War on Drugs

Maryland House Passes SWAT Transparency Bill

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This is good news.

Delegates adopted a bill, on a 126 to 9 vote, that would require law enforcement agencies to report every six months on their use of SWAT teams, including what kinds of warrants the teams serve and whether any animals are killed during raids. The bill was prompted by the case of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo, whose two black Labrador retrievers were shot and killed during a botched raid by a Prince George's County Sheriff's Office SWAT team in July.

The Maryland Senate has already passed a similar bill, and there don't seem to be any foreseeable problems merging the two.