A legislative work group established to assess the role of special police officers in Maryland held its first meeting Wednesday, with more than a dozen individuals there agreeing something must be done to clear up the relationship between special police and traditional law enforcement.
“Any program, good or bad, always needs good review. Improvement is something that can always occur,” said Catherine Kelly, director of government affairs unit for the state police, who is part of the staff to help organize the meeting.
The work group must deliver a report with recommendations by the end of the year, but no problems were solved in Wednesday’s 70-minute introductory session at the Maryland Department of State Police headquarters in Pikesville. Besides introductions, Wednesday’s discussion touched upon how the special police topic came up.
Sen. Mike McKay (R-Western Maryland) sponsored Senate Bill 455 in 2025. The measure, which allows certain security guard agencies to apply for appointment as special police officers, won unanimous approval from the legislature.
It was vetoed by Gov. Wes Moore (D), who said in a May 2025 veto letter that his office can appoint and deputize special police officers.
“Before we arbitrarily expand eligibility for special police forces, I believe that this appointment process deserves a more thorough examination in its entirety,” the governor wrote.
That veto was overridden, also unanimously, in December. But during the 2026 General Assembly, lawmakers also passed House Bill 1152, sponsored by Del. Nicole Williams (D-Prince George’s), requiring the state police to study and make recommendations on the employment and use of special police officers. The study is to include the commissioning process; operations, training, and equipment; and regulatory oversight to suspend or revoke the commission of special police officers.
More than seven months later, the special police work group got to work Wednesday.
In a text message Wednesday morning, Williams said the study is to make sure special police officers are adhering to state law.
“We want to make sure that they are acting within their scope under the law and see if we need to make any statutory changes regarding their scope and authority,” she said.
Hours of training
Part of the study must analyze best practices for the use of special police officers, how many of them there are in Maryland and surrounding states, mandated training, recorded complaints and the impact of special police officers on public safety.
Similar to a traditional police officer, a special officer can detain and arrest people. However, individuals hired as special police are designated in a specific area or property by that person’s employer.
They can be hired at a higher education institution such as Johns Hopkins University, which signed a memorandum of understanding in December 2022 with Baltimore City Police Department.
Another group designated as special police are bailiffs at district courts, which Steve Barlow, security manager for the District Court of Maryland, said could be a total of 355 at the end of the month.
One item brought up Wednesday focused on the current law for special police officers to receive at least 80 hours of instruction.
Wayne Silver Sr., executive director of the state Police Training and Standards Commission, provided some data after he visited four police academies in the state. Silver said the average classroom education hours were 250. The lowest was 139 hours and the highest was 360.
In addition, Silver said there’s no field training component for special police. State law requires entry-level police officers to receive at least 850 hours of training.
“In the state of Maryland, there is not a single academy, and there are 20 of them, that is under 1,000 hours right now,” he said. “Even though they [special police] are geographically limited, they still have the ability to enforce the general criminal laws in the state of Maryland, to include taking away the civil rights, civil liberties of an individual, and possibly using force.”
Training is scheduled to be the main topic for the work group when it convenes next month. A report with recommendations to the governor and General Assembly is due by Dec. 1.