a board member this August.

While the Civilian Review Board has the authority to issue subpoenas and conduct independent investigations, the newer Administrative Charging Committee relies on police departments’ own Internal Affairs probes to render disciplinary decisions.

“If nothing is done about it, it doesn’t mean anything good,” Maybin, a Baltimore native who was a linebacker for the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets, said.

Police misconduct complaints submitted to the Civilian Review Board through Dec. 31 will continue to be investigated and processed by the Civilian Board before the board’s closure, Maybin said. Complaints submitted on or after Jan. 1, 2025, can be reviewed by the Police Accountability Board and the Administrative Charging Committee.

Maybin noted that while the Administrative Charging Committee has more legal authority to discipline officers, its lack of investigative power makes the civilian board rely on how well police departments investigate their own officers — and how long they take to do it.

Members of that civilian committee have been at odds with Baltimore Police over how long the department takes to turn their investigation over to the board — often too close to a deadline required by law for the board to make determinations within one year and one day of a complaint. In several cases, the department submitted cases after the determination due date.

Until it’s dissolved, the Civilian Review Board remains the only oversight board in the state that can conduct investigations independent of police departments’ internal misconduct probes, Natalie Novak, an attorney who chairs the review board, said in a statement.

“This independence is critical to building trust and ensuring accountability within our community,” Novak said.

If constituents don’t believe their cases will be investigated fairly, “they’re not going to trust the process at all,” said Maybin. “They’re not going to come forward with these stories. That breeds the space where corruption can take place.”

News of the dissolution also comes days after the city and the Department of Justice filed a joint motion in federal court noting that Baltimore Police had reached “full and effective compliance” with three sections of their consent decree, including one on community oversight. Part of fulfilling that section of the consent decree involved convening a panel that reviewed the Civilian Review Board itself, and recommended in 2018 that city officials replace it with a more powerful independent agency.

The Civilian Review Board operates independently alongside the Administrative Charging Committee and Police Accountability Board, under the city’s Office of Equity and Civil Rights. The board has handled around 1,460 cases since the city entered the consent decree with the DOJ in 2017, according to Jasmine Gibson, a spokesperson for the civil rights office.

The City Council could extend the board’s authority to accept new cases until investigatory and subpoena powers are passed on to the newer boards, Maybin said. Or, the city could establish an “independent quasi-office” for police oversight and accountability with those powers.

“These are feasible options,” Maybin said.

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Baltimore Sun reporter Glynis Kazanjian contributed to this article.

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