MD AG calls for limiting police chases, improving mental health services

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown is calling for expanded mental health services and a higher standard for police chases in order to prevent officer-involved deaths.

Brown on Thursday recommended limiting officers’ ability to chase people suspected to have committed minor and nonviolent offenses, and he noted that nearly a quarter of people killed in police encounters were experiencing a behavioral health crisis.

The recommendations were included in the annual report of the OAG’s Independent Investigations Division, which has the authority to investigate and prosecute when people die in police encounters. The division was created in 2021 and gained the ability to prosecute in 2023.

The IID has investigated 86 cases since it was created, including 21 in 2025, the report states. It investigated 45 shootings, 30 car crashes and one use-of-force death. It has only brought charges twice, and one of those cases was dismissed before trial.

Brown argued that most officers act lawfully and that the IID helps build trust in law enforcement. But he pointed to two areas “where policy improvements could prevent tragic loss of life” — behavioral health crises and car chases.

In both cases where the IID brought charges, officers were accused of initiating a car chase that resulted in a person’s death, then lying to their superiors about their responsibility. One of those cases was dismissed before trial last year; the other is ongoing.

To prevent such car chases, Brown argued for a policy that would “ensure pursuit risks are weighed against public safety.”

“While evading law enforcement is a serious offense, no innocent bystander’s life should be placed at risk to apprehend a driver for a minor violation,” he wrote.

Of the 86 deaths the IID investigated, 20 victims died while having a behavioral health crisis. Police fatally shot 18 of them. The IID has investigated 45 fatal shootings, and people in mental health crises accounted for 40% of the victims. Brown claimed all but one of those 18 were armed, and the last claimed he had a gun.

In one of those cases, the OAG earlier this month declined to charge Baltimore police officers for the in-custody death of Dontae Melton Jr., even though the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner deemed his death a homicide.

The IID noted that police are called thousands of times per year to respond to behavioral health crises. Statewide data don’t exist, but the report noted more than 1,200 such calls in Baltimore County between July 2023 and May 2024, and more than 1,400 in Montgomery County between August 2024 and May 2025.

Brown recommended no specific policies, but argued that “increased mental health services and alternative response models should continue to be explored and implemented to reduce risk to persons in crisis, bystanders, and officers.”

The report also lacks detail on the reason one of the criminal cases was dismissed before trial, a failure that led to the departure of the top two IID officials.

In that case, prosecutors were accused of using compelled statements that the officers made to internal investigators. Because officers are forced to make those statements, they can’t be used in court, where the Fifth Amendment protects against self-incrimination.

A judge ruled that the IID couldn’t prove its case wasn’t tainted by privileged information.

Brown told The Daily Record in December that the IID had protocols in place to prevent such issues, and that those had improved since the case was dismissed.

“While we accept — obviously we do — the dismissal, I do believe that we could have been given an opportunity to demonstrate that we had independent sources for the evidence that we would present at trial,” he said. “But it didn’t go our way, and that happens.”