Carroll County PAB and ACC Quarterly Meeting - June 16, 2026
Carroll County PAB and ACC Quarterly Meeting - June 16, 2026
The Carroll County Police Accountability Board (PAB) and Administrative Charging Committee (ACC) held their quarterly meeting on June 16, 2026. The meeting covered personnel changes, updates from the statewide accountability summit, crisis intervention training, PAB outreach efforts, ACC case statistics, and reports from local law enforcement agencies. The group also discussed trial board training, data standardization, and the expungement of officer complaint records.
Trial Board Training
- Training will be held August 24-25 (two eight-hour days) at the Sykesville MPTC, conducted by Wayne Silver and Bob Wagner. The training is for newly appointed civilians and retired judges, not for active officers. Sergeant Wilson provided the link for registration. All PAB and ACC members were encouraged to attend.
Personnel Changes
- Todd Mitchell moved from PAB to ACC; his PAB replacement (selected by the municipal league) is expected by September. A candidate from St. Zone is being considered.
- Tom Baird left the ACC in April to join Westminster City Council; Todd Mitchell filled his ACC vacancy.
- Doug Smith elected as new ACC Chairman.
- Chief Snyder of Hampstead left for Gettysburg; interim Chief Jim Monahan is present. New permanent Chief Jordan Peretta (from Laurel PD) will start July 27.
- Chief Adrian Baker left Tawnytown; acting Chief Jesse Castellar is in place, permanent appointment pending.
- Sykesville Police Department represented by Lt. Kilgore; Carroll County Sheriff's Office represented by Matt.
Statewide Accountability Summit Takeaways (April 26-28 in Baltimore)
- Desired changes: extend ACC timeline disposition period when an officer is under criminal prosecution; standardize case log framework for transparency; create statewide system for body-worn camera data retention and access; enhance digital infrastructure for secure evidence review; and increase funding for community outreach, legal counsel, and trial board training.
- ACC members complained about low compensation – Carroll County pays $125 per meeting, while some jurisdictions pay $40,000–$50,000 annually; others pay nothing. Consistency sought.
- PAB members in other counties reported ACCs not sharing case information; Carroll County stated they have good transparency by providing summary logs and pre-review sessions.
- Lisa noted need for standardized data collection and reporting windows (e.g., November-to-November year).
- Bethany attended legislative sessions; major topics included whether trial boards are appeals or de novo, and the desire to expunge exonerated/unfounded complaints from officer records.
- Doug Smith committed to pushing an expungement bill in the next legislative session, similar to one that failed earlier. Discussion suggested expungement criteria based on time without additional complaints.
- Bill attended and praised the crisis intervention training role-play session on March 27 and Lt. Devilbiss's officer welfare presentation.
PAB Outreach Efforts
- The board plans to send letters to Lions Clubs, American Legion, Rotary Clubs, and other organizations offering presentations about PAB/ACC functions. Letters are drafted and will be sent soon.
- The board decided not to participate in a fall fest this year, pending responses from letter outreach.
ACC Update and Case Statistics
- As of end of May 2026, ACC heard 13 cases (compared to 24 by same time last year) and charged 4 officers administratively (compared to 2 last year). Bill noted that while total cases halved, charges doubled.
- In the last quarter (March–May), ACC heard 7 cases and charged 2 officers. Full details on the complaint log were provided in handouts.
- The ACC will meet on Wednesday June 18 to hear June cases.
Law Enforcement Agency Updates
- Sykesville: Two probationary officers to start academy in September; total 9 officers plus 2 auxiliary. Lt. Kilgore reported a complaint filed via website but complainant did not identify officers or department; complaint will not be forwarded to ACC.
- Westminster: Use of force and complaints are down. Only one internal investigation this year. Two of the four administratively charged officers (from all cases) were Westminster officers in off-duty incidents. Department is fully staffed at 43 officers (one over-hire).
- Tawnytown: One officer in Frederick City Academy; hope to fill one vacancy by September. The officer previously mentioned (from ACC case) has resigned effective August 2 and is not requesting a trial board.
- Hampstead: New chief hire as noted; one vacancy due to officer leaving for sheriff's office; applicants being processed. A recent trial board reversed an ACC decision; the officer was recertified by MPTC and cleared by State's Attorney, now back on patrol.
- Manchester: No issues to report.
- Carroll County Sheriff's Office: Two cases coming up on Wednesday; both appear minor.
Key Outcomes
- Data standardization: The board will work on standardizing complaint categories and reporting windows for the September meeting.
- Submission requirements: Law enforcement agencies will include specific policy numbers in their case submissions, and will send confirmation of officer's acceptance of charge, resignation, or trial board request to Bethany.
- Body worn camera: Continued emphasis on including body camera footage with short forms to verify allegations.
- Expungement legislation: Doug Smith will champion a bill in the next session to allow expungement of exonerated/unfounded complaints after a time period.
- Trial board training: All PAB/ACC members encouraged to attend the August 24-25 training (civilian-only).
- Next meeting: Scheduled for September 14, 2026; year's final meeting December 7, 2026.
Meeting Transcript
So thank you for coming. We recognize that there are many things you could be doing, and we appreciate the fact that you feel this is important enough to attend and uh discuss the PAB and ACC matters with us every every uh quarterly. So uh hopefully everyone has uh been sent the agenda and I also sent out a copy uh uh prior prior to uh a meeting or two ago, I I agree that uh we would send you guys the complaint log status, and that that's also been sent to you. I hope I hope you have that too. Bethany Bethany, did you print it, print it out? Or they have okay, good. All right, so um we do have a quorum. Uh we are missing a PAB member, which we're we'll talk about in a little bit. Um, but uh going down the agenda here, um the video of the previous meeting uh is available on the website. Our next meeting is September the 14th. Um and then the last meeting date of the year would be December 7th. Uh right about that time we'll send out another agenda for 2027, and we'll try to um include dates that don't cause conflicts for anyone. I know uh one uh one year last year, I think it was we had a conflict with the Chiefs conference in Ocean City. We'll try to avoid that in uh going forward. Okay, I want to uh move on to number five, which is the trial board training. Um as you all as every all of us knows, uh, in order to serve on a trial board, you have to be uh you have to have that two-day training. Uh I know recently we had a case where uh a trial board got delayed because one of the persons on it, I believe it was an officer, uh, did not have the trial board training. So I would encourage uh anybody who I guess all of us could have a trial board uh to maybe get maybe all departments could get at least somebody uh from the department to get that training. It's on August 24th and 25th, and I would all also encourage members of the uh PAB. Uh if they would like to go to that training, it it's very informative as to what what a trial board does and what happens and how it uh how it reacts to what we all do at the ACC and the PAB. So uh I think it's and it's a good refresher because they refresh a lot of the stuff that uh that the PAB and the ECC are responsible for. So I would encourage uh everybody to get that training if they can. Mr. Wade, is that put on by the commission, sir? Uh yeah, the Sykesville uh MPTC. Yeah, the Slaxville folks. Two eight hour days? Yeah, it's two eight hours a day, but they let you go a little early. Uh yeah, it's uh Wayne Silver uh and Bob Wagner. Yeah, Bob Wagner, right. Thank you, sir. Couple of good trainers. Okay, I want to talk about a couple of personnel changes, probably more than one. We've had quite a bit of turnover, I guess, on both sides uh of the PAB meeting. And uh first off, I want to let everybody know that Todd Mitchell, who used to be on the PAB, he used to sit here or there. Um Todd has now moved to the uh he switched to the administrative charging committee. So Todd is on the uh ACC now, and Todd uh will be replaced. Uh I understand the commissioners or the um the municipal league, is it Bethany is looking for a replacement? Yes. Okay, so the uh the league, I think uh Todd was a uh a he he was selected by the league. There's certain ways that the uh the PAB members get selected. He was selected by the league, so he has to be replaced by the league. So I believe they're working on they have somebody in mind. Is that true, Bethany? They got somebody in mind. I'm being told that there's somebody from St. Zone that's being considered. I haven't seen anything yet. Okay. So uh we're we're expecting that he'll be on he or she will be on board um uh by by September of our next meeting.
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