Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said this week that one of his priorities for the 2026 legislative session is making changes to a system that allows anyone to seek criminal charges without input from police or prosecutors.

In a news release on Tuesday, Brown said he supports restricting the ability of district court commissioners to issue arrest warrants when everyday people are requesting charges on their own. His office described the move as “an important step in ensuring procedural fairness and consistency in charging decisions.”

“The system in Maryland is broken,” Brown previously told The Banner. “And while I think it’s designed to allow access to justice, if you will, by victims of crimes, I don’t think it’s serving the values or the goals of a fair and equitable justice system.”

He said he did not think the system should be scrapped. Instead, Brown said, the process needed to be reformed.

Lawmakers on Wednesday convened for the start of the 90-day legislative session.

Brown, a Democrat, is also co-chair of the Maryland Equitable Justice Collaborative, which in 2025 released a 105-page report about addressing racial disparities in the criminal legal system that discussed district court commissioners.

Maryland has almost 300 district court commissioners, judicial officers who are not required to have a law degree.

District court commissioners can only rely on what people write in an application for charges, which they file under penalties of perjury.

If district court commissioners approve charges, they then decide whether to issue an arrest warrant or a summons to appear in court.

The system was intended to provide greater access to justice, and advocates maintain that it’s critical for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, who don’t feel comfortable going to the police or believe that law enforcement isn’t taking their concerns seriously, to get direct access to the courts.

The Banner has also found the process can be easily abused and wreck people’s lives.

Del. Jackie Addison, a Democrat from Baltimore, said she has introduced legislation to limit the ability of district court commissioners to issue arrest warrants in these cases.

Her bill carves out an exception for certain people who are alleging domestic violence. State’s attorneys would then have 48 hours to review the accusations and decide whether to prosecute.

Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates, a Democrat, also supports the measure, which he’s colloquially referred to as “the T.I. bill.”

T.I., the three-time Grammy Award-winning rapper, was arrested in 2024 on charges including first- and second-degree assault and use of a handgun during the commission of a crime of violence after a woman in Baltimore he’d never met alleged to a district court commissioner that he had stalked, harassed and threatened to kill her.

“As it currently stands, the court commissioner system is highly susceptible to abuse by individuals who may use this process as a weapon for personal vendettas,” Bates said in a statement. “Without oversight from prosecutors, court commissioners have no choice but to accept the allegations presented to them without question.”

Bates described the bill as “the first step toward establishing best practices that strike a balance between providing victims with necessary support and preventing baseless warrants from being issued against innocent people.”

It’s unclear if Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, supports changing the system. His office did not respond to a request for comment.

In an email, Del. Sandy Bartlett, a Democrat from Anne Arundel County and chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said she looks forward to discussing the bill.

The Criminal Law and Procedure Subcommittee, she said, worked closely with stakeholders and the sponsor of the bill on the legislation during the last session. But Bartlett said lawmakers unfortunately ran out of time.

“Hopefully, we will be able to advance reasonable policy on this topic in the 2026 session,” Bartlett said.

House Minority Whip Jesse Pippy, a Republican from Frederick County, said he’s not sure whether district court commissioners need more education or training, but stated that there are clearly problems with the system.

Pippy said he thinks Democrats and Republicans can work together on the issue.

“There needs to be a balance in the system,” Pippy said. “There certainly needs to be some guardrails.”