On April 3, 2018, Seth Rosenthal was quoted in the Baltimore Sun on the Baltimore City Police Department’s progress one year after the department entered a consent decree with the federal government.
According to the article, the consent decree was reached between the city, the police department, and the Justice Department after a Justice Department investigation found that Baltimore police routinely violated residents’ civil rights. Members of the Baltimore Consent Decree Monitoring Team said during a public meeting that the parties continue to move forward to meet deadlines outlined in a first-year plan of the consent decree.
Rosenthal, a member of the monitoring team, said that the team has been meeting regularly with police and Justice Department officials. The team is also in daily email or phone communication with U.S. District Court Judge James K. Bredar, who must evaluate the police department’s compliance with the consent decree.
"He is very actively involved," Rosenthal said. The team meets every two weeks for several hours with the judge to discuss issues at a "granular level," Rosenthal said.
Several people who attended the meeting questioned why more hasn’t been done in the year since the consent decree was approved last April. Team members cautioned that the consent decree takes time, and that it requires policy changes, training, and then assessment. “Reform proceeds in stages,” Rosenthal said.
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