<p>Tuesday a majority of voters approved the ballot measure to bring the Baltimore Police Department back under local control.</p> <p>For more than a century the department has functioned as a state agency leaving Baltimore City without the authority to fully regulate the department.</p> <p>"This is something Mayor Brandon Scott has been lobbying for years," said John Dedie, a political analyst.</p> <p>Question H was a key policy goal of Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott who says it will allow the department to be more responsive to the community it serves.</p> <p>"Local control of BPD is about racial justice, it's about police accountability and it's about representative democracy," Scott said in 2021.</p> <p>Now Baltimore City will no longer have to seek approval from the Maryland general assembly when it comes to policy changes.</p> <p>Democratic state Senator Cory McCray spearheaded the legislation.</p>