Maryland State Police are illegally withholding key documents needed in the NAACP?s racial profiling lawsuit, two civil rights organizations argued in court Monday.
“It?s unfortunate we?re saying to the Maryland State Police that it has violated the law,” said attorney Hector Bladuell, who is representing the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Bladuell told Baltimore County Circuit Judge Timothy Martin that state police have denied the NAACP?s requests for records related to internal investigations of racial profiling complaints.
But a lawyer representing the state police said that the agency has been more than forthcoming with the civil rights organizations but that the NAACP wants access to private personnel records, which the state police cannot legally turn over.
“The state police have been under the thumb of the NAACP and ACLU since 1993,” said state police attorney Betty Stemley. “Those two organizations know more about what happens at the Maryland State Police than the current superintendent.”
Monday?s arguments were the latest in a 15-year battle between the civil rights groups and the state police. The NAACP alleges state police stop and search more black motorists than white motorists for an offense mockingly dubbed “driving while black.”
Robert Wilkins, a lawyer, first filed the lawsuit with members of his family in 1993 in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore, alleging they were the victims of racial profiling.
Wilkins and the state police resolved some of their differences after the agency agreed, among other things, to compile quarterly reports containing detailed information of complaints alleging racial profiling.
In February, the NAACP requested to inspect state police documents to see whether the agency was continuing to comply with the agreement, but state police refused to turn over some of the files the organization wanted.
Judge Martin said he wanted to see examples of the state police?s quarterly reports before he issues a ruling.
“This is a very important case, a very serious case,” he said.
