Baltimore Settles Lawsuit over Arrest Practices

Baltimore has agreed to settle a four-year-old NAACP lawsuit that accused the police department of arresting people unconstitutionally.

City solicitor George Nilson says the settlement allows the city to move forward from the “problematic” arrest practices of the past. The number of people arrested by the police department has declined in recent years as police move their focus away from quality-of-life crimes.

The June 2006 lawsuit claimed that a third of people arrested in the city in 2005 were released without charges. It also said officers with the lowest volume of arrests were subject to reassignment.

The city will pay $630,000 to the plaintiffs and spend $240,000 for an auditor to review arrests for quality-of-life crimes over the next three years.