Three voters who filed a lawsuit seeking to block the Baltimore Police Department from signing an agreement with Johns Hopkins University that’s necessary for the school to develop its own private, armed police force have dropped the legal action.

Donald Gresham, Kushan Ratnayake and Joan Floyd on Dec. 7 voluntarily moved in Baltimore Circuit Court to dismiss the case. They live near where the Johns Hopkins Police Department would have jurisdiction to patrol certain areas and make arrests for some crimes.

The move comes days after Police Commissioner Michael Harrison and Johns Hopkins Vice President for Public Safety Branville Bard Jr. signed a final memorandum of understanding that outlines how the two agencies would work together.

In court documents, Gresham, Ratnayake and Floyd wrote that they understand in light of that development that “their requested relief cannot be provided by this Court.”

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“Only one battle line is finished,” Floyd said in an interview. “The people who oppose this are the people who are right, and they’re not going away.”

The Maryland General Assembly in 2019 passed a bill that allows Johns Hopkins to start its own police department. But the university put that plan on hold following outrage over the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.

The proposal has received sustained criticism from some students, faculty and community members. A Baltimore Banner investigation found that violent crime within the borders of each of its three campuses either stayed flat or declined between 2018 to 2021.

The Baltimore Police Department could not immediately be reached.

In a statement, Megan Christin, a spokesperson for Johns Hopkins, said the university is “fully confident in the thoughtful statutory process the General Assembly set out for the development of the Johns Hopkins Police Department.”

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Christin said the research institution will move in the next weeks and months into the next phase of implementation. That will include developing policies, recruiting and training police officers and establishing operations, she said.

Said Christin: “Throughout this period, we will continue to seek feedback from the community and will receive oversight and guidance from the Johns Hopkins University Police Accountability Board.”

dylan.segelbaum@thebaltimorebanner.com

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