In a forceful order affirming the public’s right to government records, the Appellate Court of Maryland ruled that Anton’s Law, the state’s historic police transparency measure, requires law enforcement agencies to release the names of officers who use physical force against citizens.
A panel of three judges issued the ruling this month related to a lawsuit filed against the Ocean City Police Department by The Washington Post. Most immediately, the judges’ order requires the police department to release the names of officers listed in use-of-force reports and the administrative reviews of those incidents — information the newspaper requested in 2021 and was denied.
But the 63-page decisiongoes beyond the merits of the originating case, making clear that the legislative intent of Anton’s Law — a reform bill passed by Maryland lawmakers after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis officers in 2020 — was to radically overhaul the state’s culture around police transparency.
The opinion, written by Judge Andrea M. Leahy, affirmed a lower court’s ruling on the matter, agreeing that giving police departments sole authority to withhold use-of-force reports from the public eye would “frustrate the purpose of Anton’s Law.” Use-of-force reports, the appeals court held, are not personnel records under the Maryland Public Information Act and therefore must be disclosed.
Leahy was joined by judges Deborah S. Eyler and Terrence M. R. Zic. The panel reported its decision — meaning it creates binding precedent for Maryland’s state trial courts, unless the Ocean City Police Department appeals to the Maryland Supreme Court and the high court overturns the Appellate Court’s ruling.
The Ocean City Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Police accountability advocates marked the ruling as a victory for hard-fought transparency efforts in the state, which culminated during the 2021 legislative session of the Maryland General Assembly.
“It’s so difficult to get custodians to give you what they should give you. It shouldn’t be that hard, but it is,” said Rebecca Snyder, executive director of the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association, which advocates on behalf of news outlets including The Post. “This is a time where we need trust in public institutions. … I do feel like we’re at this inflection point.”
In the wake of nationwide racial justice protests over the police-involved deaths of unarmed Black people, Democrats in Annapolis passed a sweeping slate of reforms in 2021 that overhauled how police are disciplined, when that discipline becomes public and who investigates serious uses of force.
That year, Maryland became the first state in the nation to overturn the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights, which codified protections for police that went far beyond those of other government workers. The General Assembly also established the Independent Investigations Division under the Attorney General’s Office, tasked with investigating all fatal use of force or police-involved instances that resulted in death or serious injury.
Part of the bill package was Anton’s Law, named for 19-year-old Anton Black, a college student who died in 2018 after being restrained by police on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. His family spent months trying to get information about his death, and their struggle was inspiration for the measure.
Soon after those laws took effect, The Post filed requests to departments statewide for records related to police use of force, including in Ocean City. There had been high-profile instances of officers shocking unarmed teenagers with Tasers on the Ocean City boardwalk in June 2021.
While the department did release some records, they denied The Post’s request for the names of officers who had used force in the course of their duties and documents related to administrative reviews of those use-of-force incidents, which can include information about why an officer did or did not face discipline.
The Post sued the city officials over the records in Worcester County Circuit Court in January 2023. Attorneys representing Ocean City claimed their denial was consistent with Maryland public record laws, including Anton’s Law. Both parties filed for summary judgment, and the circuit court granted most of The Post’s request in May 2024.
The city contested that ruling to the Appellate Court of Maryland, which largely agreed with the circuit court in its decision published earlier this month.
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, the outside counsel that represented The Post in the legal matter, called the Appellate Court’s decision “groundbreaking” in a statement.
“The opinion includes powerful language examining the history of Anton’s Law and reaffirming its purpose: ensuring that records concerning investigations of police misconduct are accessible to the public,” the statement said.
Nate Jones contributed to this report.
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