There are moments, buried within investigative files from dozens of Maryland police shootings, of fatal decisions.

“‘It’s a cane, it’s a cane, it’s a cane, it’s a cane.’ Neither Cpl. Maddox’s nor Sgt. Sives’ exclamations were heard on the radio.”

“Detective Smith yelled at Juvenile, ‘Get on the ground, you are going to get shot!’ Detective Kellogg simultaneously yelled at Juvenile, ‘Get on the ground, I will shoot you!’”

“Mr. Yorro then walked toward officers, still armed with the knife, at which time AACPD Corporal Joseph Burger shot Mr. Yorro three times.”

These are snapshots of law enforcement officers — in different parts of the state and under differing circumstances — deciding there is no other choice than to use deadly force. Twice in the last month, it’s happened in Baltimore.

The deaths of arabber Bilal “BJ” Abdullah and 70-year-old Pytorcarcha Brooks will be examined by outside investigators and oversight boards, a routine established four years ago for every police-related death in Maryland.

The plan was to build more accountability and public trust.

What if this new scrutiny, however, can do more than provide a second look at right or wrong? What if lessons revealed are a road map to preventing more police shootings?

“Are there things that we can do better?” Attorney General Anthony Brown asked Friday. “I think when you look at the reports, I think the answer is clear, that there are.”

That wasn’t the plan. It may be the hope.

Since October 2021, the Independent Investigation Division of the Maryland Office of the Attorney General has examined 80 deaths involving police, 39 of them shootings.

The goal was to improve public confidence after George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, the Black Lives Matter protests, Freddie Gray’s death in custody of Baltimore Police five years earlier and the protests that followed.

“It was important to have this structure, to give more confidence that someone else, another set of eyes, would have the opportunity to investigate,” said Del. Luke Clippinger, chair of the House Judiciary Committee and an architect of the new independent review system.

Releasing body camera footage and investigation results won’t bring someone back. Anger and blame follow violent death.

That was the fear among police when this was adopted: that anger would color outside scrutiny. It hasn’t. Only one officer has been indicted, and that came after an irresponsible police chase.

“It not only holds people accountable, but it exonerates the conduct that, without this thorough investigation, might leave the public sort of wondering,” Brown said.

The surprise is the insight into police shootings that jumps out from the reports posted online. The pressure on officers, the anguish of extreme conflict and the horrible choices people make have been calmly dissected.

State Sen. Will Smith, chair of the Judicial Proceedings Committee, won passage of a bill this year that requires the Maryland Police Training Standards Commission to study the annual report on these reviews.

“While there may not be criminal culpability in many of these cases, there may be some training and different standards that could reduce the number of fatalities,” Brown said.

Baltimore, to no one’s surprise, has more fatal police shootings than any jurisdiction in Maryland. The 11 in the city — four this year alone — were more than the seven in Baltimore County and three in Anne Arundel combined.

Investigators don’t try to explain why the 20 in those three Baltimore-area jurisdictions are more than twice the number in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, even though the two areas have about the same total population.

These reports are rough reading. People die. There is at least one suicide by cop. A man walked into a barbershop, shot the barber and then was killed by the officer in the chair.

Black men are the most common casualties. A third of the deaths involved someone fleeing from police. There are domestic disputes, shootouts and gunmen stalking officers.

These reports make some things clear.

Officers need more mental health training and resources in confrontations.

Anne Arundel’s Crisis Response Team is a national model for defusing potentially deadly situations, but replicating the network of emergency psychiatric beds, clinicians, dedicated officers and leaders, won’t be easy, fast or cheap.

Officers need better nonlethal weapons to disable an imminent threat.

Beanbag guns — a shotgun that fires a small bag of shot — can disable someone at about 45 feet. Yet officers tried firing through doors and from a football field away.

And whether it was drugs or psychosis or adrenaline, Tasers are sometimes just precursors to deadly shootings.

Police need better command and control.

Multiple officers fired off entire magazines in many fatal shootings. Officers fired while others were trying nonlethal methods, or couldn’t hear other officers shouting that the situation wasn’t lethal.

Most importantly, police officers, who suffer their own trauma in shootings, have to be willing to learn from these findings and adapt.

It’s not just training where this may make a difference, it’s policy.

After 29 fatalities linked to police chases since 2021, there are calls for new rules in several counties. Proposals could reach the General Assembly next year.

And, lawmakers returning to Annapolis may want to expand the number and power of review boards.

These results will shape those debates.

“We’re going to need to start to look again,” said Clippinger, a Baltimore Democrat. “It has to do with the administrative charging committees and the decision, did they commit misconduct?”

We’re still at the beginning of this era of new scrutiny in police-involved deaths, and politicians, police and the public still have much to learn.

Those working to make policing more accountable and safer see the promise, even if they already want more change.

The rest of us just have to give transparency time.

“I’d say that it is making a difference,” said Jamal Turner, chair of the Baltimore Police Accountability Board. “This is the inaugural board, and we’re within our first three years of existence.”