On Tuesday, May 25, the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) released its first Strategic Framework for Advancing Equity. It is designed to help the department become fairer, more inclusive, more diverse and more transparent.
The framework includes seven commitments that will help the BPD institutionalize equity within its department. This includes partnering with department members, city agencies, and Baltimore community members to build tactical plans to address the seven commitments.
William Joyner, the BPD Equity Officer, held a lot of one-on-one meetings with employees at BPD, community groups, and neighborhood associations to ask them about the issues they have seen and what equity looks like to them. That feedback helped them build this framework, which has been a year in the making.
“We’re hoping to get broad support from the entire Baltimore community. That’s anyone who lives, works, studies, frequently visits Baltimore City because they are subject to BPD jurisdiction,” said Joyner. He hopes not to just inform members of the public of the progress but for them to be co-decision makers in the process of making these changes.
The BPD plans to go out to different groups and get their feedback and participation as they are welcomed to. Joyner acknowledged that right now not everybody wants to invite the police to their meetings, so they will go where they are invited, but they will ask for as many invitations as they can get.
The communities that they will prioritize are the sub-populations that have been most impacted by the BPD’s past of violating social and civil rights such as African American and Hispanic American communities, homeless, youth, and those living through behavioral health crises.
The Police Commissioner, Michael Harrison, serves as the Chief Equity Officer and will be holding the major stakeholders responsible for fulfilling the commitments within this strategic framework.
“The Baltimore Police Department understands and appreciates the path toward equity will be long and difficult, but we are not shrinking from the challenge,” said Commissioner Harrison in a news release. “We look forward to working with our employees and other members of the Baltimore community to ensure that access to public safety is no longer limited by a person’s identity.”
Joyner said this is a multi-year, interagency collaboration because criminal justice does not exist inside a vacuum. This effort builds off of existing plans like the BPD’s Crime Reduction and Departmental Transformation Plan.
The plan was created as a result of the federal consent decree and outlines the BPD’s plan to reduce crime and transform the organization culture of the department.
