The state police made sweeping changes in traffic-stop procedures as part of a 2003 federal consent decree - including documenting the race of drivers stopped and obtaining written permission before searching vehicles - to answer accusations of racial profiling and settle a federal lawsuit against the law enforcement agency.
The state attorney general's office has said that the state police have provided detailed information about racial-profiling complaints, including the race and gender of those making the accusations and of those troopers against whom the allegations are made. The state police also had provided quarterly reports about racial-profiling complaints to the civil rights organizations.
But NAACP officials said several requests for documents were denied, including requests for records related to the agency's internal investigations of racial-profiling complaints, prompting the civil rights organization and the ACLU to sue on Sept. 26 last year.
They argued that they wanted a mechanism to independently monitor whether the agency had made progress.
Also at issue were the fees for copies of the documents - 75 cents per page - a price that NAACP officials called unreasonable. The judge said he would rule later on the issue of the amounts charged for the records.
Martin, who said he reviewed the approximately 8,000 pages of documents alleging racial bias from 2003 to 2007, said he had been "struggling" to reach a decision, finding merit in the aim of the NAACP to have access to public information and in the state police's desire for privacy.
The judge rejected the NAACP's request to view records regarding complaints against the state police and individual troopers outside of racial profiling, which they said would be a way to find "a whistle-blower" to "shed light" on the agency's actions, referring to the request as "mixing apples with oranges."
Jenkins Odoms Jr., the immediate past president of the NAACP's state conference, said: "We're not here to try to prosecute any of the troopers or the Maryland State Police. We just want the necessary information and data to make sure they are appropriately following the rules and procedures that were set up for them to follow."
nicole.fuller@baltsun.com
