The state of Maryland recently issued the nation’s first formal guidelines against racial profiling, an announcement that came four days after Morgan State University announced the launch of a new task force aimed at addressing some of the city’s most pressing issues, including public safety.
The new state guidelines, which were unveiled August 25 by Attorney General Brian Frosh, were created in response to what is now being recognized as a national problem with police-community relationships — a conclusion that is due in no small part to Baltimore’s own state of affairs, which were thrust in the national spotlight following the death of Freddie Gray in April.
Frosh said that he hopes the new policies will begin to repair the “frayed relationships between police and many in the community during everyday encounters.”
Dr. Maurice Taylor, Morgan State’s vice president for academic outreach and engagement and the chair of the new “Gray” Days, Brighter Tomorrows task force, said the new police mandate is a “positive first step,” but he contends that accountability will be key.
Saying such a policy is “long overdue,” Taylor went on to say, “what matters most is whether Maryland’s newly minted laws against profiling will make a difference in how police interact with minorities in Maryland and whether under the new rules there are public consequences for police who are found to have engaged in the arbitrary profiling of races and minorities based when conducting routine patrols or other activity not related to a specific crime or criminal organization.”
The task force Taylor is now chairing will focus primarily on the issues of policing and poverty in Baltimore, he said, though the group — comprised of Morgan students, faculty and administrators — will also examine other “systemic urban challenges,” including education, public health, unemployment and more.
Morgan State President David A. Wilson said the institution has a responsibility to dedicate its intellectual resources to the improvement of the community in which it dwells.
