Calvert County Police Accountability Board Meeting - December 23, 2025
Calvert County Police Accountability Board Meeting - December 23, 2025
The Police Accountability Board (PAB) held its regular quarterly meeting on December 23, 2025, to review case trends, hear the Sheriff’s quarterly report, and welcome new members. The board discussed a continued downward trend in citizen complaints, community outreach challenges, and upcoming initiatives. The meeting was adjourned after unanimous approval of the agenda and no public comment.
Consent Calendar
- Agenda Approval: The agenda was approved by unanimous voice vote (all ayes, no nays).
Public Comments & Testimony
- No members of the public offered comments.
Discussion Items
- Chair Update & End-of-Year Report: The chair announced that a vacancy on the Administrative Charging Committee (ACC) has been filled by Patrice Evans, restoring full quorum. The PAB conducted a three-year review confirming all processes are in order. An end-of-year report will be presented to the County Commissioners in January 2026, covering an overview of the Police Accountability Act, the three boards (PAB, ACC, Trial Board), policy recommendations, MOU review, community outreach, and goals for the next year.
- 2026 Meeting Dates: The board set meeting dates for 2026: February 25, May 27, August 26, and December 2. The reporting period for complaints was standardized to November 20 through November 19 each year.
- New Member Introductions: Two new members were introduced:
- Anthony Green, a Chesapeake Beach councilman, Health Department employee, and entrepreneur, expressed interest in bridging neighborhoods and police.
- James Johnson, a retired law enforcement officer with 25+ years from DC and Prince George’s County, now serving as a safety advocate at Calvert High School, emphasized mentoring and community-police relations.
- Complaint Trends Analysis (2025): The board reviewed a trend analysis showing a progressive decline in complaints since the PAB’s inception. Over a 12-month period, there were 32 complaints (down from 35 in an earlier five-month period in 2022). Only two policy violations were found. Complaints by district were highest in District 2 (central Calvert), attributed to higher congestion and population. In relation to over 110,000 calls for service (with approximately 171 officers), complaints represented 0.03% of interactions. Policy violation subcategories included inaccurate reporting (3), ending recordings (4), equipment issues (3), and conduct toward public (4). The sheriff noted that body-worn camera violations decreased as equipment became routine.
- Sheriff’s Third Quarter 2025 Report: The sheriff presented highlights:
- School Resource Officer (SRO) Program: Two new SROs added, goal to have a deputy in every school (currently six schools short). Eight hundred school checks conducted in first week.
- Recruitment: Three new deputy sheriffs sworn in; an academy class with three more deputies underway. Challenges in finding qualified candidates.
- Citizen Police Academy: First class graduated; next class starts March 2026 with applications in February.
- Calvert County Sheriff’s Foundation launched to accept donations for community needs and equipment.
- DARE program reintroduced in schools; fifth graders included this year.
- Online reporting for minor crimes under exploration but not yet adopted.
- Traffic and safety: 27,520 calls for service, 1,386 traffic citations, 73 DUIs, 491 accidents, 8,500 warnings. Fatalities reduced from 14 in 2024 to 2 so far in 2025.
- Concerns: Organized retail theft, juveniles from out-of-county, drug trends (Kratom, synthetic drugs), and homeless services support.
- Drug Awareness and Kratom Discussion: Members raised concerns about Kratom (sold as a dietary supplement) and other synthetic drugs accessible to youth. The sheriff committed to investigating and updating enforcement.
- Community Outreach: The board acknowledged poor outreach results this year and discussed future efforts, including potential participation in the county fair. The PAB must define its boundaries before engaging in booths or giveaways.
- CLIA Accreditation Update: The sheriff reported that CLIA certification is progressing; agency is expected to be certified by summer 2026 after a panel interview.
- Sheriff’s Foundation Board: The foundation is newly formed with four initial board members; seeking civilian members.
- Next Meeting Location: All 2026 meetings will be held at the new County Administration Building, 150 Main Street, in the Commissioner’s Hearing Room (Chesspeake Room).
- Refresher Training: Voluntary refresher training for ACC and PAB members will be held June 8–9, 2026 (one day each).
Key Outcomes
- Agenda approved by unanimous vote.
- New members welcomed: Anthony Green and James Johnson joined the PAB.
- Quarterly report accepted: The sheriff’s presentation was received with no formal vote; members expressed appreciation for the positive trends.
- End-of-year report scheduled: Presentation to County Commissioners in January 2026.
- Next meeting: Scheduled for February 25, 2026, at the new County Administration Building.
- Adjourned: Motion to adjourn carried by voice vote (all ayes).
Meeting Transcript
Board meeting Wednesday, December 3rd, 2025, and this meeting is being recorded. We do have a quorum here this evening. Please take a look at the agenda. Do we have any additions or deletions to the agenda? If none, do I hear a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second? Second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone disproved approved, say nay. The agenda is approved. On our oh, I'm supposed to chair update. Uh ACC, we had a vacancy that has been filled by Patrice Evans. So we are at full quorum there. We are at a three-year point with the police accountability board, so we've taken a review to just make sure that everything is in line as it should be. So those have been looked at already. Any questions on that? We have coming up in January an end of year report that will be presented to the commissioners. Myself and Ed Baylor, the chair of the ACC, we present to the commissioners. And this is just basically an overview of what we've already gone through all year. We talk a little bit about the report's gonna start out with what the act is, and then the three boards that were created under that police accountability board, the administrative charging committee, and the trial board. The trends that we have here, they're going to be seeing those this year. If there was a there were some policy recommendations early on this year with the sheriff's office, those will be presented. Briefly discuss the MOU that was reviewed. We've had community outreach and what we're looking to expand to next year, and any achievements and what our goals are of the PAB. So this will be presented, I believe it's the second Tuesday in January, but it's when the commissioners meet. So that will briefly be presented to them. It is a PowerPoint. Any questions on that? Um, meetings next year. February 25th, May 27th, August 26th, and December 2nd. So make sure that you mark those in your calendar. These are the complaints cases. One thing that we did change in the trending previous, they have been different dates. Um just pick picking a date, some in November, son in some in December. So we decide to make it all uniform. Um each year it ends on November 19th. So it goes November 20th of the previous year to November 19th of the current year. That way there's some uniformity, and you'll see in some of the trends that things have changed a little bit, but that's because we made sure that all the dates were uniform. Complaints eligible for review. There were four cases reviewed by the ACC 19. Cases pending ACC review. Sorry, complaints not eligible for review was four. Clarify that. And some of the reasoning for that is there was no misconduct. Or was to the Maryland State Police. So any of those reasons, then the ACC would not review them. Um cases pending review. These are all under investigation.
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