Comments on: Maryland House Passes Mayor Calvo’s SWAT Bill by 126 to 9 Vote http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2009/03/30/maryland-house-passes-mayor-calvo%e2%80%99s-swat-bill-by-126-to-9-vote/ Life. Liberty. Property. Defending individual freedom and liberty, one post at a time. Fri, 17 May 2013 18:49:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Stephen Littau http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2009/03/30/maryland-house-passes-mayor-calvo%e2%80%99s-swat-bill-by-126-to-9-vote/#comment-64626 Stephen Littau Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:19:27 +0000 http://www.thelibertypapers.org/?p=4816#comment-64626 Don,

It matters because right now police departments are not being held accountable. If the police know they will have to answer to the people, perhaps they will be more judicious in their SWAT operations.

As far as I’m concerned, this is only step one. I think there needs to be even more restrictions on how and when police use SWAT. I also believe that every SWAT member should be required to have a camera attached to their person to document the raid from their unique vantage point. This would make falsifying reports more difficult.

Finally, I would also like to see citizen review boards complete with full subpoena powers investigate any event that results in the loss of life or property.

This is only a partial list of reforms I would like to see but the additional oversight provided from the Maryland bill will be a wonderful first step.

]]> By: Don Lloyd http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2009/03/30/maryland-house-passes-mayor-calvo%e2%80%99s-swat-bill-by-126-to-9-vote/#comment-64606 Don Lloyd Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:16:22 +0000 http://www.thelibertypapers.org/?p=4816#comment-64606 What will it matter to increase the number of violations of law by police departments by one every 6 months?

Even state legislators are not dumb enough to not associate their support of enforcement of this law with the number of times they are pulled over for a DUI check.

Regards, Don

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