Martin O'Malley sees criminal justice reform as defining issue
Prosecuting gun crimes and assaults as a young Baltimore lawyer in one of the city's most violent districts helped drive Martin O'Malley into public office...
"We have two problems that are intertwined and distinguish us in a bad way from other nations," O'Malley said in a 40-minute one-on-one interview with The Des Moines Register Saturday. "One is that far more of our citizens lose their lives to violent crime than virtually any other advanced nation on the planet. And related to that is the fact that we incarcerate more of our citizens than any other nation on the planet, which seems counterintuitive for a free people."
Scaling back on mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes and boosting programs to help prepare prisoners to return home will be major parts of a policy proposal O'Malley's campaign plans to roll out soon. From his time in Baltimore and as Maryland's governor, O'Malley believes he has the most "on-the-ground experience" dealing with public safety issues of any presidential candidate, Democrat or Republican.
O'Malley has a list of priorities that, as president, he'd push police departments nationwide to adopt, including civilian review boards with authority to investigate police brutality complaints.
Police departments nationwide also need to ensure internal affairs departments are staffed at the right levels and regularly report statistics to the public on overall complaints of excessive force or discourtesy by police officers, O'Malley said.
"
In Baltimore) we regularly shared data about discourtesy complaints, brutality," he said. "We wanted the public to see the same graphs that we were seeing."
Based on Martin OMalleys experience as the mayor of Baltimore he explains the five things he believes every police department must do to improve public safety during an interview with the Des Moines Register. Watch Short Video: