A group of Black and Brown Prince George’s County police officers are spelling out their recommendations for police reform to the county’s task force on Thursday. The group is part of an ongoing lawsuit against the county’s police department.

Among the group’s 12 suggestions are improvements to diversity in specialty police units, the adoption of new trainings and an overhaul of department policies in order to address racial bias.

County Executive Angela Alsobrooks created the police reform task force earlier this month amid nationwide calls for police accountability and transparency.

The officers, along with ACLU of Maryland lawyers and representatives from the Black Police Officers Association and the Hispanic National Law Enforcement Association, are asking the task force to consider 12 recommendations.

The officers and advocates urge PGPD to establish an enhanced affirmative action plan to make the department more representative of the county. They also recommend a residency requirement for department leaders and incentives for rank-and-file officers to live in Prince George’s County.

The proposals are based on the findings from a 94-page independent report by Michael Graham, an expert witness in the case and a former deputy sheriff with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, released last month.

Unredacted details in the report claimed an environment of racism and retaliation persists in the PGPD and has not been adequately addressed by department leadership. An ongoing lawsuit claims that officers of color who spoke out about misconduct were denied promotions or transferred to “unfavorable” assignments.

Among the 12 recommendations is a call to mandate annual anti-discrimination, anti-retaliation, anti-harassment and implicit bias training. The list also specifically urges PGPD to implement a bystander intervention program for police.

“Instead of getting punished for reporting misconduct, officers should get called out when they fail to report,” said Lt. Sonya Zollicoffer, a vice president with United Black Police Officers Association. “There should be training on how to be … effective in diffusing a situation when an officer is out of line and how to report that conduct.”

The officers and advocates also urged the department to enforce existing no-retaliation and no-contact orders and create a new process for reporting Equal Employment Opportunity complaints, one that lets officers go outside the chain of command and ensures complaints are kept confidential.

Zollicoffer said the department is not enforcing its existing no-contact and anti-retaliation policies.

“It is not enough to say that it’s not allowed. The county needs to follow up and … proactively ensure it’s not happening,” Zollicoffer said.

It’s unclear if the county’s task force will be able to act on all the recommendations provided to them.

The group is made up of residents and public officials from the county’s police department, public schools, public defender, and the citizen complaint oversight panel. Circuit Court Judge Maureen Lamasney and Prince George’s County Delegate Alonzo Washington are co-chairs of the group. They are to submit a report their recommendations to Alsobrooks by October 30.

Washington said while he can’t comment on the lawsuit and hasn’t seen the officers’ recommendations, the group does have the ability to review all parts of the department.

“The county executive has given us the ability to review policies and procedures of the department,” Washington said. “That’s including, but not limited to hiring, training and use of force in policing.”

Ret. Capt. Joe Perez, president of the Hispanic National Law Enforcement Association and a retired member of the county police department, stressed that he “hopes this is not just another task force that gives the public an illusion of police reform.” Zollicoffer also emphasized the need for a third-party to reform the police department.

Advocates made it clear that removing the police chief will not fix the culture and said many others had allowed this behavior to continue for years.

“Not only do you have to chop off the head, but you got to take those body parts too. These people that have been co-signing on that old administration and going along with it and covering up everything that’s going on, they need to go too,” Perez said during the press conference.

The task force will be holding their first virtual hearing to get public comments on Thursday night.

The full list of the recommendations from the group of Black and Brown officers is below:

1. Adopt enhanced Affirmative Action Plan.
2. Incentive phased-in residency for all officers.
3. Overhaul policies and practices to remove racial bias.
4. Implement regular, targeted and random internal reviews and integrity audits.
5. Adopt recommendations discussed by Fairness Panel in 2017.
6. Improve diversity in specialty units.
7. Adopt a office-bystander intervention program.
8. Enforce anti-retaliation and no contact provisions.
9. Monitor Internal Affairs Division and report on bias and discrimination.
10. Revise the Equal Employment Opportunity complaint policy to ensure confidentiality.
11. Mandate annual anti-discrimination, anti-retaliation, anti-harassment, and implicit bias training.
12. Appoint a senior, full time Chief Compliance Officer.