“Qualified immunity,” is the modern day legal doctrine that has shielded law enforcement officers and other government officials for decades against lawsuits over their conduct.
That same year, Maryland became the first state to enact the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights (LEOBR), which gives broad protections for police.
Maryland’s version of the law grants police special rights when they are investigated for misconduct and provides significant obstacles to conducting investigations of officers accused of wrongdoing.
For decades since the implementation of Maryland’s LEOBOR, other states and municipalities have enforced similar protections for law enforcement officers.
And as the House and Senate debate over police reform, the possibility of amending qualified immunity for law enforcement is deemed a “poisoned pill” by many Republicans in the process of crafting legislation.
