The Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center must turn over documents about the jail?s incarceration practices to the NAACP as a result of a lawsuit claiming illegal arrests by Baltimore police, a federal judge has ruled.
By Jan. 16, Central Booking officials must provide the NAACP with a list of all databases relating to the booking and release of suspects at the Baltimore jail; “data dictionaries” for all such databases; and the operating manuals for all such databases, U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake ruled.
David Rocah, staff attorney for the Baltimore ACLU, which joined the NAACP in suing the city and state, said attorneys were still wrangling over what data they could obtain from the police department.
“What?s still unresolved is what we may get from the city regarding the police department,” Rocah said. “We think we?re clearly entitled to data about those practices.”
The Baltimore Police Department does not comment on pending litigation.
The ACLU and NAACP are suing the city and state, alleging that city police officers make “illegal arrests” and then state jail officials conduct illegal strip searches and hold suspects beyond the statutory time limit of 24 hours at the Baltimore jail.
But city and state lawyers counter that arrests for certain “quality of life” crimes are not categorically illegal; that the decision of the Baltimore City State?s Attorney not to prosecute certain crimes does not mean those arrests were unlawful; and that the use of a performance evaluation system for officers based on the number of arrests is not unlawful.
They also say that Central Booking?s practice of keeping detainees for more than 24 hours has been fixed.
A conference call in the suit is scheduled for Jan. 19, three days after the release of data from Central Booking.
