The Sun's Justin Fenton reports:

Three men were arrested in connection with a series of robberies and carjackings that occurred over a four-hour span Tuesday night across Baltimore County and the city, ending when the men crashed their vehicle near the Domino Sugars factory while fleeing police.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III and Baltimore County Chief James W. Johnson, who announced the arrests at a joint news conference Wednesday afternoon, called the robberies a "mini-crime spree" and said police worked together to catch the suspects, who had open warrants and criminal records.

Read full details here.

Bealefeld said there didn't appear to be any specific impetus for such a rapid series of crimes. "Just bad guys with guns," Bealefeld said. Their names were not disclosed as police continued to investigate and show photo lineups to victims.

"Last night's series of robberies punctuates that a few people are committing most of our violent crime in the Baltimore metropolitan area," Johnson said. "We've worked hard in Baltimore County and the city to build a partnership and relationships that reduce crime and make citizens in the metropolitan area safe."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Baltimore County, Northeast Baltimore, Top brass
        

The Sun's Luke Broadwater and Scott Calvert report today:

"The city's budget office revealed at an investigative hearing Tuesday that it has spent $10.4 million over the past three years — an average of about $3.5 million annually — defending the Baltimore Police Department against lawsuits.

Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke called for the hearing over what she called an "especially troubling" trend of the Police Department paying out millions over brutality claims while other parts of the budget, such as recreation centers, suffer cuts.

"Not only do they siphon off scarce funds that could have been used to address other pressing problems in Baltimore, but each judgment also can represent an instance where citizens were avoidably harmed by the actions of officers whose job it is to protect them," Clarke stated in a resolution that called for the hearing.

Police officials testified Tuesday that they have instituted better training for officers, which has reduced brutality complaints, and City Solicitor George Nilson argued that sometimes the city needs to spend more on legal fees to ensure lower settlements or judgments. About 65 percent of the cases against police allege excessive force, officials said."

Read the complete story here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

Baltimore police have confirmed the passing of the police commissioner's father:

"It is with deep regret that we inform you of the passing of Mr. Frederick H. Bealefeld, II, father of Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld, III and retired Detective Charles E. Bealefeld.

Mr. Bealefeld passed away yesterday following a lengthy illness. His family was by his side.  Please keep the Bealefeld family in your thoughts and prayers. As soon as funeral arrangements are finalized, we will share them with his BPD family.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Top brass
        

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III tells "60 Minutes" that he's wary of police using Tasers to control suspects. The CBS news show broadcast a segment Sunday night about how officers overuse the device.

Police agencies have long tried to find ways to control combative suspects without resorting to deadly force. The Taser, which sends electricity into a person's body, is billed as a non-lethal way of controlling people.

People have died from being hit by Tasers, and officials debate the merits of the device constantly (here's one study from Stanford University). And here's a report on Tasers from the Maryland Attorney General's Office. Also, the National Institute of Justice conducted a study on Taser deaths in 2008, and followed it up with another study in 2011.

The Sun's crime report, Justin Fenton, and health reporter Meredith Cohn, explored the use of Tasers in Maryland in an article last year, after the death of a Baltimore County man.

We can't recall Bealefeld speaking out about Tasers before, but he did testify in 2009 against civilians being able to use them, calling the Taser an "extraordinary weapon."

The CBS show concentrated on police using Tasers too much, as a substitute for other ways of controlling suspects.

Two Baltimore police officers interviewed by the show said the loved Tasers and Bealefeld himself said his own troops are clamoring for them. Here's the exchange with Bealefeld from the show, from the "60 Minutes" website:

Continue reading "Baltimore's police commissioner tells 60 Minutes he's wary about Taser use" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Police shootings, Top brass
        

On Wednesday, The Sun's Meredith Cohn wrote about the efforts to save a runner in Baltimore's recent half-marathon. Police Lt. Col. Ross Buzzuro was one of the saviors, but he did not want to talk about what he did.

Police held a news conference today, trying to highlight the good works of one of their own, even a reluctant hero.

Meredith wrote:

Organizers from the Baltimore Running Festival handed out plaques to a collection of good Samaritans and medical personnel Thursday for their part in saving a 55-year-old runner who suffered cardiac arrest just before the finish line of the half marathon.

Among them was Lt. Col. Ross Buzzuro, who was running the race and stopped when he saw Bob Pohl fall to the ground. He’s declined to speak publicly about the event, but has traded many phone calls with the family – who tracked him down through another police officer who is also a family friend of the Pohls.

Buzzuro was also able to see the organizers award a finishers medal Thursday to Pohl, as well as a complimentary registration for next year’s festival, but only for the kids’ fun run. Even after stopping to aid a fellow runner, Buzzuro still beat about 50 percent of the runners in the half marathon with a time of 2 hours, 25 minutes and 40 seconds.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Top brass
        

A report released today blames Baltimore police commanders for poorly supervising a chaotic response to the shooting outside Select Lounge in which four officers fatally shot a plainclothes officer they mistook for a gunman.

The long awaited report by an independent commission into the shooting of Officer William H. Torbit Jr., and of a man who was fighting him, recommends police better train officers and supervisors in how to handle crowds. The report says Torbit inflamed tensions that led up to the shooting.

The Baltimore State's Attorney's Office cleared the officers of criminal wrongdoing. At left, The Sun's Kim Hairston captures Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III holding the report.

Read a summary of the report.

Read the full report.

Watch video of the shooting.

Look at crime scene pictures.

Read account of the shooting by officers involved.    

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Downtown, Police shootings, Top brass
        

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III has had to answer his share of questions about corruption and wrongdoing on the city's police force. Time and again, his standard answer is that there isn't more cops behaving badly, but his administration is more serious about finding wrongdoers.

The New York Times has an interesting article today on that point exactly, questioning whether the NYPD brass has adequately targeted corruption on the largest police force in the nation. The article raises doubt on whether the New York department can police itself.

The article points out that recent cases there against officers convicted of planting drugs and allegations of cops running illegal guns were uncovered by outside law enforcement agencies. Only a large-scale parking ticket fixing inquiry began with the department's own internal affairs division. The NYPD commissioner defends his department, saying his cops were involved in the investigatioins.

Back in Baltimore, Bealefeld has had to confront a scandal in which up to 50 cops were implicated in a scheme in which they got kickbacks to steer car accident victims to a specific garage. At least seven officers and the owners of the towing company have pleaded guilty to federal charges.

And another officer faces charges of dealing drugs in Northwest Baltimore, and had personal ties to a commander in the internal investigation section, who was later reassigned.

Bealefeld rigorously defended his tenure and agency on an August appearance on the "Marc Steiner Show." Read an article about the show and a summary of the recent cases against police in Baltimore.

In the picture above, Bealefeld, right, listens as Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein talks about officers charged in the towing scandal. In the background is Richard D. McFeely, the head of the FBI's Baltimore office. The picture was taken by The Sun's Kenneth K. Lam.

Read story by Justin Fenton on arrest of officer in drug case.

Read another story by Justin on reassignment of internal affairs commander after the arrest.

Read reporter Tricia Bishop's latest on police towing scandal. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Top brass
        

Over the weekend, we reported on how city overtime spending has increased sharply since Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake took office, which officials say coincides with an increase in staffing vacancies.

Efforts to rein in overtime had been a point of pride for police, who contend they have been reducing crime on a leaner budget. Officials projected in January 2010 that they would spend just $14.2 million on overtime, according to figures presented to Rawlings-Blake's transition committee as she prepared to move into mayor's office.

But the department went on to spend $16.7 million that year, a figure that jumped to $23 million the next fiscal year. In the first two months of the current fiscal year, police have spent $5.1 million on overtime, compared with $3.7 million during the same time last year.

City officials said that officers are working more overtime hours because of staffing shortages; the department has nearly 200 vacancies among its sworn strength of about 3,100 officers. In addition to the vacancies, other officers are on medical leave or have been suspended.

"There's a clear correlation between overtime spending and vacancies," Goldstein said.

But even with the increased overtime spending, police officers report that some districts remain short-staffed. And police union President Robert F. Cherry said the rising use of overtime shows the city "doesn't have a long-term plan." He has criticized Rawlings-Blake's proposal to hire hundreds of additional officers, saying he favors a redeployment of existing resources and salary increases for officers already on the payroll.

It was four weeks ago that The Sun asked City Hall for figures on overtime spending for police, after hearing rumblings that spending had increased significantly. I considered this a simple request, given that the city uses an internationally renowned program called "CitiStat" that involves agencies on a biweekly basis feeding in data so officials can monitor spending and efficiency.

The state's Public Information Act technically allows the city to provide data within 30 days, and we were often reminded of this when we called for updates. The Attorney General's Office has this to say on the topic:

"A custodian should not wait the full 30 days to allow or deny access to a record if that amount of time is not needed to respond.  If access is to be granted, the record should be produced for inspection and copying promptly after the written request is evaluated."

Two sources were able to pass along the data within two days, though officials warned me not to use it because it was "not complete" as it included grant funding and reimbursable overtime. That is, the total number being tracked is not city general fund - or taxpayer - spending, but all payroll expenditures in the "overtime" classification, including money that comes from state and federal grants or is paid back by a private or other government agency. They wanted to make sure data that we got was general fund spending only, which is the number we've used when reporting on this topic over the years.

So what did city officials ultimately come up with, 29 days later? Well, the monthly data was the exact same information that they had warned me not to use. They said they were unable to extract out the grant funds and reimbursable money. That's fine, but that's what I had all along. 

What they did come through with was the total general fund overtime spending for fiscal year 2011 and 2010. This was a necessary figure to have, as projections a year earlier had been lower than what it ended up being. In order to compare year over year increases, we needed to compare like data sets. Still, I wasn't able to get a clear response for why the city didn't have annual general fund spending figures offhand and required weeks to get them.

The closest thing to a response was that the CitiStat data, which includes grants and reimbursables, is intended to "provide a thumbnail snapshot of where you are in a given time. With the frequency of our internal meetings, you're watching a barometer, and trying to stay within a range on the barometer."

Meanwhile, the information provided by the sources broke down spending by unit, district and shift:

Continue reading "City police OT spending up and the quest for information" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall, Top brass
        

When two Baltimore police officers crashed their motorcycles while preparing to escort NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to Sunday's Ravens game, it drew attention to the practice of police escorts.

Who gets them and why?

Surely, presidents, when they visit cities, get large escorts, run by the U.S. Secret Service. The real question is who else should be afforded that luxury. Police agencies, with few or no written guidelines, cite public safety as their guide. But there are other factors as well.

A celebrity, for example, might warrant an escort if that person attracts large crowds -- both for the safety of the celeb and everyone else. Large funeral processions, even private ones, can get escorts to help long processions move through the crowded city.

But does the NFL commissioner need one? Remember the stories out of Washington in April when Charlie Sheen got an escort from Dulles by DC cops, and clocked them doing 80 into the nation's capital. That cost a DC police commander his job (See the Washington Post's Crime Scene blog for more details).

Goodell flew into Martin State Airport on a private jet and was rushed to M&T Bank Stadium. His security chief cited the general 911 terror warnings giving out by the FBI, and city police said 9/11 considerations made this a special day and special event. Goodell needed to get to Sept. 11 ceremonies at three different stadiums on Sunday -- in Baltimore, Washington and New York.

So was the decision to give him a police escort based on security or traffic? The cops weren't injured seriously, and the police did turn down a request on Friday to escort the Ravens cheerleaders on their Purple Friday bus tour through the city.

For more, read the complete story here. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Top brass
        

Baltimore Police Commissioner went on the Marc Steiner show on Morgan State University's WEAA-Radio and confronted his critics. Listen to show here.

On police protecting their own: "One of things I've tried to do is avoid all these blanket indictments and over-generalizations. We should be constantly testing and challenging ourselves in the community. What kind of service do we provide or don't we provide? What kind of professionalism do we have?"

He noted the arrests of officers in a towing scandal and reminded people that the department lured them to the training academy under a ruse that their guns needed to be checked and then busted them. He said that despite rumors the arrest plan had been compromised, all but two officers showed, proving to him that the rumors were false. The other two had been out of town.

But he said he felt there were legitimate concerns about what sergeants and lieutenants were doing while officers were directing unsuspecting motorists to a towing company not approved by the city, but one that was paying off cops for the extra business. "If they were really paying attention to their people, why wouldn't they know?" he asked.

Continue reading "Bealefeld defends department on Steiner" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Downtown, Neighborhoods, Police shootings, Top brass
        

The Baltimore Police Department removed its commander in charge of internal investigations late Monday, a move police sources describe as fallout from last week's indictment of a city police officer on drug charges.

Maj. Nathan Warfield, picked in 2009 by Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III to root out corruption within the department, was reassigned a week after Bealefeld said the arrest of Officer Daniel G. Redd proved his agency would not tolerate misconduct.

Earlier Monday, The Baltimore Sun had asked the department to comment on pictures posted on Facebook showing Warfield socializing with Redd and a man named Sam Brown (pictured at right, in the middle), who was also charged this month in a separate heroin distribution conspiracy. Through a spokesman, Bealefeld declined to comment.

Warfield has not been accused of wrongdoing. But sources say the department was concerned about Warfield's social relationship with Redd and didn't want a cloud over his head. Warfield did not return messages seeking comment.

"Just being associated with Redd in any way shape or form — there's questions that need to be answered there," said one police source who was not authorized to talk about the case. "In that position [with internal affairs], there's no room for errors."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Top brass
        

The governor's office has just announced the retirement of Col. Terrence B. Sheridan, the superintendent of the Maryland State Police. He's pictured here with Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III at a news conference in April.

The current chief of the Maryland Transportation Authority police, Marcus Brown, a former Baltimore city police commander, will take over as state police superintendent.

We're just starting to report the story. Here is a statement from the governor:

Governor Martin O’Malley today announced the retirement of Maryland State Police Superintendent Colonel Terrence B. Sheridan.  Colonel Sheridan was appointed Superintendent by Governor O’Malley in June, 2007.  During a law enforcement career that began with the Maryland State Police and then Chief of the Baltimore County Police Department, before becoming Superintendent, Colonel Sheridan has served the citizens of Maryland for 46 years.  Ensuring a smooth transition in leadership, Governor O’Malley announced that Marcus L. Brown, currently chief of the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) Police, will replace Colonel Sheridan as MSP Superintendent effective August 1st.

“There is no more important responsibility of our state, local or municipal governments than that of public safety,” Governor O’Malley said.  “Colonel Sheridan has done a tremendous job leading the more than 2,500 employees of the Maryland State Police.  With 46 years of law enforcement experience, Colonel Sheridan helped strengthened our relationship with local, state and federal law enforcement to improve public safety and homeland security.” 

Continue reading "State Police superintendent to retire" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Top brass
        

Baltimore's police commissioner has weathered storm after storm - constantly, it seems, forced to address everything from crime to corruption allegations in his department.

One of his friends died in a car crash, one officer shot and killed another in a case of mistaken identity, an off-duty officer killed an unarmed Marine outside a bar, and 50 officers have been implicated in kickback scheme involving a towing company. That's just the last year, and many observers - both within the department and outside - wonder how much more Frederick H. Bealefeld III can withstand.

Today, Justin Fenton explores the stress in the aftermath of the latest scandal -- a police officer charged with running a heroin network. City officials say they've brought the problems into the light and are addressing them, sometimes demonstrably, as in the case of Bealefeld personally taking the badges of officers implicated in the towing scandal. But the fact that the problems exist and continue is for others evidence of problems of supervision.

For his part, Bealefeld still has the support of elected officials and his police union.

Continue reading "Bealefeld toils through scandal" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore, Top brass
        

It was Sept. 11, 1999, and the body of a man lay prone on an East Baltimore sidewalk. He had just been shot by a Baltimore police officer who mistook a cellphone for a gun. Veteran homicide detective Irvin C. Bradley waded into the angry crowd.

"What are people scared of," he said, amid cries of a cover-up. "Just tell us the truth."

That was vintage Bradley, upfront and unafraid to confront the harsh realities of the street. Bradley, who retired from the city force two years ago, died Wednesday at the age of 55. He had been working with the city sheriff's department.

"We're going to miss him," homicide Lt. Lenny Willis, himself a 25-year veteran, told me this morning. "He was one of my closest friends."

Bradley worked some of the city's most notorious killings, including the 1999 execution-style slayings of five women in a rowhouse and was the lead detective in the near-decapitations of three Mexican children in 2004.

More on Bradley:

Continue reading "Irvin Bradley, longtime city homicide detective, dies" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Top brass
        

The resounding question after the July 4 violence at the harbor is whether it's safe. Various city officials, politicians, residents and pundits contributed to our coverage today.

At left, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake holds a picture of a potential suspect police are searching for in the fatal stabbing. A 4-year-old boy was also hit by a stray bullet. She's flanked by Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III on the left and Fire Chief James S. Clack. The picture was taken by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor.

Here is a sampling of what they said. We'd love to he hear from you:

"What goes on in these neighborhoods, it's basically hell on earth," said Ed Burns, the former city police officer who, with David Simon, wrote and produced such Baltimore-defining works as "The Corner" and "The Wire."

"We're very happy if it's confined to these neighborhoods because these people aren't us. But we can't expect it to stay in the neigbhorhoods," He said. "I'm all for people going to the harbor and having a good time. But I think people should pay more attention to their society. Consider the harbor [like] a gated community, like where the rich go to hide behind gates. When you put 600 police there, these people are relatively safe. That's a good thing. But to think that we don't pay attention to those people who aren't safe, that's another thing. It's us living in two separate worlds."

More observations:

Continue reading "Is the Inner Harbor safe?" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Confronting crime, Downtown, Top brass
        

The city has launched a new text and email alert system for news. Baltimore police are first up, and you can sign up for alerts specific to the neighborhoods in which you live. But don't expect the system to give you a heads up about crimes in your neighborhood - that's not the objective, at least not yet, said police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. Cognizant that citizens don't want to be bombarded with text messages, Guglielmi said the city expect to use the system mainly to notify people of events in their neighborhood such as community patrol walks and press releases from the department. For example, there were three shootings this morning, and none were sent over the new system if you lived in those areas.

Here is the statement from the mayor's office:

Today, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced a new citywide email and text alert subscription service for Baltimore City residents to receive important updates and alerts from city agencies. The new service begins today first with the Baltimore Police Department and will provide important text and email alerts for issues related to public safety and crime. 

Residents can sign up to Baltimore Police Department alerts by individual police districts and neighborhoods if desired. “I am very pleased to be able to provide this new service to Baltimore City residents so they are able to stay informed about important public safety issues and other city services,” said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. “This new system is an important addition to our efforts to improve transparency and communication with the citizens of Baltimore using technology and social media.”

“I encourage all of our neighborhood residents to participate in this new service,” said Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld, III.  “Mayor Rawlings-Blake and I are deeply committed to continuing to improve communications between the Baltimore Police Department and the community.”

To subscribe to the service and obtain updates from the Baltimore Police Department.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Top brass
        

Continue reading "Help wanted: Commander of BPD homicide unit" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: City Hall, Top brass
        

The Baltimore Police Department announced an expected shakeup in its top ranks Wednesday, including a new deputy commissioner and new leadership for the patrol and criminal investigations divisions.

The moves were triggered by the retirement of Deputy Commissioner Deborah A. Owens, who had held that position since Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III took over in 2007.

Col. John Skinner, who has overseen the patrol division, will take Owens’ spot, overseeing issues including finance, recruitment and discipline. During his time directing patrol efforts, the 18-year veteran developed a survey to gauge citizens’ satisfaction with the efforts of patrol officers, and he is listed as a part-time faculty member at Towson University.

In a statement, the department said Skinner had been “credited with fostering improved relations between police and the community.”

Continue reading "Baltimore police announce command staff shakeup" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: North Baltimore, Top brass
        

Here's a look at unofficial Baltimore city crime statistics through June 4, as they are presented each week at the department's Comstat meetings. Notably, rapes are up 64 percent (though this is likely more reflective of new classification procedures than an uptick in actual incidents), though rape arrests are also up to the tune of 138 percent (69 arrests this year compared with 29 at this time last year). Shootings, meanwhile, are up 13 percent, particularly in the Eastern District, which has been hammered with 36 shootings this year compared with only 13 last year. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: East Baltimore, Top brass
        

In case you missed it over the weekend, Friday was community policing day for the Baltimore Police Department. Residents got a chance to ride with cops throughout the city, as well as meet the commanders at an open house.

The Sun's Nick Madigan and photographer Gene Sweeney Jr. went along for the ride (read full story here):

Two years ago, John T. Bullock was walking his dog near his home on Baltimore's West Lafayette Avenue when three pit bulls escaped from a nearby yard, charged over to Bullock and his dog and attacked them both.

"The police showed up right away and took care of it," Bullock recalled. "One officer even came to the emergency room — I was having my hands stitched up — to ask me how I was doing. He followed up."

Carrollton Bullock, 32, an assistant professor in political science at Towson University, was impressed — and he wanted to know more about how the police do their jobs and how to establish a working relationship with the officers in his neighborhood.

Bullock was one of hundreds of people who took advantage Friday of the Baltimore Police Department's Community Partnership program, which gave citizens the opportunity to ride along with officers on their rounds, sit in on roll calls and briefings, and challenge commanders with questions in face-to-face meetings.

"That's something people in the community say they want — more interaction with the police," Bullock said from the passenger seat of a Ford Explorer patrol vehicle as a 30-year veteran of the force.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Top brass, West Baltimore
        

May in Baltimore concluded with 13 homicides, one higher than the lowest total ever recorded for the month of May since 1970, the furthest that statistics are available. For comparison, last May saw 23 homicides, and since 1999 the city averages more than 21 homicides in the month. 

This is the second month already in 2011 that the city - still one of the most violent in the country, according to FBI statistics - has marked a notable low, after there were just 10 killings in February, tying the lowest total of any Febraury since at least 1970 and marking one of the lowest monthly totals ever. It was even lower, yes, than February 2010, when the city was hit with "Snowpocalypse," the heavy snowfall than critics still chalk up as the major reason why murders declined for the year.

There was also a stretch of 12 days without a homicide earlier this year, which, in a city that sees two killings every three days, was one of the longest such stretches dating back at least several years. For the year, the city is still ahead of last year's pace due to a big spike in April. A man fatally shot in the 700 block of E. Eager St. Tuesday night became the city's 83rd victim of the year, compared with 79 at this point last year. Ninety-five people had been slain at the same time in 2009.

Continue reading "May ends with historically low homicide count" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 8:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Top brass
        

The Baltimore Child Abuse Center needs your vote for a shot at winning up to $500,000 in grant money.

The center is the only Maryland non-profit competing in the final round of Chase Bank’s Community Giving contest on Facebook. The money will help the center offer free sexual abuse prevention education to kindergarten students throughout the region, said executive director Adam Rosenberg.

At a news conference Monday morning, Police Commissioner cast his vote on an iPad, noting that people already spend an inordinate amount of time on Facebook on trivial tasks and can make a difference by visiting the Baltimore Child Abuse Center and voting.

“People ask all the time, what can I do” to help fight crime, Bealefeld said. “I don’t know a better use of your time than to cast a vote on something that will improves the lives of children in our city and region.”

Voting ends May 25.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Top brass
        

Baltimore police say they're ready for the national spotlight on Saturday. Here's a video of the department's chief spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi, outlining their plans:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Top brass
        

Gov. Martin O'Malley is this morning signing a new gun provisioin into law. It creates tougher sentences for felons already convicted of gun crimes caught again with illegal guns. The city has for years tried to get tougher gun legislation through Annapolis, and this bill is one of several proposed this year.

It's been a fustrating ordeal. City officials tried a broader approach this year, worried that some lawmakers were reluctant to enact state-wide legislation for what appeared to a city problem. The mayor's office trotted out prosecutors from the city and the suburbs to show the proposed laws had broad support.

Still, the city's police commissioner complained of once again being blocked in Annapolis. Even appeals by a Baltimore police officer shot in the line of duty didn't help. Here is a previous story summing up the city's efforts, followed by a statement from the mayor's office issued today:

Continue reading "Governor signs new gun law" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Top brass
        

The Sun's Julie Scharper reports that Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III announced at the mayor's Northeast District town hall meeting Thursday night that he has named new commanders for the district.

The move solidifies a district that has battled new challenges in recent years, a problem I'll be writing about in a future story. As of April 16, the district had seen a 20 percent uptick in total crime and leads the city in homicides. 

Maj. Delmar "Sonny" Dickson retired in January, and Deputy Major Darryl DeSousa had been acting major since then. DeSousa was officially given the nod to become the district commander, and his Deputy Major will be Rick Rutherford, who moves from the Western District, Scharper reported.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall, Northeast Baltimore, Top brass
        

Two Baltimore police commanders who were under scrutiny have been cleared of criminal charges and returned to duty, the Police Department confirmed.

Maj. Anthony Brown, who oversees the city department's SWAT team and special operations section, had been suspended last month when a handgun reported stolen from a politically-connected Southeast Baltimore businessman was determined to be a personal weapon registered to Brown.

The gun had not been reported missing or stolen by Brown, and sources said the business owner, Nicolas Ramos, claimed he had had it for years. Ramos was a member of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's transition team, and was appointed to Gov. Martin O'Malley's Commission on Hispanic Affairs.

In Maryland, a private citizen can sell a firearm to another citizen, but must conduct the transaction at a firearms dealership or in the presence of state police, and there is paperwork that must be filled out. However, Maryland's highest court ruled in 2006 that it is legal for a regulated handgun to be "loaned" between two people who are permitted to own and obtain a handgun. The Court of Appeals said that "transfer" refers to a permanent exchange of title or possession and "does not include gratuitous temporary exchanges or loans."

A spokesman for the State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein, whose office reviewed the case, did not immediately return an email seeking comment. Ramos was also cleared in the case, and the theft of the gun remains under investigation.

Also cleared was Maj. Terrence McLarney, the commander of the city's homicide unit. McLarney had been cleared in mid-March of criminal charges after his department vehicle was found abandoned on the side of Interstate 95 when he slid off a rain-slicked road. 

State police said last month that McLarney told investigators that a car in front of him began swerving and that he "braked hard and his vehicle began to slide and left the roadway." The statement did not address why McLarney did not report the accident and left his car, which was found hours later by a state trooper.

In that case, Howard County State's Attorney Dario J. Broccolino reviewed the case and declined to pursue charges. 

Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said both commanders were reinstated to full duty and the internal cases were "concluded based on prosecutorial review of their incidents." He declined to comment further, citing personnel issues.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Top brass
        

Baltimore's mayor and police commissioner announced this morning the Hometown Heroes Project, an effort to recruit community members to find people who want to be police officers. It's a renewed attempt to attract more city residents to the 3,000-member force.

"It's a way for someone to give back to their community while making Baltimore a safer place," Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake told reporters at a news conference this morning. Residents who sign up will be trained in the recruiting process and procedures.

Last year, despite budget shortfalls exceeding $120 million, the mayor promised to hire up to 400 new police officers. The department had been losing officers to attrition at a faster pace than hiring.

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said that he began his career as a cadet when he was 19 years old. He said part of the program is also to attract cadets who could become future police officers.

Bealefeld started as a cadet in May 1981 on the midnight shift -- he attended community college during the day -- on what was called the "hot desk." His job was handle warrants. He also compared fingerprints of newly arrested suspects to prints on file. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said he used a magnifying glass "It's now what could be considered CSI-like, minus the technology," the spokesman said.

At the news conference, Bealefeld said: "We need to fill 300 positions over the next several months," Bealefeld said. "I've worked my way through the ranks. None of that I think would have been possible without the grounding, experience and start I got here when I was 19 years old." He said that being an officer "is not about car chases. ... What you do every day is help people to be safe, and help people across the city make their lives better. You can't get that experience through a recruitment poster. You really have to live that. ... What we really need are people who are dedicated to service."

Anyone interested in the program is urged to call the Baltimore Police Department recruitment section at 410-396-2340 or visit the department's web site.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Breaking news, City Hall, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

The Baltimore Board of Estimates on Wednesday morning approved $45,000 that the Police Department spent on the funeral of Officer William Torbit, as well as $75,000 requested for the commission appointed to investigate his death.

Torbit was fatally shot by fellow officers in January after responding in plainclothes to a disturbance outside the Select Lounge. Torbit was said to have been overcome by an unruly crowd, and fired his service weapon, killing civilian Sean Gamble. Other officers in the area instinctively returned fire, killing Torbit, according to reports.

[Sun photo by Karl Merton Ferron]

Police officials initially said the investigation into the shooting would take three weeks, but it dragged on for about two months. A police spokesman said a final report was handed to Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III last week, and a task force of experts appointed by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has begun reviewing the findings and will make recommendations.

The Sun's City Hall reporter, Julie Scharper, asked Rawlings-Blake about the expenditures:

Continue reading "City approves spending for officer funeral, shooting investigation" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: City Hall, Downtown, Police shootings, Top brass
        

Because we need some levity on the crime blog from time to time, let's have a caption contest for this photo posted to Twitter by state Sen. Bill Ferguson, showing Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III and City Council President Bernard "Jack" Young at Monday's home opener for the Orioles. As you might recall, Young, who used to head the council's public safety committee, was once the closest thing to a critic that Bealefeld had on the city council, and he openly questioned whether there was a cover-up regarding the city's murder rate. [Edit] They've enjoyed a rosier relationship since Young became council president.

Keep it clean!

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: City Hall, Top brass
        

When three men attacked and punched and robbed a man of his cell phone near downtown this weekend, the muggers apparently forgot about the hundreds of surveillance cameras watching over many of Baltimore’s street corners. At left, The Sun's Lloyd Fox captures officers monitoring surveillance cameras

One of the cameras captured the mugging, and police quickly arrested two men and recovered the stolen cell phone from one of the suspect’s pants pocket. Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III told this story at a budget presentation on Monday, in part to showcase the necessity of the program.

The attack occurred shortly before 3 a.m. Sunday on Park Avenue, near Liberty Street, about two blocks west of Charles Street and near a major city hotel. The victim and friends had just left an apartment on West Fayette Street when a man approached and said, “Give me everything in your pockets.”

For more details:

Continue reading "Mugging captured on camera" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Crime humor, Downtown, Top brass
        

The Baltimore Police Department uses Twitter to promote gun arrests and to alert residents to breaking crime. They also Tweet out historical info, such as anniversaries of the founding of the k-9 unit, or of the tactical team.

A few minutes ago, the department Tweeted out another historical fact in its "A look back" feature -- a salary chart for 1968. It's fun to look at, but I couldn't help noticing the timing -- shortly after the mayor attended a preliminary budget presentation for police and fire (details on the budget can be found here).

Unions for both agencies have been fighting against cutbacks in raises and pensions, while city officials say they've kept the departments funded without wholesale cuts or layoffs. But do city officials really want to compare salaries today to 1968? Is it an attempt to make the current conditions of cops seem generous, compared to their colleagues more than four decades ago?

The head of the city police union, Robert F. Cherry, had this to say: "Anyone with an sense looking at a comparison of salaries today to something in 1968 --  I mean, come on. If that's what the mayor wants to do, we can Tweet right back, 'Great, but here's where we stand in 2011.'"

UPDATE: Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the Twitter of the salary chart right after the budget hearing was pure coincidence, and that the person in his office who posted it didn't know about the hearing. "It's done to change the monotony of arrest, shooting, arrest posts," he said.

For the record, a city police officer today starts at $42,290 (up from about $28,000 in the mid-1990s). A city police sergeant makes about $60,000, and a lieutenant $68,000. Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III earns $193,800.

Here is Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's assessment of the budget:

Continue reading "Police salary comparison on Twitter?" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Top brass
        

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's proposed operating budget, which The Sun reported today would increase spending by 1 percent, includes level funding for police and public safety, and allows the city to follow through with a plan to fill police vacancies, fund crime cameras, and fund youth violence prevention programs, officials say.

Here's the breakdown, based on budget documents:

Continue reading "Mayor's budget: public safety" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: City Hall, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

Many city transportation workers arrested on Friday and charged with gambling and drinking while on the clock have extensive criminal records. Just how they got hired or whether background checks were done will have to be determined after the weekend is over.

A review of electronic court records shows that six of the employees have been convicted of serious criminal offenses, and one person is on probation in a gun possession case. Six workers have clean records, and a seventh has been arrested twice on assault charges but not convicted.

Three workers have extensive records, including one who has been convicted seven times between 1995 and 2009 on drug possession or drug distribution charges. He has served prison or jail time ranging from one day to four years, the records show.

Another worker has been convicted six times of drug offenses and twice of possessing a handgun, all between 2002 and 2009, according to the records. That worker served between two years and four years in prison. Yet another employee has been convicted five times of drug offenses between 1997 and 2004, serving between one year and five years in prison.

One employee has one conviction and was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2001 for drug distribution.

Continue reading "City workers arrested in gambling probe have extensive records" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime, East Baltimore, Top brass
        

Baltimore Police Deputy Commissioner for Administration Deborah A. Owens was recognized by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake this morning with the Richard Lidinsky Sr. Award of Excellence in Public Service.

Owens, a member of the department since 1989 who is retiring this year, was given the award in a ceremony at City Hall. Officials said the award is handed out by a committee and given to "long-serving city employees who have worked to improve city services and make city government more efficient." There's a $2,500 prize and a plaque is placed in the City Hall rotunda.

[Sun file photo - 2007]

Owens oversees issues of staffing, recruitment and discipline, and has been a trailblazer as the first woman to hold the chief of patrol position and the first to be promoted to deputy commissioner, when Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III made her part of what he refers to as "Team Bealefeld." Here's an article from 2007 that featured Owens interacting with residents for an "Adopt a Block" program.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall, Top brass
        

It was another one of those violent weekends in Baltimore -- at least 18 wounded, several dead, including a 4-year-old boy who apparently got hold of a gun and fatally shot himself in the head. The latest in this spate of violence occurred Sunday night in Northwest Baltimore, when three people were shot.

Baltimore police officials have called a news conference for late this morning to discuss the violence; hopefully we'll learn whether any of it is connected. It came in two spurts -- Friday night, which included the wounding a city police officer, and throughout the day and night on Sunday.

The violence included, but is not limited to, a fatal shooting on Frankford Avenue, a man fatally stabbed at a West Baltimore gas station, and a fatal shooting in Pigtown. Check back for more details later today.

Meanwhile, a Maryland State Police trooper shot a New Jersey man in the hand after a chase Sunday night that started with a stolen car spotted in the Fort McHenry Tunnel and ended up further south on I-95 in Prince George's County. See more details.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Crime elsewhere, East Baltimore, Top brass
        

View Weekend violence in a larger map

[UPDATE: 11:05 p.m. - Police and fire officials are tweeting that there have been three shootings in Northwest Baltimore. They have been added to this map.]

City police are reporting at least two additional homicide victims from what quickly became a bloody weekend, with 18 people reported injured or killed since Friday afternoon:

-Darshewn Freeman, 44, was found bleeding in the rear of the 1200 block of W. Ostend St. in Pigtown at about 9:40 p.m., and police said he was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he died the next morning around 9 a.m. A cause of death was not immediately known and pending an autopsy. 

-David McLaughlin Jr., 24, also died after being stabbed in the 4500 block of Edmondson Ave., at the Edmondson Village Shopping Center. Police said he was at a gas station when he was jumped by several individuals. He was stabbed several times and taken to St. Agnes Hospital, then Maryland Shock Trauma, where he died at about 5 a.m. Police believe McLaughlin, who according to court records has prior drug convictions, may have been targeted. 

Beginning Friday afternoon, the city saw a police-involved shooting that injured an officer and left the suspect critically injured; at least three homicides - McLaughlin, Freeman and Angelo Fitzgerald, who was shot in Bolton Hill; and a slew of non-fatal shootings. There was also the tragic death of 4-year-old Tyeshawn Townsend, who found a loaded gun in a Northwest Baltimore home and shot himself in the face. Police will be briefing the media on the incidents on Monday morning at a news conference at headquarters.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 9:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Northeast Baltimore, South Baltimore, Southwest Baltimore, Top brass
        

The cameras were on but the lacrosse stick-carrying-teens engulfing the city’s police chief were reluctant to smile. A coach urged them to loosen up a bit, but their game faces were on.

“This is lacrosse,” Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III reminded the crowd gathered next to the Johnny Unitas statue at M&T Bank Stadium on Saturday. “You’re either going to smile or act real tough.”

In the end, everyone smiled as Bealefeld draped his arm around the middle and high school students who are part of a growing lacrosse league that partners with Baltimore police officers throughout the city.

The Parks & People Foundation’s Baltimore Middle School Lacrosse League is expanding this year from six to 10 teams and the commissioner wants 30 teams competing. It’s a jump from just a few years ago when Bealefeld began the project mentoring a single team at Calverton Middle School.

For more on the program:

Continue reading "Police commissioner greets young lacrosse players" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: South Baltimore, Top brass
        

The commander of the Baltimore Police Department’s homicide unit will not face criminal charges or be ticketed for abandoning his unmarked cruiser on the side of Interstate 95 after he slid off a rain-slicked road last Sunday, according to the Maryland State Police.

Maj. Terrrence P. McLarney had been suspended after the March 6 incident. A city police spokesman said the commander is now back on partial duty — allowed to run the administrative functions of his 70-detective office, but without his police powers.

Maj. David Engel has been temporarily named the unit’s “operational commander.” McLarney, a 34-year veteran, still faces an administrative review to determine whether he violated departmental rules when he failed to report the accident.

Continue reading "Homicide commander cleared in accident" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Howard County, Top brass
        

Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein is considering overhauling how his office deals with police misconduct. He pledged to make changes during his campaign; now, he's starting to implement his ideas just as police are dealing with a corruption problem in which 17 officers were charged by federal authorities with taking kickbacks in a towing scheme.

He has already abolished the controversial "do-not-call" list that his predecessor used to keep track of officers she deemed untrustworthy to take the witness stand. Putting a cop on the list was considered a career body-blow in that a cop who can't testify can't be the primary on an arrest. It effectively rendered many on the list to desk jobs.

And Bernstein is considering eliminating a division devoted to police misconduct. The former head of the unit told The Sun's Tricia Bishop that it was important to have a separate group of prosecutors handle cases against police because the office as a whole has to work closely with the department.

Read full details of the changes here.

The troubled history of the police misconduct unit:

Continue reading "City prosecutor considering changes in targeting police misconduct" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

The Baltimore police commander who heads the homicide unit was suspended today after he abandoned his unmarked cruiser on the side of I-95 near Route 32 in Howard County, city police confirmed. The suspension is described as routine and required because of the active investigation.

Maj. Terrence P. McLarney apparently ran off an exit ramp in Sunday night's rain storm. State Police said his car went into a ditch and there was minor damage to the front bumper. Another motorists called police to report seeing the vehicle off the road.

Why McLarney left the scene and how he got home remains a mystery at this time. City police said they suspended him with pay pending the outcome of the Maryland State Police investigation, and then they'll launch a internal investigation of their own.

More details later on The Sun's web site and in print on Tuesday.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking news, Howard County, Top brass
        

A Baltimore police officer involved in a pursuit and a fatal crash on I-83 will not be criminally charged, Baltimore County prosecutors said on Thursday. The ruling comes despite an investigator's report that says the officer had been ordered to stop the chase.

The Sun's Nick Madigan reports:

In a letter to the state police's crash reconstruction team, which investigated the July 25, 2010, incident, the prosecutor's office said there was not "sufficient evidence to sustain charges of manslaughter by automobile" against the officer, Timothy E. Beall, a 10-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department who had pursued the motorcycle from the city into the county after concluding that it had been racing with a car on Northern Parkway.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Baltimore County, North Baltimore, Top brass
        

A Circut Court judge this morning upheld the firing of a Baltimore police officer who berated and pushed a 14-year-old skateboarder during a confrontation in the Inner Harbor in 2007. The ruling came after about an hour of arguments presented by an attorney for the police union and for the city.

The officer's lawyer argued that the police commissioner went beyond what was reasonable when he rejected an internal trial board recommendation that Rivieri be suspended for six days and lose leave time.

The trial board had found the officer not guilty of the most serious charges that included using excessive force and language. Rivieri was found guilty only of failing to write a police report, which his attorney described as a minor infraction. The attorney argued that the commissioner based his decision on parts issues that his client had been found not guilty of doing -- in essence conduct seen on the video.

But the city's lawyer argued that the failing to write a police report is not a minor infraction, and that Rivieri's failure to properly document his encounter with the youth was tantamount to covering up his use of force against a teenager.

There'll be more details later on the web and in The Sun's print edition.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (37)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Downtown, Top brass
        

Baltimore police are complaining about cuts to their pay and to their pension, and are loudly protesting City Hall. Baltimore leaders are cheering that they closed a $121 million budget deficit without laying cops off.

They point to New Jersey, where cops by the hundreds have lost their jobs to dire economic times, and police unions there say crime is soaring as a result. Today's Crime Scenes gets into the debate in more detail, and notes the release of the Maryland State Police annual law enforcement salary survey.

In the 1990, Baltimore police officers were among the lowest paid cops in the state, earning starting salaries of about $28,000. An academy graduate in the city now gets $42,290 a year, still in a low tier. They’re ahead of state troopers and cops in Anne Arundel and Charles counties but below police in Baltimore, Howard and Harford counties.

Above, the president of the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police union, Robert F. Cherry, leads a protest outside City Hall. For more details: 

Continue reading "Fighting over police pay" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Crime elsewhere, Top brass
        

Ending weeks of speculation, the Baltimore mayor's office announced a review panel to examine last month's shooting of a plainclothes police officer by his colleagues, and the fatal shooting of another man in the same incident.

The Sun's Justin Fenton provides more details in today's story, which raises some questions. The panel is made up of two former police chiefs and a former U.S. Attorney, but contains no community members.

It's also unclear whether the group will hold public hearings, as has been done in other cities.

Officials say the independent review board will issue a comprehensive report on the circumstances that led to the agency's first fatal police-on-police shooting in more than 80 years, killing Officer William H. Torbit Jr. and civilian Sean Gamble, and make recommendations to improve policies.

"I am grateful for the individuals who have agreed to join this review board to conduct a thorough and independent study of this tragic incident," Rawlings-Blake said in a statement. "Their findings will help us better understand what happened that night and improve training for our officers."

The city homicide unit's investigation into the shooting is still pending, with detectives awaiting final autopsy results from the state medical examiner's office and transcripts of witness interviews, officials say. Part of their report might include a computer re-creation of the incident.

Read the mayor's statement:

Continue reading "Review panel in police shooting set" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall, Downtown, Police shootings, Top brass
        

More people are coming forward with complaints that cops steered them to a car repair shop in Rosedale. And not all the police work for Baltimore City. Also, the criminal probe that led to the arrests of 17 city officers this week on federal extortion charges is putting a spotlight on the city's contracts with a tow companies:

A federal corruption probe that has already led to more than 30 Baltimore police officers suspended or charged with receiving kickbacks in an alleged towing scheme has expanded to include at least one former officer from a state law enforcement agency.

The revelation that a police officer outside the city might be involved could indicate a wider problem than officials had previously disclosed. A Maryland Transportation Authority Police spokesman confirmed Friday that an officer who resigned two weeks ago in an unrelated misconduct case is now part of the federal investigation.

"We're going back and looking at everything he did," said the transportation authority spokesman, Sgt. Jonathan Green. The MdTA Police hired the former officer, Herberto Esteves, after he resigned from the Baltimore police force in 2008.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Top brass
        

Here is the 41-page indictment filed against 17 Baltimore police officers who are charged with steering accident victims to a single car repair shop in Rosedale, and then allegedly getting kickbacks from the company:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Top brass
        

Police in Baltimore have had their share of problems over the years, but they managed to avoid scenes like this one in 1994 in New York: officers leaving their Harlem precinct in handcuffs and the city’s disgusted commissioner dumping their badges in a trash can in front of camera crews at a news conference.

That is, until Wednesday.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III stole the playbook from New York when he personally helped arrest 15 of 17 officers charged in an extortion scheme that federal authorities say involved kickbacks from owners of a tow truck company.

The top cop lured the accused officers to the training academy, took their badges and handed them to the president of the class of new recruits, who lined them up on the floor for display. The scene wasn’t captured on television, but the message to those about to join the force, and to those already serving, was deliberate, and unmistakable.

Stories of city police officers and others in law enforcement getting caught on the wrong side of the law abound, but most of the cases appeared isolated to one or a handful of cops making bad decisions.

Baltimore had managed to avoid the taint of the words “systemic corruption.”

There were always hints that the uncovered misconduct was more extensive than first advertised. But not in recent memory has such a broad, sweeping case been brought. Seventeen cops charged with federal crimes, and a dozen more implicated.

Here is a list of some of the more recent cases against Baltimore police officers and other city law enforcement officials that raised questions of systemic corruption:

Continue reading "Baltimore police corruption scandals of the past" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Top brass
        

Here's the video of Baltimore's police commissioner and the Maryland U.S. Attorney discussing the arrests of 17 city police officers charged with steering traffic accident victims to a specific auto repair shop in exchange for kickbacks.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

Baltimore’s police commissioner personally helped arrest more than a dozen city officers this morning who allegedly got thousands of dollars in kickbacks for steering accident victims to a towing company that was not authorized to do business with the city.

Federal authorities outlined a broad scheme in a 41-page criminal complaint and at a news conference in which 17 police officers conspired for two years with two brothers who own Magestic Auto Repair Shop in Rosedale.

The brothers, identified as Hernan Alexis Moreno Mejia and Edwin Javier Mejia, were also arrested, along with 15 officers who were lured to the city’s police academy under the ruse of and equipment inspection, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said. Two officers had not been arrested as of this afternoon.

Bealefeld, in a calm voice, told reporters at a news conference at the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office (photo above by The Sun's Kenneth K. Lam shows Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein at the podium, flanked by Baltimore's FBI director, Richard A. McFeely, and Bealefeld).

that he thought for months about how he would explain the arrests to the citizens of Baltimore. He said he wanted the arrests done in a “very deliberate way” that was “meaningful and respectful,” but also sent a stern message to the 3,000-member force.

Continue reading "Bealefeld helps arrest fellow cops" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

UPDATE: Federal authorities say that the case involves 17 city police officers. We're posting the criminal complaint below. Here are some quick highlights from a statement from the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office:

A criminal complaint was filed today charging 17 Baltimore City Police officers and two brothers who own a car repair shop with conspiring to commit extortion in connection with a scheme in which the repair shop owners paid police officers to arrange for their company, rather than a city-authorized company, to tow vehicles from accident scenes and make repairs.

According to the affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, the general pattern of the extortion scheme allegedly consisted of the following: from January 2009 to the present, the BPD Officers were either dispatched by the police department to the scene of an accident, or otherwise showed up at the scene.  Shortly after arriving at the accident scene, the BPD Officer would call Moreno, or use the vehicle owner’s cell phone to call Moreno, and provide Moreno with details about the accident and the damage to the vehicle.

Original post: A dozen or more Baltimore city police officers have been arrested this morning in connection with a federal corruption probe that involves an improper relationship with a Baltimore towing company, sources said.

Multiple sources say the officers are mostly from the Northeast District and many of them are officers who were recruited years ago in a push to bring in Latino officers from Puerto Rico. That information could not immediately be confirmed.

UPDATE at 3:25 p.m.The president of Latino officers association says only 3 of officers charged were recruited during the Puerto Rico initiative. Others were recruited from New York and Maryland, and are of varying nationalities, the association says.

Officials from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Baltimore and the FBI announced that a press conference will be held at 3 p.m. today to discuss the arrests.

-Justin Fenton and Julie Scharper

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (32)
Categories: City Hall, Courts and the justice system, Northeast Baltimore, Top brass
        

When the news broke last month that a Baltimore police officer had been disciplined for failing to shave -- during the visit of the soon-to-be-president, no less -- it apparently wasn't the first time this issue has come.

The officer, who has since retired, has an ailment known as pseudofolliculitis barbae, a skin condition nicknamed "razor bumps" that can cause infection and scarring "as a consequence of shaving." It's a condition that is most common in black males.

The 18-year veteran officer, Anthony L. Brown, alleges in his $17 million lawsuit that his supervisor handed him a razor and cream and ordered him to shave in front of his squad of officers. Maybe the city cops, or the city attorney's, should be aware of a similar case decided 20 years ago by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.

The Daily Record reports in a story provided by the Capital News Service (full story here):

It has been nearly 20 years since the Court of Special Appeals took up [Donald] Boyd’s case and ruled that the University of Maryland at Baltimore Police Force’s no-beards policy discriminated against blacks. Still, beard bans persist across the nation and cops continue to clash with their agencies in increasingly expensive legal battles.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Top brass
        

Michael J. Andrew retires Wednesday after spending 37 years as a city cop. His grandfather began his career in the city in 1921, the start of long line of family members on the city force. Andrew, who is close to 60, is perhaps one of the last cops left to remember call-box keys, and his departure will leave a void both in historic reference and old-time bravado.

But he was never afraid to say he was sorry. In the picture, he's visiting the home of a young boy who was struck by a police cruiser, putting him in a cast for the summer. Andrew was upset that no other cop or commander bothered to go, even if the accident was the child's fault.

Today's Crime Scene column goes into more detail of Andrew's career. He's known for his blunt, outspoken style, never afraid to speak his mind. And that got him into trouble, and endeared him to newspaper reporters.

Angry that cops stormed an apartment back in 2003 and shot and killed a man (who had killed someone else) without what Andrew thought was adequate negotiations, Andrew leaked a critical memo to a Baltimore Sun reporter. Commanders discovered the source, fired him and then reinstated him, but with banishment to the property division.

Andrew fought his discipline and for his lost pay all the way up the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled in his favor. The city then gave up and last year Andrew got his money and a promotion to lead the tactical team. A year later, Andrew said the police commissioner called him into his office and asked if he was ready to retire.

Not many cops can boast of getting support in court from groups as varied as the police union, the ACLU and a committee for a free press. Most of the time, these groups are not exactly in agreement, especially when it comes to the release of information.

But Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, in a concurring opinion, offered one of the best defenses of whistle-blowers I've ever come across. He wrote, in part, that government scrutiny by the news media "is impossible without sources such as Michael Andrew" and that "it seems inimical to First Amendment principles to treat too summarily those who bring, often at some personal risk, its operations into public view."

The judge went on about how traditional media is losing ground and money as it struggles to deal with less revenue and a competing Internet, and said it's even more important now that people like Andrew step forward to help shine the light on government.

Wilkinson noted that Andrew was hardly passing along office gossip. "The matter about which Andrew spoke was not just an office quarrel or a routine personnel action," the judge wrote, "but a question of real public importance, namely whether a police shooting of a citizen was justified and whether the investigation of that shooting was less than forthcoming."

Andrew didn't just speak out to reporters. Here he is in some other moments:

Continue reading "Top police commander retires" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: East Baltimore, Top brass
        

The aftermath of the stabbing death of Veronica Williams outside a Baltimore court house -- for which her husband is now on trial -- allegations swirled that the suspect got special treatment from a top police commander.

Deputy Maj. Dan A. Lioli (left) was suspended after it was learned he had been in contact through text message with the suspect, well-known community activist named Cleaven L. Williams Jr.

Williams took the stand at his trial today and tearfully recounted problems with his wife. Williams has admitted to stabbing his wife but says it was not pre-meditated murder. He also has said he pleaded with the police officer who shot him twice to kill him, part of a plan for suicide by cop.

On Thursday, Lioi testified for the first time in public. The department had found no evidence of wrongdoing, though questions remained whether a warrant for Williams was not served as aggressively a it would've been for someone who did not have a cell phone number of top police officer.

The Baltimore Sun's Nick Madigan reports on Lioi's testimony:

Jurors heard from several members of the city police force, one of whom acknowledged under cross-examination that, four days before the killing, Williams had tried to turn himself in at the Eastern District precinct in response to a warrant charging him with assaulting his wife, but the warrant could not be located and Williams was told to leave.

“I knew him,” said Deputy Maj. Dan A. Lioi, recounting his history with Williams, a community activist. “We didn’t feel he was a flight risk.”

In the following days, after the warrant had been found, Lioi said he and Williams had been in touch several times by phone and text messages, trying to arrange a time for Williams to surrender. On Nov. 17, Williams told Lioi by phone that he was on his way to his lawyer’s office.

"’Let me get back to you,’” Williams said, and he hung up, according to Lioi.

About an hour after that, he learned that Williams had been arrested in the killing of his wife of almost 10 years. She was pregnant and had borne their three young children.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: East Baltimore, Top brass
        

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III is restoring the Inspections Unit, The Sun's Peter Hermann reported in today's Crime Scenes column.

Internal Affairs still handles corruption and brutality cases, but its members have little time to enforce the finer points of professionalism — standards that, if left to slip, erode the spit-and-polish look demanded of a paramilitary organization. Officers in the unit will not take punitive action against fellow cops, but will report their findings to commanders, who will be expected to make appropriate adjustments.

Inspectors will examine whether undercover officers are appropriately spending money on informants, whether cops are carrying the required equipment, whether vehicles are clean and up to code and have all their headlights, and whether officers are illegally texting while driving. The new unit won't cost the department more money; rather, officials hope it will save money by enforcing fiscal responsibility.

The union is on board, saying it's time to "tighten up" and send a message about the department's professionalism.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Top brass
        

"He smirked at me."

That's how Baltimore Police Officer Todd Strohman described the gunman just before he
pulled the trigger, putting a bullet into his shoulder, a bullet that will remain inches above his heart for the rest of his life.

The cop had another message for state lawmakers who make up the Senate's Judiciary
Committee contemplating tougher guns laws proposed by the city (see city's website describing proposed legislation): If the proposed laws had been on the books, the person charged with shooting him wouldn't have been on the street.

The audience applauded Strohman and the lawmakers wished him well. There was no sense
in grilling him on the necessity of enhanced gun legislation. The man charged in the crime had served two years of a 12-year sentence for armed robbery (the judge had suspended six of the years) and had been charged with five previous gun crimes. He had gotten out a little more than two weeks before the shooting on North Calvert Street.

"Seventeen days after he gets out, he shoots one of our cops," said Deputy Police Commissioner Anthony Barksdale.

See more on the gun hearing:

Continue reading "City, county leaders press for tougher gun laws" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere, Kenneth Harris trial, Neighborhoods, Police shootings, Top brass
        

Baltimore leaders, including top cops, the mayor and the new state's attorney, are making their annual pilgrimage to Annapolis this afternoon to lobby for stronger gun laws. It's the sixth consecutive year of trying, and this time Baltimore officials are, so to speak, bringing out the big guns.

Scheduled to testify before a Senate committee are residents of crime-riddled city neighborhoods and a police officer who was shot on North Calvert Street. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has even unveiled a web site -- Safer City Baltimore -- to track gun legislation and read the text of the bills.

Last year's efforts failed, but bills actually got out of a house committee, and that in itself was considered a victory.

A proposal to extend the law making using a handgun in the commission of a felony to include all guns -- so that a person who robs a store with a rifle gets the same time as someone who robs a store with a handgun -- got widespread support. But a bill to extend being a felon in possession of a handgun to include all guns brought both bills crashing down. Opponents said it would unfairly punish felons who wanted to use rifles to hunt.

So now the city is back in Annapolis with new ideas. One proposal would create a minimum 18 month sentence for all defendants convicted of having an illegal, loaded firearm. Another would increase the maximum penalty for felons in possession of handguns to up to 15 years, but would give judges discretion by making it a 5 to 15 year penalty.

Just a few moments ago, city police announced more gun arrests on Twitter -- a handgun seizure on Gwynns Falls Parkway and .357 handgun recovered on Frankford Avenue in Northeast. In the picture above by The Sun's Gene Sweeney Jr., Rawlings-Blake talks about 76 illegal firearms that were seized in 10 days in July in Baltimore. Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein and ATF Special Agent in Charge Joseph Riel are shown (left to right) in the background.

City leaders have had a hard time trying to understand why it's so difficult to get legislation passed to help them make Baltimore safer. The hearing is at 1 p.m. Check back to The Baltimore Sun later, on-line and in print, to see how the the city's bad guys with guns plays out in Annapolis.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III were in Annapolis this morning briefing the city delegation on proposals for stricter gun laws.

City officals have been lobbying for years to boost penalties with not much success. Read the legislation -- Senate Bill 240 and Senate Bill 239. This year's proposals, according to the mayor's office:

The first bill would create a minimum sentence of 18 months for all defendants arrested with an illegal, loaded firearm. The second bill would strengthen sentencing options for felons in possession of guns by creating a tougher sentencing range of 5 years minimum to 15 years maximum, giving judges more sentencing options when faced with a repeat gun offender.

Here is a statement from the mayor's office:

Continue reading "Mayor, police commissioner lobby for gun laws" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

Baltimore police are still working on their investigation into the Jan. 9 shooting at Select Lounge that left a city officer and 22-year-old civilian dead, officials say.

At a press conference three weeks ago, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said the investigation would take about three weeks, but officials say they are still awaiting an autopsy report. Cindy Feldstein, of the state medical examiner's office, confirmed that a cause and manner of death was promptly identified but that the full report has not been turned over. "We don't provide preliminary reports," Feldstein said, noting that a complete report often takes about a month.

In the meantime, Bealefeld is pushing forward with assembling a panel that will review the department's findings. Aides say that instead of referring the investigation to another agency, city officials want to form a commission of representatives from various organizations to review the case. 

Officer William H. Torbit and Sean Gamble were fatally shot in a melee outside the downtown club. It is believed that Torbit shot Gamble after being overwhelmed in a large crowd, then Torbit was shot by fellow officers who did not realize who he was. The five officers fired a total of 41 rounds. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall, Downtown, Police shootings, Top brass
        

Baltimore's police commissioner and mayor are having a news conference (4:15 p.m.) to announce an arrest of a person they call a significant gun criminal. Police in Northwest Baltimore arrested the man, Michael Nichols, 31, Thursday evening.

He's at left in a police mug shot.

According to a police charging document, an officer got a call for an armed man in the 2300 block of Reiserstown Road. The man was wearing an Army camouflage jacket with a hat adorned with snowflakes and had just entered a location with an AK-47.

Police said the man jumped off a back second-floor balcony when the officer arrived but was arrested by a back-up officer. According to the court document, the man admitted that he had two guns in the house and thought the cops were there to arrest him for violating his parole.

Authorities then obtained a search warrant for the residence and confiscated several weapons. They include: a 9mm Luger handgun loaded with nine rounds; a High Point .45 caliber handgun loaded with five bullets; suspected marijuana; and suspected heroin.

The court document also says that the man told police he had a Tech 9 gun hidden in his mother's basement in a tool box on Bentalou Street. Police said they found the gun, loaded with 17 bullets, along with a box containing 28 rounds of ammunition.

At this moment, police and the mayor are giving more details (watch the news conference here). Check back to the Baltimore Sun for a more complete news story.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Top brass, West Baltimore
        

From today's Baltimore Sun (reported by Yeganeh June Torbati):

Gun control policies should focus on restricting access to firearms for dangerous individuals or repeat offenders rather than making guns illegal, a prominent gun policy scholar told a group of public health students on Tuesday.

Daniel W. Webster, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, touched on Baltimore police tactics and the Jan. 8 mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., where six people were killed and 13 wounded, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Too often, he said, the national debate on gun control divides into groups — those claiming that guns are not responsible for people's violent actions against those who say there are far too many guns available in America.

"This discussion has gotten us to where we are today, which is nowhere," said Webster, who has served as an informal adviser to Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III. "We get in these silly sorts of discussions about guns are good, guns are bad."

Webster is well known around the Baltimore Police Department. Back in October, The Sun's police reporter, Justin Fenton, reported on a grant the city got from the federal government that will allow Webster to study the police commissioner's bad guys with guns strategy:

The $300,000 Smart Policing Grant will be used to support the work of the department's Violent Crime Impact Section, a plainclothes deployment of officers focused in East, West and Northwest Baltimore, and the gun offender registry, which helps keep tabs on people convicted of gun offenses.It will also fund an evaluation of the department's effectiveness in those areas

For two years, Webster and a researcher will compare crime statistics and police strategies to provide a template for other cities.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Top brass
        

Baltimore police have concluded their investigation into the October accident that killed a city police officer whose cruiser slammed into the back of fire engine.

The report concludes that Officer Thomas Portz Jr., 32, was most likely distracted by a film crew using the opposite lanes of U.S. 40 to record the final scene of an independent movie. The report, obtained under a Public Information Act request, says the officer was speeding at 71 mph (in a 50 mph zone) and was not wearing his seat belt.

Photo was taken by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor.

From our news story:

Just before the accident, the city Fire Department received a call for a sick person in the area and firefighters on Engine 8 had stopped in the eastbound lane of U.S. 40, near the Stricker Street footbridge, and were looking for the source of the call.

Portz also was driving east on the U.S. 40, and the report concludes he was probably looking at the film crew and didn’t see the stopped fire engine. Portz was not responding to an emergency call at the time. Police identified the firefighter driving the engine only as a 41-year-old male.

The report says Portz had been speeding at 71 mph — the speed limit is 50 mph on that portion of roadway — but slammed on is brakes 2.5 seconds before impact. Detective Patty A. Baur, a traffic collision reconstruction expert with the police crash team, said in the report that the police car was traveling 62 mph a split-second before impact.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Top brass, West Baltimore
        

If the city's most outspoken activists gave Gregg Bernstein a honeymoon period after being sworn in earlier this month as Baltimore's new top prosecutor, it appears to be over.

Two groups of loosely-affiliated community organizations and special interests protested on opposite sides of the Mitchell Courthouse downtown on Monday, accusing Bernstein of being tight-lipped on a racially-charged assault case and criticizing his "unholy" alliance with the Police Department.

On the west side, protesters formed a picket line, invoking the shooting of Officer William H. Torbit Jr. and carrying signs with such incendiary slogans as "Arrogant Racist State's Attorney."

On the east side, people who said they represent black media and civil rights groups called on Bernstein to say more about his office's decision to drop felony assault charges against a member of a Jewish community patrol group.

"'No comment' will not suffice in the African American community," said Hassan Giordano, a blogger, talk show host and campaign consultant.

Bernstein, who defeated 15-year incumbent Patricia C. Jessamy in last year's Democratic primary election, had been supported by Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, who said a better relationship with prosecutors would help keep violent repeat offenders off the street.

Two high-profile and controversial cases are testing his public mettle early.  Read more here.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: City Hall, Courts and the justice system, Downtown, Northwest Baltimore, Police shootings, Top brass
        

Baltimore police have identified the applicant who died during testing. The Sun's Frederick N. Rassmussen filed this report:

The 29-year-old man who collapsed and died after finishing a 1.5-mile run as part of his application to become a Baltimore police officer was identified Saturday as Gilnord Charles. Baltimore Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Charles had passed the civil service portion of the exam and was taking the physical agility test at Northwestern High School Friday morning. Charles collapsed immediately after finishing the run on the high school track, Guglielmi said.

Two of the other people taking the test were medics and tried to treat Charles, who was later taken to Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Guglielmi said. Guglielmi said Charles did not indicate any health issues to instructors and appeared to be in good health. Charles lived in the Baltimore area and had served in the military, he added.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Top brass
        

NOTE: An earlier posting here on police budgets didn't clearly describe the police pay cuts. Every city employee is seeing a $5 reduction in their checks per pay-period, as part of a plan negotiated with unions last year to contribute to a prescription drug plan. Police officers are seeing an additional 1.95 percent cut in their pay starting later this month.

It comes just after city police announced across-the-board cuts in crime not seen in more than two decades. At left, Robert F. Cherry, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 3, speaks at a rally in front of City Hall to complain about the cuts. Police officers and firefighters are behind him (photo by The Sun's Gene Sweeney Jr.).

Here is the full story, with accusations being hurled back and forth by city and union leaders:

Baltimore police officers got what they described as a stunning note accompanying their biweekly paychecks Friday — a memo from City Hall informing them that their pay will be cut by nearly 2 percent over the next six months.

In addition, the officers along with thousands of other city workers were informed that starting Friday, their checks would be reduced $5 per pay period to share the costs of a prescription drug plan to help close a $121 million budget deficit.

While most city workers were prepared for the $5 reductions, police officers are taking a double hit — the cost of drug plan plus the 1.95 percent pay cut. Spread over six months, that last cut means the average officer will see about $205 less in his monthly pay starting Jan. 21.

In November, officers through their labor union overwhelmingly rejected the city’s one-year contract offer calling for a 2 percent cut in exchange for an extra five vacation days. The Fraternal Order of Police president, Robert F. Cherry, said he proposed a different, multi-year contract with a temporary pay freeze.

But the mayor’s office went to arbitration and won. Now, city leaders say pay cuts for officers that would’ve been spread out of a year have to compacted into six months. And the five extra vacation days are no longer on the table.

“We could’ve spread the pain,” said an aide to the mayor, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “I think the rank-and-file members really deserve better than they got from the union leadership.”

Continue reading "Police see pay cut" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

Usually, for Baltimore police, no news is good news.

Not this time.

The cops want as much attention as possible to help find missing Phylicia Barnes, the 16-year-old girl who disappeared from her sister's Northwest Baltimore apartment on Dec. 28. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said detectives fear she either dead in Baltimore or has been abducted and is somewhere far away.

Guglielmi has been chasing national television producers for days to get them to do a story and put Phylicia's picture on the air. If she has been abducted, the cops want people in Kansas and California to see her picture.

But until today, only CNN Headline news and Good Morning America had paid any attention. And Good Morning America used canned quotes from the family and file footage of the police helicopter.

But after I started working a story and called several TV networks, city cops got booked on CNN's Nancy Grace, the CBS Early Show and NBC's Today. Nancy Grace plans to air a segment tonight; the other two shows Friday morning (Here's a link to Nancy Grace, where her blog features a report on a missing white 13-year-old cheerleader from Texas)

Cops won't say publicly what they're saying privately -- that they feel Phylicia is not getting national media attention because she's black, went missing in a crime-ridden city and isn't from the suburbs.

Publicly, the police spokesman Guglielmi says:

“I don’t know why this case is any different that the Natalee Holloway case,” said Guglielmi, referring to the young, wealthy white woman who went missing while vacationing in the Caribbean in 2005 and continues to be a staple of cable news programs.

“The only exception is that Phylicia was in Baltimore and she’s from North Carolina,” Guglielmi said. “America rallied around Natalee and CNN aired hourly updates. In my case, I’m just asking that [Phylicia’s] picture be put up and it be noted that she’s missing and in danger.

“I know there are things happening around the nation,” the police spokesman said. “But I think the disappearance of a 16-year-old is more important than birds falling out of the sky or dead fish in the harbor. Somebody’s life is in peril here.”

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore, Top brass
        

Baltimore's police commissioner went on the Dan Rodricks radio show on WYPR to talk about crime, guns and his relationship with State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein. But it was an ex-felon named Thomas who stole the show.

Thomas called in and introduced himself as a former criminal who "spent a lot of time on the street committing crimes with guns, and spent a lot of time in prison." He praised Bealefeld for going after guns and for using the federal system to send gun offenders to long prison terms.

"When gun violence was a joke, everyone on the street took it as a joke," Thomas said. "Now, guys in the prison system are saying, 'I don't want to be caught with a gun.' Even those of us once involved in gun crime, we're sick and tired of these guns and killings."

This comment came after Bealefeld defended himself against people accusing him of wanting to arrest everybody for everything -- arrests under the commissioner have dropped from more than 105,000 in 2005 to 60,000 now.

One caller said prison isn't the answer because criminals come out more violent than they went in. "There is something in the air and the water and the lead paint," the caller said, "that makes Baltimore City a violent city, and that needs to be addressed, and we can't keep throwing police at it."

The commissioner agreed that there are social issues at play, but he also said he's tired of excuses for crime. He noted that 44 percent of people charged with murder in Baltimore last year "were arrested before with guns. They came home, they got guns again and they killed people."

Continue reading "Ex-felon praises Bealefeld for being tough on guns" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Top brass
        

The pace of slayings in Baltimore has slowed -- three to begin the year but nothing in the past few days. But police have kept up their relentless campaign to get guns off city streets.

Since last night, police have announced gun arrests in three parts of the city, starting in the Western where detectives with the Violent Crime Impact Section, targeting one of the more violent corridors in the city, made eight arrests Wednesday night and seized a .32 caliber handgun. The busts came while searching a house in the 700 block of North Fulton Ave.

In North Baltimore, police arrested two people and recovered a .40 caliber handgun from the 4000 block of Hamilton Ave. Detectives with a gang unit led the investigation.

Again in the Western, patrol officers stopped a car in the 200 block of North Carey St., arrested two people and seized a .38 caliber handgun.

And in South Baltimore, police raided a house in the 1600 block of Cedox St, arrested one person and seized a 20-gauge shotgun. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, North Baltimore, South Baltimore, Top brass, West Baltimore
        

The written word, whether it is in traditional print or on a computer screen, remains powerful.

And nothing could prove that more than what happened on Tuesday in the frantic search for the missing 16-year-old girl, Phylicia Simone Barns (at left), who disappeared without a trace from a Northwest Baltimore apartment on Dec. 28.

A comment posted on the bottom of a Baltimore Sun story read: "Humor me, somebody pop over to the 4000 block of Franklintown Road and look at the Southwest shoulder."

Cops, hunting down any and every clue, took immediate interest. Was this simply an obvious reference to Leakin Park being a notorious and popular dumping ground for bodies, or did this poster know something specific?

Hard to tell. The version that appears in public identifies the author only by a screen name, Cham101. Police sought more information on the poster from the newspaper, but as that was being worked out, police mobilized more than 100 police officers to search the area. An entire cadet class. More than 20 homicide detectives. A dive team. A helicopter. Officers from the Maryland Natural Resources police. Nine cadaver dogs.

They searched a section of the isolated park all day, giving up only after the poster had been tracked down, by this newspaper's chief police reporter, Justin Fenton. He reported back:

Continue reading "Internet tip leads police astray in search for teen" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Confronting crime, Northwest Baltimore, Southwest Baltimore, Top brass
        

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III has been making the media rounds to talk up the crime reduction -- interview with Baltimore Sun, news conference -- and this afternoon he hit the radio talk show circuit, appearing on WYPR's Midday with Dan Rodricks.

Listen to the segment here.

I listened in the car, so no direct quotes, but Bealefeld's main thrust was going after gun offenders, and he talked about a fresh start with new State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein and how he hoped to do more with robberies and targeting offenders with firearms.

He assured some callers that he was not about locking everyone up -- his officers are arresting tens of thousands fewer people over the past several years -- but he does not apologize for removing gun offenders from the streets. He said a small number of gunmen are responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime in the city.

Continue reading "Police commissioner, mayor talk guns on radio" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

Baltimore police can't seem to get a break.

Just as they bask in 25-year lows in violent crime, including homicide numbers not seen for decades, the New Year opened with three killings, including that of a youth and of an autistic man shot as he took his dog for a walk.

The victim, Hezikah Wilson III, was the 38-year-old brother of a Baltimore police officer who patrols one of the most dangerous sections of the city -- West Baltimore. The victim's brothers are at left, in a picture by The Sun's Gene Sweeney Jr. Frankie Wilson, a 15-year veteran of the city police force, is on the left and, and Archie Wilson Jr. is at right.

News of the death and the circumstances came as the mayor and police commissioner addressed the media to talk about the crime drops and their plans for the coming year, including pushing Annapolis once again for tougher laws on guns.

The Sun's Justin Fenton wrote:

Hezikah Wilson III didn't have an enemy in the world.

He didn't have friends, either. Aside from running an occasional errand, the 38-year-old autistic man rarely left the house he shared with his diabetic mother in Northeast Baltimore. He made sure she took her medication, and prepared her meals.

He also let the dog out, something he was doing Sunday night when someone shot him in the shoulder and killed him.

On Monday, as police canvassed Hamilton for tips in Wilson's murder, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake told reporters at a news conference at police headquarters that Baltimore over the past decade had the largest drop in crime of any of the nation's 20 largest cities. Shootings have been cut by 40 percent, and the homicide rate is at its lowest point since 1989.

"We say this not to diminish the tough work ahead, but to say what is true and allow the people of Baltimore to acknowledge hard-fought progress," Rawlings-Blake said.

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III told me while riding around the city in the opening hours of 2011 that this was a "new day" and a new "sheriff is in town," referring to new State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein.

The opening hours left the city facing an old problem, and once again trying to promote the good numbers even as people like Hezikah Wilson get gunned down while taking the family dog for a walk.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Northeast Baltimore, Top brass
        

Baltimore's top cop and about to be top prosecutor hit the streets early Saturday to survey the crime scene. They found little, which in their world couldn't be better news.

This was the upcoming State's Attorney's Gregg Bernstein's second ride with cops and he got a slow night, though he did see a few traffic stop and ran into a house where a man had been hit over the head with a glass bottle. He missed double stabbings in Curtis Bay and downtown, but experienced a night of unusually slow crime and even lower crowds for the all night party.

"There are more cops than people," Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III noted about 30 minutes after the fireworks had ended, as he walked the Inner Harbor's waterfront walkway. In police parlance, it's simply "the bricks."

The photo-op of the night?

Bealefeld and Bernstein pushing a broken-down car out of an intersection on East Madison Street.

It's certainly valuable for the incoming top prosecutor to get a feel for the streets and the cops, but Bernstein enjoys a close bond with Bealefeld, who took the unusual step of openly campaigning for him to unseat the sitting state's attorney.

Also in the car was Bernstein's wife, Sheryl Goldstein, who runs the mayor's crime office.

Bernstein didn't get too much crime to prosecute in the opening hours of 2011, But soon he'll be pouring over the files of these very same officers, deciding what and how and whether to prosecute the people they're locking up on nights like this.

As for Bealefeld, he's hoping for more nights this.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Downtown, East Baltimore, Southeast Baltimore, State's Attorney Campaign, Top brass
        

2010 is in the books, with the city recording across-the-board crime declines in every category (except reported rapes), so let's look ahead. There's a few pivotal moments coming up in 2011, including the mayoral campaign, a new top prosecutor, and changes in the police department's top ranks, according to this excerpt from Friday's year-end recap. 

"Bealefeld made the rare move of openly advocating for a new state's attorney in this year's Democratic primary, placing a lawn sign at his Southwest Baltimore home in support of defense attorney Gregg Bernstein.

Bernstein, who entered the race late and with little name recognition, went on to defeat 15-year incumbent Patricia C. Jessamy using a tougher-on-crime platform. His election gives the city what many see as a three-headed crimefighter — Bernstein is married to Sheryl Goldstein, who is Rawlings-Blake's top adviser on crime and a key collaborator with Bealefeld. Jessamy warned that Bernstein would be a "rubber stamp" for police.

The Police Department also will see a significant shake-up in the top ranks, with the expected retirement of Deputy Commissioner Deborah Owens. Patrol chief John Skinner is expected to be promoted."

Bernstein will be sworn in on Monday. His challenge is to improve results in the state's attorney's office - which will be hard to quantify, since Jessamy didn't track case outcomes, making comparisons difficult - while avoiding the perception that his ties to Bealefeld will result in an unchecked police department. In his year end interview with The Sun, Bealefeld ticked off a number of things he wants to work with Bernstein on, including robbery investigations, cases dropped because officers fail to appear in court - all things Jessamy had been in their ear about for years. Bernstein, meanwhile, has been discussing a wide range of new initiatives that will be interesting to monitor if he can find the funding and staff.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

Baltimore’s top cop is adding another obligation to his busy schedule next month: part-time student.

Speaking at a ceremony for a group of officers enrolled in a leadership certificate program at the University of Maryland, University College, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III disclosed he would soon be going back to school as well.

Bealefeld’s highest level of education is a high school diploma, having dropped out of Anne Arundel Community College to join the police academy after suffering a sports injury that dashed his hopes of earning an athletic scholarship.

“It’s something he’s always wanted to do,” said Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

Guglielmi said Bealefeld will enroll at UMUC and pursue a degree in criminal justice. Bealefeld did not immediately return an e-mail message seeking clarification on his plans.

A survey by Police Chief Magazine in 2004 showed 89 percent of police chiefs across the country held at least a four-year degree, and more than half had a master’s or law degree. Despite his lack of college education, Bealefeld has overseen steep drops in crime – homicides are at a 25-year low – and led the department though one of its most stable periods.

Continue reading "City's top cop heading back to school" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Top brass
        

Fire Chief James S. Clack fired back this afternoon on claims from the fire union that rotating budget closures of companies impacted fighting the two five-alarm fires in Mount Vernon and on The Block.

"We've got 54 suppression companies in the city and three are closed each day. It's certainly better than years ago when we had six, and even up until the start of this year when we had four. Would we like those up in service? Absolutely."

But Clack said he didn't think the closures made a difference. "Both of these were five alarm fires. Another truck in service probably wouldn't have made a difference in this case. Certainly as the fire chief I'd like to have every company in service.

"But these are very tough budget times and I think we're doing well with what we have. I would say that some of the stuff the union sent out is a little overblown. They're trying to use this opportunity to advocate for reducing the rotating closures. I certainly understand that. But I would say the rhetoric is over the top."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Downtown, North Baltimore, Top brass
        

Today's Crime Scenes is about guns.

I detailed one gun arrest that appeared significant -- the arrest of a man with a Ruger pistol and 50 rounds of ammunition -- to highlight the police commissioner's fight against "bad guys with guns." As of last week, city police have seized 2,043 guns this year.

The dangers of this campaign became evident this past weekend when a young city patrol officer was shot confronting an armed man on Baltimore and Calvert streets. Three other officers shot and wounded the suspect during a running gun battle shortly after 1 a.m. last Saturday.

This morning, the gun count went up as police Twittered a bunch of new arrests:

* A man arrested in the 3700 block of Gelston Drive in Southwest with a .45 caliber handgun.

* A man arrested during a search of a house in the 5300 block of Nelson Ave. in Northwest. Police seized a stolen handgun.

* A man with a 9mm handgun arrested in the 600 block of Cumberland St. in the Western.

* A drug investigation led police to an arrest of a man with a rifle in the 1800 block of Westwood Ave. in the Western. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime, Top brass
        

An investigation by The Sun's police reporter, Justin Fenton, has led to this revelation from city auditors: More than half of about 100 rape reports that Baltimore police had originally discarded as false have been reclassified as crimes.

A complete package of stories on the rape issue can be found here.

This is the result of a review by police following Justin's articles that found a sharp drop in rapes in Baltimore -- disproportionate to that of other cities -- was a result of police too quickly dismissing complaints from women.

After the stories, city officials launched their own investigation and the results were revealed Wednesday at a City Council hearing:

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said the audit, along with other comprehensive changes in recent months, "has forever changed and improved the way sexual assault cases are investigated in Baltimore, ensuring that all victims of sexual assault have their complaints investigated fully and are treated with dignity and respect."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

It was a simple autograph.

Ray Rice gave it to a Baltimore County cop last week after getting stopped for having his windows on his Range Rover tinted darker than the law allows. At first, the question was whether the Ravens running back got a special favor.

The player Twittered after the stop: "... gave the officer a autograph for his son and he let me go."

Rice quickly denied a quid-pro-quo and both he and the Police Department said Rice got a verbal warning and then offered his autograph to the officer. Both said the officer did not solicit the signature.

A county police spokesman said no discipline would be handed out because the signature was not considered something of monetary value.

In Sunday's Crime Scenes, I explore this issue a bit further, recounting one of my own ethical issues and whether this whole issue has become overblown. Interestingly, I found that Rice's signature, especially it was on piece of police paraphernalia, could fetch $1,000:

Continue reading "Cops, ethics and Ray Rice " »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Baltimore County, Top brass
        

It might seem obvious, but keeping kids in school does translate into less crime. The Baltimore Sun's Erica L. Green documents this trend with a story that combines interviews with kids, police and school officials.

The dropout rate for city students has plummeted this year, along with the rates for juvenile-involved crime and arrests, according to figures provided by the city school system and law enforcement agencies.

The encouraging development, officials say, is due in large part to close cooperation between the leaders of the city school system, the Police Department and the state juvenile corrections agency. City officials and others are expressing hope that Baltimore may have begun to break a cycle that some call the school-to-prison pipeline.

Since 2006, the number of children killed in the city has plunged by 80 percent, and the number of juveniles suspected in killings has dropped by about the same percentage.

The numbers come on the heels of the city recently celebrating a historically low dropout rate of 4 percent, and a record 66 percent graduation rate that the Baltimore school system said is driven primarily by achievements of black males.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

Baltimore City Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III spent part of Tuesday evening handing out bags of meal to homeless men to raise awareness for St. Leos Church's Little Italy Hands and Hearts program.

The program, founded in 2007, gives out about 85 bags of meals, donated by nine Little Italy restaurants, every Tuesday at Baltimore Street and Central Avenue outside Baltimore Rescue Mission.

These photos were taken by The Sun's Kenneth K. Lam.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Southeast Baltimore, Top brass
        

The Philadelphia Police Department is going through more trouble, with the arrest of a high-ranking police commander over the weekend on corruption charges.

Remember, that department's chief, Charles H. Ramsey, nearly became Baltimore's police commissioner under former Mayor Sheila Dixon. And Ramsey, even after leaving DC's police department, still had trouble following mass arrests at a protest.

Troy Graham of the Philadelphia Inquirer brings this report (you can read it in full here):

On Friday, FBI agents went to the home of the inspector, Daniel Castro, a 25-year veteran and one of the highest-ranking officers on the force, and arrested him.
Indicted in an extortion scheme that portrays him more like a gangster, Castro became the 15th member of the Police Department to be arrested since March 2009.

Six of the officers were taken down in three drug investigations, four were charged with sex crimes, and two faced murder charges after off-duty shootings. The sudden jolt of arrests can't be explained by Ramsey's oft-cited commitment to root out corruption.

A third of the officers were caught in federal investigations, and two others were nabbed in a sting after state investigators got a tip about cops working with drug dealers.

The sheer number of arrests has left the department's leaders embarrassed, and focused their attention on the city's police culture, particularly a code of silence whereby many honest officers - the great majority of the force - feel unable to turn in those who betray the badge.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Crime elsewhere, Top brass
        

The Maryland Court of Appeals is to hear today arguments in a case that could open up police disciplinary records.

At issues is a claim by the ACLU and the NAACP that monitoring how state police are investigating complaints of racial profiling is impossible when authorities withhold the records.

The groups entered a consent decree to settle a lawsuit with the state, and have been told that all complaints lodged against troopers alleging they pulled someone over because of skin color were resolved in the favor of the officers. The groups want to see the records to see how the complaints were handled.

I wrote about this issue and another one that is tied to it earlier this week in Crime Scenes.

The Sun's Andrea F. Siegel previewed the case today:

The attorney general's office, which represents the state police, contends in its brief that the documents are personnel records, making them private and exempt from disclosure. The troopers' identities were not sought by the NAACP, but redacting the names does not protect the identity of the troopers, the attorney general's office argues.

"[R]ecords of investigations of complaints against state police officers and employees remain confidential," the office said in its brief.

"If the MSP were have its way, it could throw complaints of indisputably unconstitutional behavior in the trash without any investigation, and no one would ever know," lawyers for the NAACP wrote in their brief.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

Last week I wrote about some imminent promotions within the Baltimore Police Department, affecting several top district commander positions, which are some of the primary points of contact for members of the community. Today they became official, and there's one additional move that I hadn't been privvy to. Here's the statement from the police department:

"Late into the evening on Monday, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld met individually with each of the new commanders and outlined he and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's expectations to continue the positive momentum in the crime fight and build upon the public safety accomplishments in Baltimore. The Department will continue its focus on targeting the city's most violent offenders and building upon our collaborative partnerships with the community and our criminal justice partners.

-Maj Anthony Brown - transferred to Special Operations from the Southwest District. 
-Dep Major Eric Russell - promoted to Major and transferred from the Central District to lead the Southwest District.
-Dep Major Margaret Barillaro- promoted to Major and will become the permanent commander of the Southern District.
-Lt Mark Partee- promoted to Dep Major from the Inner Harbor Unit and will be assigned to Central District.
-Lt Dorsey McVicker- promoted to Dep Major from the Central District and will be assigned to Southern District.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall, Top brass
        

The funeral for Baltimore Police Detective Brian Stevenson took place at 10 this morning at New Antioch Baptist Church in Randallstown. Here are some pictures from the procession by The Sun's Jed Kirschbaum.

Stevenon was off-duty and killed last weekend during a dispute over a parking space in Canton. Police have charged a suspect with hitting the detective with a chunk of concrete. Here are additional details.

On Wednesday at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, 5200 North Charles St., services for Baltimore Police Officer Thomas Portz will begin at 11 a.m. Portz was killed last week when his cruiser hit the back of a fire engine that had stopped on Route 40.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Top brass
        

There are changes afoot in the Baltimore Police Department's command structure, including new commanders for the Southern and Southwestern districts. These commanders are the point person for community leaders, who have their cell phone numbers on speed dial and aren't afraid to use them (The numbers are actually passed down from commander to commander so that residents don't have to get the new major's number). The changes were to be announced at a promotions ceremony last week that was postponed due to the tragic fatal car accident involving Officer Tommy Portz. Here are the moves, expected to be formally announced this week:

-Margaret Barillaro will take over the Southern District, a position she has been holding in an interim capacity since Maj. Scott Bloodsworth retired in the summer. Barillaro is the only female district commander (Dep. Maj. Sabrina Tapp-Harper is second-in-command in the Northwest District).

-Dorsey McVicker will slide into the deputy major slot in Southern.

-Maj. Anthony Brown moves from leading the Southwestern District to a position in the Special Operations Section, while Dep. Maj. Eric Russell will move from the No. 2 spot in the Central District to Brown's position overseeing Southwest.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Top brass
        

In today's paper, Sun reporter Julie Bykowicz explores the issue of crime and the race for governor between incumbent, Democrat Martin O'Malley, and his challenger for former governor, Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

As expected, it revolves around O'Malley zero-tolerance program in Baltimore when he was mayor, and more than 108,000 people were arrested in a single year. It sparked lawsuits that led a recent settlement with the city, but O'Malley says it also made the city safer and set the foundation for the historic lows in murder we're experiencing today.

The article also explores other issues, such as the death penalty and issues over juvenile justice.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

Two Baltimore police officers killed since Saturday, and in each case word of their deaths spread on social media sites before city officials released the information to the public, or even to all the relatives of the deceased.

The Sun's Justin Fenton explores this tricky issue in today's newspaper:

When off-duty Baltimore Police Detective Brian Stevenson was killed Saturday night after being struck in the head by a piece of concrete, word spread quickly through police circles and spilled onto Facebook, where the officer's young daughter learned of his death before relatives could break it to her in person.

On Monday, Officer Tommy Portz was killed instantly when his vehicle struck a fire engine on U.S. 40. For more than two hours, officials said Portz was in "extremely serious condition" as they worked to locate his family — even as memorials popped up online from those who already knew the accident was fatal.

We in the traditional media have always tried to balance getting the word out with being sensitive to relatives. Reporters at scene often learn the identities of the victims well before detectives can find relatives. It comes from checking the address of a house, or from a neighbor, or from a police source.

This newspaper knew Portz's name before the police department had even officially notified the public of the crash. But we withheld because the sources were not official, and we wanted on-the-record confirmation from police and hospital officials that he had died before publishing.

But social network sites don't abide by those rules. As Justin points out today, with everyone being a self-publisher, they are free to report anything. But more and more, posting even sensitive information among trivial status updates seems to be growing way to alert people to news about surgery, disease and even death.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Confronting crime, Top brass, West Baltimore
        

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III took first place Thursday night in a celebrity standup competition for charity at Martin's East. Bealefeld kicked off his set by joking that he had been smoking crack to stay awake during the event and that veteran newscaster Richard Sher was on sex offender watch lists. But he settled in for some fairly tame police humor, including a yarn about a competition between city cops and Baltimore County police and state troopers. The event benefited the R Baby Foundation and University of Maryland Hospital for Children.

Check it our for yourself:

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Crime humor, Top brass
        

Baltimore officials announced this morning a grant to fight "bad guys with guns," the city police commissioner's central crime fighting strategy. The Sun's Justin Fenton Julie Scharper covered the event and will have an update.

Meanwhile, here is the statement from the mayor:

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld, III, and Congressman C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger joined representatives from Johns Hopkins University to announce a highly competitive grant award to aid in Baltimore’s fight against gun violence. The $300,000 Smart Policing Grant, one of only six awarded in the nation, will fund Baltimore Police Department’s (BPD) gun suppression efforts and establish the agency’s enforcement program as a national model of best policing practices.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance Smart Policing Grant will assist BPD’s Violent Crime Impact Section in arresting and convicting violent gun offenders through partnerships with state and federal prosecutors and the U.S. Attorney’s EXILE program.

“Reducing gun violence is our number-one public safety priority,” said Mayor Rawlings-Blake. “This year, the BPD has arrested more than 700 individuals on illegal gun possession charges and seized nearly 1,800 illegal guns from city streets. With this additional support from our federal partners, we will continue to enhance our gun suppression strategies.”

“The men and women of the Baltimore Police Department have done a tremendous job putting intense, sustained pressure on criminals using illegal guns,” said Commissioner Bealefeld. “Year-to-date, non-fatal shootings are down 10% and overall gun crime is down 15%.”

For more details:

Continue reading "Baltimore gets grant to fight "bad guys with guns"" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Breaking news, City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

A University of Maryland, College Park professor who has studied policing practices in Baltimore in the past is launching a new review -- of arrests during the department's much-maligned strategy of zero-tolerance in the mid-2000s.

Charles Wellford will look at the program that became part of a lawsuit that was settled with the ACLU and requires a monitor to work with police. The strategy resulted in more than 100,000 arrests a year, thousands of which were tossed out by prosecutors who viewed them as illegal. But many people spent 24 or more hours in jail before being released without being charged.

The Sun's police reporter Justin Fenton, writes about Wellford and his history with police in today's paper. It's a relationship that dates back to the 1960s and early 1970s when Wellford studied the 911 system.

Writes Justin:

Wellford, along with former state appellate court judge and longtime Montgomery County State's Attorney Andrew L. Sonner, are awaiting final approval to begin a three-year review of the department's compliance with the terms of the settlement.

What he finds will likely be subjected to intense scrutiny. Though the Police Department claims it has disavowed zero tolerance and reduced arrests by 30 percent — down from a whopping 100,000 in 2005 — citizens in troubled neighborhoods still report being harassed and wrongly arrested or searched.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

On Sunday, Oct. 3, two cars collided at Patapsco Avenue and Potee Street in South Baltimore. One man was thrown from the vehicle and died.

City police, busy preparing for a funeral for an officer who died in a car crash in Pennsylvania, asked the Maryland Transportation Authority police to handle the investigation. As a result, neither agency said anything about the crash to either the media or to the public.

But this is not just a media-feels wrong story. The family of the 19-year-old victim, Andrew Arnold-McCoy of Glen Burnie, didn't get much information either. In fact, officers who notified him of the death did not tell that the driver of the other was an off-duty police officer from Annapolis.

The investigation into the cause of the accident continues -- one of drivers blew a red light -- but the refusal of the authorities, particularly those in the Maryland Transportation Authority, to release even the most basic details is perplexing and has angered the victim's family.

"We are just frustrated," Michael Schearer, McCoy's father, told Sun reporter Jessica Anderson. "It's hard to have closure if you don't know what happened."

We at the Sun learned about the accident from the Annapolis Police Department when they sent out a news release Thursday afternoon saying that one of their officers, James Salyers, had been placed on desk duty because of his involvement in the crash.

Calls to city police were referred to the transportation authority, where a spokesman confirmed the crash but refused to release more details, including the name of the victim which is usually made public after relatives are notified. Sgt. Jonathan Green told Anderson that the name couldn't be released until the investigation was complete.

The victim's father contacted The Sun after seeing a brief story of the accident and saying that he hadn't been told a police officer was involved. He had already buried his son and a death notice had been published. On Saturday, after Green still refused to confirm the identity of the victim, city police released the name.

This delay not only turned what otherwise would've been a small story on the accident into a larger story noting the anger and frustration of the victims' relatives, who were needlessly kept in the dark over a pertinent detail of their son's death, a detail they had to learn from reading the paper instead of being told by police. And the public was needlessly kept in the dark about a fatal car accident involving a police officer.  

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, South Baltimore, Top brass
        

The news release described it as the "largest drug bust in Baltimore County history." Police seized a warehouse full of marijuana -- 478 plants and 640 pounds of of the drug, along with grow systems, venting and a truck and a trailer in a warehouse on Canton Center Drive.

I don't mind the county cops, or any cops, hyping a good bust. But to call this the largest drug bust in county history is quite a stretch. They apparently forgot about the 2001 seizure by the U.S. Customs Service of 2 tons of reefer hidden in air-tight compartments built into 86 pieces of furniture that had been shipped to the Maryland Port in Dundalk in 2001.

Maybe this week's arrest of the couple was the biggest drug bust in Baltimore County police history, but the cops quickly toned down their release between the time they send it out Thursday morning and held a news conference later that afternoon. Then authorities described the bust as "one of the largest seizures of illicit drugs."

One half of couple arrested in this case -- Joseph Jesus Guadagnoli, 39, and Megan Bailey Veitch, 28 -- had been in trouble before. Gaudagnoli had been arrested in 2007 after a 9-month investigation involving federal and local authorities. At that time, police said they seized $230,000 worth of marijuana that was growing there. He ended up receiving five years in prison, but all but 9 months of the sentence was suspended, which he served at home with an ankle bracelet.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Baltimore County, Top brass
        

Reported by Jessica Anderson:

Baltimore City Police seized more than 16 ounces of crack cocaine, a 357 magnum handgun and $15,000 in cash from a south Baltimore man’s home Thursday — just days after he had nearly an entire 10-year sentence suspended.

Police said they seized most of the drugs the from Russell Smith’s home in the 2800 block of Hollins Ferry Road. Last month, Smith pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute last drugs and a judge sentenced him to 10 years with all but one day suspended, and three years supervised probation.

Maj. Margaret Barillaro, acting commander of the Southern Police District, said officers under Sgt. Larry Williams had stopped a car when they observed Smith with a small amount of drugs.

"These officers do a great job. It’s about getting the bad guy with guns who disrupt the quality of life for others in Baltimore City,” Barillaro said. “This is a big deal in an area where we’ve had a lot of problems,” she said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Baltimore County, Confronting crime, South Baltimore, Top brass
        

In January, Baltimore police reversed a short-lived policy in which they stopped naming officers who fire their weapons. The police commissioner decided to be upfront and accountable with citizens, and he instead modified the policy to make the names public 48 hours after an incident.

But on Sunday, a school police officer shot and wounded a masked robbery suspect. The officer had confronted him after witnesses said a Family Dollar Store on Harford Road was being held up by armed men. In the end, no weapon was found.

There has always been confusion when giving out information that crosses police jurisdictions. No one wants to step on another agency's toes, so in the end the public gets less information than it deserves.

Baltimore homicide detectives are investigating the shooting to determine whether it's legal and within department policy. But school police are investigating the break-in, even though it wasn't on school grounds, and are responsible for charging the suspect once he gets out of the hospital.

But city police refuse to name the school police officer, even on Tuesday, 48 hours after the shooting, saying that's up to school police because he's their employee. And school police refuse to release the name on the advice of their lawyers.

The Baltimore Sun fought hard -- even making the issue part of a lawsuit aimed at forcing more information out of the department -- to convince city police to not change their policy so we could not just report the names but determine whether the officers had a past history of shootings, among other things.

Now we have city schools saying their attorneys won't allow the release of the name until the investigation is complete, and city police saying they're free to release the names of their cops when they want.

This double-standard is not good for anyone.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Confronting crime, East Baltimore, Police shootings, Top brass
        

As you've seen in previous posts, Baltimore Police Commissioner Frderick H. Bealefeld III joined hundreds of scouts from the Baltimore region as they camped out at Fort McHenry Friday night. They're celebrating 100 years of scouting.

Bealefeld pitched a tent and slept outdoors with Trooper 193 from Baltimore's Thurgood Marshall unit. I posted some pictures in an earlier blog but here are some better shots from the police department's chief spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi. Bealefeld is with Shane McCormick, 16, from Pasadena Troop 870, and Marquise Dunlap, 10, with the Thurgood Marshall troop.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: South Baltimore, Top brass
        

Baltimore’s police commissioner hasn’t camped out in years, but there he was Friday night at Fort McHenry, fitting poles together and setting up a tent with the help of two young boy scouts.

Shane McCormick, 16, from Troop 870 in Pasadena, and Marquise Dunlap, 10, from Thurgood Marshall Troop 193 in Baltimore, helped the city’s top cop set up his new digs in the federal park at the end of East Fort Avenue.

At left, Bealefeld is shaking hands with Marquise.

“Under the night sky and stars,” Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said of spending the night with hundreds of boy scouts who are camping out this weekend as part of a celebration of 100 years of scouting.

“I asked how could I demonstrate my support,” Bealefeld said. “They said, ‘Camp out.’”

For more on the outing:

Continue reading "Top cop goes camping" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

{New information added below] This is not the picture I want you to see of Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III.

But we'll have to wait to get a pic of the top cop sleeping under the stars tonight at Fort McHenry. He's joining 6,000 boy scouts who are camping out there. And yes, Bealefeld's chief spokesman assures me the chief will be sleeping out all night. In a sleeping bag. On the grass. Which l presume will still be wet.

Why?

Some scouts in one local group expressed interest in police. And Bealefeld's spokesman told me that the commissioner wants to assure the boys that the city is safe and crime is down.

Photo at left is by The Sun's Lloyd Fox

The Police Department just put out a statement with some additional facts. Former U.S. Secretary of Defense (and Eagle Scout) Donald Rumsfeld will be among the guests, along with scout leaders and a service by Cardinal William H. Keeler (also, it turns out, an Eagle Scout). That is scheduled for the event's formal opening ceremonies on Saturday afternoon.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Confronting crime, South Baltimore, Top brass
        

The Baltimore Police Department has scheduled a news conference for 11:15 a.m. to update the public on a series of robberies at Mondawmin Mall. The event will be live-streamed, meaning you can watch it as it happens.

Here is the link the press conference.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news, Top brass, West Baltimore
        

Baltimore police have found a new commander to oversee reforms in the sex offense unit, selecting Dep. Maj. Clifton McWhite, of the Western District, to fill a vacant position overseeing special investigations.

Police thought they had this position filled before in July, when Maj. Scott Bloodsworth, the commander of the Southern District, was asked to move downtown and head the unit. But Bloodsworth instead opted to retire, and police have been searching for a replacement ever since. In the meantime, police have changed protocols for rape investigations, detectives have been sent to re-training, and an extensive review is underway to determine if cases marked as "unfounded" since 2009 were properly classified.

McWhite is a 15-year veteran whose experience includes homicide investigations, such as the killing of a Johns Hopkins student in 2004. In the past year he has jumped from lieutenant to deputy major of the Western District. He doesn't have experience with sex offense investigations, and officials believe that may be a plus given the way the unit has operated for the past several years. In his new role, he'll oversee child abuse, sex offense, missing persons, financial fraud, and the citywide robbery and pawn shop units.

[Picture by Sun photographer Karl Merton Ferron]

Continue reading "City police select new commander to oversee sex offense unit reforms" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 9:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Top brass, West Baltimore
        

The Baltimore police officer arrested early Sunday in a fight outside a bar on Washington Boulevard had already been suspended last year after he was arrested during an altercation on a police parking lot, according to court documents.

Everett Walker, a six-year veteran of the force, was in plain clothes while walking across the lot of the Southwestern District station in April 2009. Two other officers questioned him, not knowing he was a police officer, and an argument ensued.

Police said in charging documents that the officer thought Walker had been drinking and waited until he got into his personal car and backed out of his space. The officers then boxed him in and arrested him.

Court documents say he declined to take a breath test and that officers did not know he was on the force until they reached into his pants pocket and found his badge. They then removed his handgun from his waist. Walker's trial on a charge of disturbing the public peace is scheduled for October.

The officer now faces additional charges stemming from Sunday's altercation outside Club Reality on Washington Boulevard. Police said it was near closing when they walked behind the bar because of a loud dispute. They said they saw a woman punch Walker and then Walker later charged the woman and hit a bystander.

Both the woman and Walker were charged with assault. Walker was not armed at the time, as his gun had been confiscated after the April incident.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking news, Top brass, West Baltimore
        

A bar fight in the parking lot of Club Reality in Southwest Baltimore turned ugly for cops, and they ended up arresting one of their own. The officer clearly picked a bad time to get in trouble -- one of the officers he encountered was his boss, Maj. Anthony Brown, the commander of the Southwestern District.

The officer has been suspended without pay and faces charges of assault and disorderly conduct stemming from a fight with a woman and fellow officers outside the bar on Washington Boulevard early Sunday.

A department spokesman identified him as Officer Everett Walker, 29, who has been on the force nearly six years. Police said they also arrested the woman, Takira Thompson, 20, and charged her with assault.

Police describe a raucous altercation in the back parking lot of the bar shortly before 2 a.m. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Everett appeared intoxicated and belligerent, but he did not have his weapon with him at the time.

Here are the details: 

Continue reading "Baltimore police officer arrested" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Breaking news, Top brass, West Baltimore
        

Usually we tell you what happened over the weekend. Today, the story is what didn't happen - for what appears to be the first time since early April, there were no killings over the weekend in Baltimore.

I consider the weekend to be, generally, Friday afternoon through early Monday morning (that being essentially late Sunday night). Since the homicide-free weekend of April 2-5, there's been at least one and as many as seven killings per weekend in the city. In fact, the bursts of weekend violence became so severe that police started tailoring new strategies to curb them and Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III demanded "more urgency" from officers.

Did the strategies work? Is it an anomaly, or just the change in weather? Time will tell, and there were still at least two non-fatal shootings. But a weekend without death is a positive worth noting.

For the year, killings are at 151, compared to 161 at this time last year - about 6 percent. In the past two years, there have been big upticks in November and December (November was the deadliest month of the year for 2009 and 2008), and if that can be avoided, Baltimore has a chance to turn in solid declines.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Top brass
        

Baltimore police are starting to use Internet video conferencing to get its message out to the media and to the public. The police already use Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites to distribute information about crime and the department.

This new endeavor will allow the police to actually broadcast new conferences to your computer. Here is their statement:

the Baltimore Police Department will begin utilizing programs such as Google Video Chat and Skype to communicate directly with members of the public and news media. The new video conferencing capabilities will allow for increased interaction between citizens, journalists and police public information officers so that vital information on crime and police issues can be disseminated in a timely manner.
 
Since March of 2009, the BPD has embraced the use of social networking to foster better relationships with the community. Crime alerts, notable arrests, and even wanted suspects are broadcast in real-time on the department’s Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook pages.  Videos on police and community happenings are posted weekly on YouTube and residents can even subscribe to free text-message alerts about crime in their community through Nixle.  Collectively, the agency reaches more than 25,000 people through its social media applications.
 
“The intelligence detectives receive from the community is vital in our efforts to keep Baltimore safe”, said Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld, III.   “In order to be an effective partner in the crime fight, the BPD has an obligation to keep residents informed of what’s happening in their neighborhoods so that they can actively share information with police.”
 
The motivation behind the department’s move to social media came after Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake challenged city agency heads to use technology to provide a better level of public service to the community.

And here is what it will look like:

Continue reading "Baltimore police turn to video conferencing to get message out" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

Police in several jurisdictions around Maryland are warning residents not to point laser pointers at helicopters, saying their pilots are getting blinded as they track criminals and patrol from the area. There has been numerous such attacks on aircraft this summer at Ocean City and in the Baltimore area.

Baltimore County police recently arrested two men from Essex in separate pointing incidents in Essex -- in one case the pilot of police helicopter was able to turn and shine a spotlight on a house were a resident was playing with a pointer from his front porch.

Earlier today, police held a news conference at Martin State Airport in Middle River to call attention to the problem. Representatives from Maryland State Police were joined by pilots from Baltimore City, Baltimore County, the U.S. Park Police and the University of Maryland Medical Center.

The laser pointers, which can be bought for around $65 at office supply stores and in shops along the Boardwalk in Ocean City, have become popular play-things for youths and young adults. But police warn that shining the pointers -- particularly the green ones, which are more powerful than the red -- can blind pilots for up to 30 seconds.

"It's not fun and games," said Maryland State Police Lt. Walter A. Kerr of the aviation unit (at the podium above). "It could be potentially lethal."

Police helicopters are particularly vulnerable because they fly low -- at 500 to 1,500 feet -- and circle, and Kerr said people "have fun playing with us. Our helicopters are primary targets."

Baltimore County Sgt. Ron Wines, who has flown police helicopters since 1984, said he has been "lasered" two times, once just a few months ago while chasing an armed robbery suspect in the western part of the county. He said he was temporarily blinded and had to delay his response.

"It's very disorienting," Wines said. "Our flight crews are defenseless."

Here's a history of Baltimore Police Department's Foxtrot helicopter.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, Breaking news, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

Update from Midnight Sun blog: Power Plant Live spokesman Christ Furst: this night has nothing to do with Power Plant Live, and none of Power Plant Live's staff is promoting it as a college night. "We don't permit buses," he said. "If it's a matter of that event being canceled, absolutely. ... Mosaic does not hold a college night. Power Plant Live does not hold a college night."

After a fews years break, College Night could be returning to Power Plant Live. The Baltimore Sun's nightlife guru Sam Sessa talked to a promoter who is promoting bussing college students to the enterntainment district.

Only problem is that the owners of Power Plant Live imposed a no-bussing policy in 2006, after thousands of college students, many too young to drink, crowded the downtown and cause problems with drinking and crime. Market Place at times was out of control.

So we'll see what the promoter says after hearing from the Power Plant's spokesman who said they're trying to get away from the college atmosphere. If it does happen, both the center's owenrs and the police are in for some very long weekends.

Here's what GoodLife Boys co-owner Nino Sylvia told Sam Sessa about Thursday Night Banger: "We take a bunch of college kids and bring them out there. Towson, Loyola, Hopkins -- we've got all the students coming out there. ... The ratio of girls to guys is ridiculous."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Downtown, Top brass
        

Baltimore Police Officer Salvatore Rivieri called into WBAL's Kendel Ehrlich Show and spoke for the first time about his confrontation with the skateboarding teen that got him fired last week. He didn't talke about specifices -- the police union has filed its notice of appeal -- but he did say he was devastated by his firing.

"We were blindsided," the 19-year veteran said (listen to the complete interview).

The former officer didn't take phone calls but did read a statement noting that the YouTube video did not show everything, including his first warning to Eric Bush to stop skateboarding on the steps of the Maryland Science Center at the Inner Harbor, and him handing back the skateboard to the youth after the incident had concluded. The video also didn't show, he said, the two shaking hands or the officer talking to Eric's mother on a cell phone.

Rivieri was fired last week after a disciplinary panel cleared him of using excessive force and discourtesies during the Inner Harbor incident three years ago that was captured on video and viewed by hundreds of thousands of people. It shows Rivieri berating and pushing the teen during a heated exchange in which the officer felt the youth had disrespected him by ignoring his orders and calling him "dude."

People supporting Rivieri

Officer fired (and video of the incident).

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (23)
Categories: Confronting crime, Downtown, Top brass
        

The union representing Baltimore police officers vowed to sue the department over what they call an "abuse of power" by the commissioner who fired the officer who berated a skateboarding teenager at the Inner Harbor three years ago.

Salvatore Rivieri was terminated months shy of being able to retire and collect a full pension. He is the officer who was captured on videotape screaming at 14-year-old Eric Bush, and then shoving him to the ground when the youngster ignored his demands and repeatedly called the cop "dude."

A three-member police panel heard evidence and testimony at a hearing last month and cleared the officer of the most serious charges of using excessive and unnecessary force and discourtesies. They found him guilty of failing to file a report and recommended he be suspended for five days.

But Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III upped the punishment to termination. Union officials said Rivieri was called to headquarters from patrol and fired him after a 2-minute hearing in the commissioner's office. He had to surrender his gun and call for a ride because he could not drive back in his squad car.

For more:

Continue reading "City police union calls firing of cop unfair" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (33)
Categories: Breaking news, Top brass
        

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III this morning fired the city officer who was caught on video berating and pushing a 14-year-old skateboarder at the Inner Harbor three years ago.

A department spokesman confirmed the personnel action but refused to comment further. The spokesman said the officer, Salvatore Rivieri, was told of the termination during a meeting with Bealefeld at 9:30 this morning at headquarters.

Last month, a three-member police panel called a trial board held a hearing and found Rivieri, a 19-year veteran, guilty of failing to issue the youth a citizen contact receipt and failing to file a report, but not guilty of using excessive and unncessary force and uttering a discourtesy.

The panel recommended that Bealefeld suspend Rivieri for several days. But Bealefeld has the discretion to up the penalty, and he opted to fire the officer whose actions were displayed on video and seen around the world.

Here's more from the most recent Baltimore Sun story:

Continue reading "Baltimore cop who berated skateboarder fired" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (138)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

The "Gentleman of Headquarters" is gone.

That was my opening line on a story in 1999 when Joseph R. Bolesta Jr. retired at the age of 58 as the the longest serving cop on the force at that time. He served 33 years under four mayors and six police commissioners.

He died Thursday at age of 69.

My opening line still holds: The Gentleman of Headquarters is gone.

Joe Bolesta was one of the first senior police commanders I met when I started covering the department in 1994, and he was always ready to share, was never shy and offered articulate commentary. At the time, the department was blowing up internally with charges of racism and pickets and open dissent on command and City Hall.

Bolesta stayed above the fray. He patrolled the street during the 1968 riots, helped build the modern SWAT team, ran the budget, hired recruits and once, after suffering two heart attacks, joined young beat cops on patrol and stood in the street to direct traffic around a fender-bender (Baltimore Sun photo above from 1995). He gained notoriety for pulling a body out of the bear pit in the zoo in the 1970s.

I profiled him in 1999: He was proud of his profession. In describing his job, he reverts to the old vernacular, when you weren't just a police officer, you were "a po-lice" -- a term that veterans utter with reverence, recalling the days of long overcoats and call-box keys, when a cop was as important to a neighborhood as the parish priest.

Frederick N. Rassmussen wrote Bolesta's obituary in today's paper. A Mass of Christian burial will be held 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. John Roman Catholic Church, 43 Monroe St., Westminster.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Top brass
        

The Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention is giving victims of crime a chance to speak out. This is another in a series of forums being held around the state -- the first was on the Eastern Shore.

Tonight's is in Howard County. Officials say they've been surprised by the candid remarks and suggestions being made. Here is the information about tonight's event:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Howard County, Top brass
        

City officials are planning a news conference in Patterson Park to address growing concerns by Latinos that they are being targeted. The latest victim is Martin Reyes, who was beaten to death with a board. His cousin was shot in the forehead in July.

The attack on Reyes (left) appears to be by a mentally unstable man who has been arrested and charged and told police he hated "Mexicans." All the victims have been Honduran. Police think some of the victims were robbed because they are easy targets -- carry cash, are walking home late at night from work and are scared of immigration.

The Sun's Nick Madigan found this out about Reyes:

Reyes, who had spent most of the past decade in Baltimore, had six children, most of whom remained in Honduras. One daughter was adopted, and another, Norma, lives a few blocks from the room he rented in a rowhouse on Kenwood Avenue. His 35-year-old son-in-law, Pedro Concepción Diaz Aguilar, shared his space.

"When he was in Honduras, he liked to work with cattle and horses, in agriculture," Diaz Aguilar said Monday as he tried to raise money to send Reyes' body home. "And he dealt in grains and beans — wheat, coffee, frijoles — which he'd buy and resell. He'd move a lot of stuff. Here, it was different. We'd work together, remodeling kitchens, making cabinets — laborers' work."

Another Honduran who knew Reyes said he was "calm and humble," and a good friend. "He never interfered with anybody," said Eberto Funez, 42, who has been in East Baltimore for four years. "When he died, he was just coming from visiting a relative, and unfortunately his number came up."

Miguel Gutierrez, 33, said he had known Reyes since he was a child growing up in the same village, San Antonio, in La Paz, near Honduras' border with El Salvador. Gutierrez said he had come to Baltimore six months ago from Houston at Reyes' urging, and had lived with the older man for a time until he found his own place.

"He's known me since I was a baby," Gutierrez said. "He was always a gentleman, and gave me good advice. He'd say I shouldn't go around drinking, and that I shouldn't be out in the streets."

Here's how the suspect, Jermaine Holley, was out of jail at the time of the killing:

Continue reading "Police to address attacks on Latinos" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Breaking news, City Hall, Confronting crime, Neighborhoods, Southeast Baltimore, Top brass
        

Another Monday, another death toll to tally on the streets of Baltimore: 13 shot, three dead.

Concerned about the violence, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III ordered his commanders to the streets and saturated neighborhoods with cops. The shootings, including two by his officers, continued.

Here's the opening of Annie Linskey's story in this morning's paper. It reads much like the opening to the story in Sunday's paper, and in stories in papers from the past several weeks:

Baltimore endured a bloody Sunday morning with three people shot and a fourth killed within two hours, police said. Later in the day a police officer shot a man in the leg, the second police-involved shooting of the weekend.

That meant 13 people were shot over the weekend — three fatally. Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III plans to meet with commanders Monday morning to assess their violence prevention strategy.

The commissioner had pumped up police presence in the city's Eastern District and other hot spots on Saturday, after a series of shootings left two men dead and five others wounded Friday night and early Saturday morning.

The extra shifts were called amid a budget crisis that has caused deep cuts to all city departments and forced the police to vastly decrease overtime. Police commanders, who are not paid for overtime, were also put on duty throughout the weekend.

Tonight at the Southeastern District police station, worried residents of Upper Fells Point, Butcher's Hill and Patterson Park are to meet with police to discuss a series of beatings in the area. In some instances, groups of teens and young adults have robbed and assaulted people near their homes. The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, East Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore, Police shootings, Southeast Baltimore, Top brass
        

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III has taken down the campaign signs in his front lawn that prompted accusations of impropriety from the city’s top prosecutor, In a statement sent from his private email account, he called the situation “distracting” from the fight against crime. The signs were taken down Monday.

“The Baltimore Police Department's obligation is to prevent crime and apprehend criminals. We must constantly work to remain focused on public safety in our City. Current events distract from that core mission. My responsibility, as Police Commissioner, is first and foremost to the people I serve and I can not allow my focus to be shifted from that. Therefore, I will have no further comment on this issue.”

The Sun reported last week that Bealefeld had taken an unprecedented step last week by placing two signs for defense attorney Gregg Bernstein in the yard of his Southwest Baltimore home and releasing a statement that said police needed a “true partner” in the state’s attorney’s office. It's generally frowned upon for police chiefs to express political support, particularly in a race for a position that is an arm's-length partner of police. But many have praised Bealefeld for stepping out on an issue he knows better than just about anybody else. In an unscientific poll, 86 percent of Sun readers supported Bealefeld.

The his support for Bernstein angered City State’s Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy, who on Tuesday called a news conference asking for an independent investigation of whether Bealefeld was soliciting support for Bernstein on the job and questioned his integrity. Jessamy said her concern was not over the signs - which she maintained were "inappropriate" - but specifics about an interaction between Bealefeld and one of her supporters. She said settling the discrepancies was a matter of "truth and credibility."

Bealefeld said such a probe was unnecessary, and it was not clear what Jessamy's next move will be. The 15-year incumbent gave him a deadline of 48 hours to respond.

The Bernstein campaign, meanwhile, claims that it had to reorder signs due an "overwhelming response" from media coverage. They declined to specify how many signs had been distributed.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)
Categories: State's Attorney Campaign, Top brass
        

Continue reading "Jessamy questions Bealefeld's integrity, calls for investigation" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, State's Attorney Campaign, Top brass
        

Today's stories on a crime meeting in Charles Village in the wake of the fatal stabbing of Johns Hopkins researcher Stephen Pitcairn and the Crime Beat column on yet another lenient sentence, this time for a man convicted of robbing a woman at knife-point at an ATM, prompted this response from a retired Baltimore police commander:

Continue reading "Arrests, judges and justice" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods, Top brass
        

Anne Arundel County police just released a redacted copy of the police report into the fatal shooting of a dog at a Severn park. There are still many unanswered questions but police say the review should be concluded in the next 72 hours. Here is the police statement:

Continue reading "Arundel police release report in dog shooting" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Breaking news, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy is blasting back at the city's police commissioner for putting up a campaign sign on the lawn of his house supporting her challenger in the Sept. 14 Democratic primary.

Jessamy, using her campaign office stationary, called Frederick H. Bealefeld III's foray into politics "unprecedented and inappropriate" and she said the "overt actions by a police commissioner to influence the outcome of an election can only led to divisiveness and distrust in the community."

The two top law enforcement officials -- Jessamy is elected, Bealefeld is appointed -- have feuded for years over policing strategies, quality of arrests and investigations and whether prosecutors are aggressive enough in pursing cases and jailing offenders.

Former federal prosecutor and defense attorney Gregg Bernstein is Jessamy's first serious challenger in eight years and its trying to tap into the frustrations of city crime and repeat offenders graduating to more serious offenses before they get serious prison time.

Jessamy took a swipe at Bealefeld in her statement, suggesting the commissioner is not focused on his job. "It is Mrs. Jessamy's hope that Commissioner Bealefeld will refocus his efforts on apprehending the perpetrators of crimes and assembling evidence to be presented in court and that he will leave the politics to others."

Here is Jessamy's statement:

Continue reading "Jessamy blasts back at Bealefeld for supporting opponent" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (29)
Categories: Breaking news, City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, State's Attorney Campaign, Top brass
        

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III has thrust himself into a political campaign. It's no secret that he and State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy don't always (or ever) see eye-to-eye, but the top cop has put a sign in his yard (left) supporting her challenger in the Sept. 14 Democratic primary.

(Read Sun police reporter Justin Fenton's full story for more of the political back and forth)

He makes it clear he's doing this as Citizen Bealefeld, not Commissioner Bealefeld, but separating the two is more matter of semantics than reality. Should a top police official interject himself into the political fray? Will it complicate his efforts now, or in the future, should Jessamy win, and Gregg Bernstein loses?

All good questions. Cops in the past have gotten into trouble for wearing their uniforms in political ads, and Bealefeld's not doing this. But he has been increasingly vocal about his disdain for a judicial system (judges, prosecutors, probation officials and others) who continually feed the revolving door justice system in Baltimore.

It goes without fail that Bealefeld's cops arrest a criminal in a particularly horrible crime, as the stabbing of Stephen Pitcairn in Charles Village, and the suspects will have just gotten out of prison on probation for a violent crime for which they served little time.

Bealefeld and commissioners past have battled Jessamy over policing strategies, what arrests are sound and what are not, whether officers with troubled pasts can be put on so-called do-not-testify lists and how thoroughly cases need to be investigated before being charged.

Here is one part of Justin's story today:

Christopher Dreisbach, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education's Division of Public Safety Leadership whose focus includes law enforcement ethics, said Bealefeld as a citizen has a clear right to advocate for a candidate. He said he believes it's also Bealefeld's professional duty to advocate for the best interests of police.

"If they weren't adversarial, there might be a different issue at stake. … But I don't think he's giving anything away at this point," said Dreisbach. "Is he shooting himself in the foot? Possibly, but he has the right to do so, and [the consequences] will be determined down the road."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, State's Attorney Campaign, Top brass
        

The Maryland Attorney General's Office has issued an opinion that for the most part says recording police officers is perfectly legal.

As you may recall, the Maryland State Police charged a Harford County man with recording his traffic stop on a helmet cam. And at the Preakness, a Baltimore police officer warned a bystander to stop filming an arrest of a woman.

In both cases, authorities cited the state's restrictive wiretaping law that forbids recording audio of people without their consent. But prior opinions from the state's top law enforcement officer have generally held that words and images captured in public are protected.

An arrest at the Preakness in front of hundreds of people is in a public venue. A trickier issue is whether a traffic stop in which an officer talks with the driver is a private conversation or a public act. The Maryland ACLU argues that the officer is engaged in a public act because virtually everything an officer does is a matter of public record.

The AG does say there could be circumstances in which taping would not be OK, but that would be the exception, not the rule. The ACLU is taking up the case of the motorcycle driver, whose criminal case is pending.

Here is the Attorney General's opinion:

Continue reading "Attorney General says video recordings of cops generally OK" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Harford County, Top brass
        

Back in January, I wrote about the deputy police chief of the Towson University police force, who earned $94,558 on his day job but also worked in two other places.

Charles J. Herring was in charge of scheduling security at the Bel Air Cinema Stadium 14 in Abingdon and he worked out of his home as a lawyer. Twice he defended people charged in crimes who had been arrested by Harford County sheriff's deputies.

The story raised questions about whether a police official in one jurisdiction could and should represent people arrested by police in a neighboring jurisdiction, especially when he also worked security in that county.

Police union officials objected to the multiple jobs, saying they posed obvious conflicts. The Harford County State's Attorney said the situation, "doesn't look clean," and the Harford County Sheriff said he would instruct his deputies to withhold information from Herring if he called them for help on behalf of the cinema.

It's been more than six months and police union officials are complaining nothing has been done. They sent me these two letters that they've submitted:

Continue reading "Police union still upset with Towson University chief" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

Baltimore police have sent out another batch of mugshots of wanted suspects, as part of their campaign to text crime information to citizens.

This week's batch includes suspects wanted on charges of child abuse, burglary, assault and attempted first-degree murder (a complete list with photos is here). One example from this week is Samuel Lechuga-Felicia, 29, who is wanted on charges of child abuse and 2nd-degree assault. HIs picture is at left.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

Too often, people get more angry over the way they're treated after something bad happens than by what actually happened. Clarence Lowe tried to get answers after a police cruiser ran over his grandson's leg last week and broke a bone.

The accident will most likely be ruled the child's fault -- Alvin Williams ran into Sheridan Avenue between two park cars and was hit by the patrol car. Police say the officer didn't see the child. Lowe disputes that the accident could've been avoided, but his calls to investigators and to police districts were met, he said, by indifference.

Earlier this week, Baltimore Police Lt. Col. Michael J. Andrew delivered a homebaked cake and Orioles trinkets to the child, who sits on a chair on his grandfather's front porch, his leg wrapped in a cast. The pictures show Alvin and Andrew (Alvin didn't say a word during the exchange).

The investigation is still in progress, and Andrew didn't admit guilt. But he did promise to call Lowe as soon as the probe is over and let him the know the results. And he gave him his business card with his cell phone number. And he not only apolgized to the young boy -- "I'm sorry this happened, buddy" -- he also told Lowe he should've been treated better when he called.

It was a simple, welcome gesture amid a torrent of negative police news.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Confronting crime, North Baltimore, Top brass
        

A Baltimore police officer was suspended today after department commanders say he ignored orders to stop chasing a motorcyclist and ended up in Cockeysville where the motorcyclist crashed and was killed.

Baltimore police are not allowed to chase other vehicles unless given expressed permission and then only in the most unique circumstances. This chase began on Northern Parkway in the city after the officer apparently saw the motorcyclist racing another vehicle.

It ended on an off-ramp from I-93 to Dulaney Valley Road about 3 a.m. Maryland State Police said the vehicles collided and the motorcyclist was "ejected from the motorcycle onto the hood of the police car and then onto the roadway."

UPDATE: The officer has been identified as 10-year veteran Timothy Beall, who according to Sun reporter Justin Fenton's records fatally shot a man in January 2009. Police said at the time that the man pointed a Chinese assault rifle at Beall during a foot chase in Better Waverly. The shooting was ruled justified.

Here are more details from a state police news release:

Continue reading "Baltimore officer suspended after chase ends in fatality" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

Baltimore leaders just completed a budget in which they raised taxes and fees to close a $121 million shortfall, barely avoiding laying off police officers and eleminating key police programs, such as the helicopter unit.

Barely a few weeks later, the police chief and mayor are announcing hiring 450 new cops.

Huh?

In June, after the brutal budget process that scared many employees (some actually got pink slips) and before changes in the pension system took effect that cost cops more money in contributions in exchange for less benefits, more police officers than expected left the force. The number who quit or retired totaled 42, more than the 17 in June of last year and the 20 in June the year before that.

The union insist many or most of the 42 cops who left did so because of the pension changes; the city insists that is just not true, that only three of the officers are affected by the changes and that the departures fit ever-changing patterns over previous years.

That left the 3,119-member department short 106 officers and Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III sounded an urgent alarm with an interview on Maryland Public Television (which can be heard here).

The news conference Thursday night at a community walk made it seem like the city was getting more cops. In reality, the city is fully funded for 3,119 and these new hires will merely bring the staffing up to it's full potential, factoring in attrition and that the hires are spread out over the next 18 months.

The real key is how the city plans to pay for the academy classes. Just a week ago, cops were lamenting having money for only two or three classes a year, down from the usual five or six. Now all of a sudden they've got money for five or six reaching into the next fiscal year.

Here's the city's statement on the new hires:

Continue reading "City cops to hire 450 officers" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking news, City Hall, Top brass
        

I ventured down to the opening ceremony of the Firehouse Expo on Thursday expecting a feel-good speech and not much news. Then the city's fire chief, James S. Clack, stands up and admonishes visiting firefighters to behave.

Apparently, last year, visitors got a little out of control, pulled fire alarms and emptied stand-pipe water valves in the city-owned Hilton Convention Center Hotel near Camden Yards. At least a dozen rooms got flooded and damage, according to Clack, ran into the "hundreds of thousands" of dollars. At left, firefighters arrive at the conference. The photo is by The Sun's Barbara Haddock-Taylor.

The city's fire union blames the damage on visiting volunteers. Another city official hinted that maybe visiting soccer fans (in town for the Chelsea-AC Milan match) might be to blame. But the stand-pipes (akin to indoor fire hydrants) can only be opened with a firefighter's tool, so that might narrow down the suspects.

No one was every charged and officials said those responsible were never found. But poor Clack had to use his opening address to lecture the visitors about childish behavior. This is one of the city's biggest conventions, brining up to $15 million into the city. It's been coming to Baltimore for 27 years.

Apparently it needs a little adult supervision.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Top brass
        

Baltimore police say 42 officers left the force in June. That's up from 17 who departed in the same month last year, and the 20 who left the year before that. The department is now 106 officers short of its authorized strength of 3,119 sworn positions.

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld, speaking on Maryland Public Television's "Direct Connection" program said his agency can't hire fast enough "to keep up with the attrition rate we're seeing now. We're operating at very conservative staffing levels across all units. The gap is only going to widen."

For more details, see today's story on the issue.

The big question is why did so many cops leave?

The union says it's no coincidence that the exodus occurred in the weeks leading up to changes in their pensions that left them contributing more and getting less -- and upping the years from 20 to 25 need to retire. City Hall says the departures, while unusually high when compared to the most recent years, are not unusual when looking back over the past decade. They say 31 officers left in June 2004, 53 in June 2005 and 41 in June 2007.

I've included charts showing attrition rates and officer departures and you can look at the numbers and decide for yourself. Either way, police are planning more recruitment drives aimed at enticing ex-military types and women, even though they've cut back on academy classes from five or six a year to two or three.

The police union says their threats of an exodus have come true; City Hall says this is just part of a routine pattern.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

This is a blow to department commanders whose internal affairs detectives had filed administrative charges that, had he been found guilty, could've made it easy for the police commissioner to fire him. I'm still hearing that is a possibility; the chief gets final say on all disciplinary cases.

You may recall Rivieri's confrontation with 14-year-old Eric Bush, who apparently didn't hear the officer's commands because he was listening to his iPod and then further enraged the officer by calling him "dude" and "man."

Trial Board, essentially administrative trials overseen by a panel of three officers who hear evidence presented by witnesses and listen to lawyers for the department and the accused, found Rivieri guilty of failing to write a police report and failing to give Bush a citizen contact form.

Exoneration in this case is particularly embarrassing for the police department which is striving to show it's accountable to the public. Watch the video and decide for yourselves whether this officer deserves to be on the force.

Here is the complete story with comments from the officer's attorney and the police union chief:

Continue reading "City cop who berated skateboarder cleared" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (24)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said a focus on homicides and non-fatal shooting investigations may have contributed to neglect of growing concerns about the way the department investigated sex offenses.

Bealefeld also said that the department no longer will allow patrol officers to dismiss rape claims at the crime scene, something that accounts for nearly four in 10 rape calls to 911 failing to generate a police report. All claims will now be referred to specialized detectives, he said.

The Sun last month reported that since 2004 Baltimore has led the country with more than 30 percent of rape reports marked “unfounded” by detectives, police parlance for the victim was lying or that detectives did not believe a crime occurred. Advocates and sexual assault victims also described harsh interrogation tactics by officers that in some cases compelled alleged victims to recant their story. Those factors may have contributed to an 80 percent decline in rapes since the 1990s while such crimes fell 8 percent nationwide.

Bealefeld has called the issue a “crisis” and last night on Maryland Public Television's Direct Connection program said he accepts “full responsibility.” Bealefeld credited The Sun's reporting for pointing to a wider problem, saying: “I can't tell you that we would have seen that by ourselves.”

Continue reading "Bealefeld: Focus on shootings contributed to neglect in sex offense investigations" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 8:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Top brass
        

Baltimore police are now publishing mug shots of wanted suspects. It's a new adventure in social media for a department that more than most other agencies uses the Internet to announce breaking crime.

Today's first batch can be viewed here and by signing up to Nixle, which provides alerts from city police. The cops also have a Twitter account that can be directly fed to your cell phone as incoming text messages.

Here is a sample of one of the computerized "wanted posters," though not a lot of information is divulged about the crime, where it took place or where the suspect might be:

Attached are photos of individuals wanted by the BPD. Contact 410-637-8970 if you have info on their whereabouts
Photo 1

Sky Weaver

M-B 6’0” 215lbs

DOB: 08/03/1990

Charges: Robbery

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

It's no secret that Baltimore police and prosecutors snipe at each other in the political arena, but on the streets they do team up.

Here's an example from the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office on how a top city police commander, Col. Dean Palmere, chief of the criminal investigations division, chased down a man in West Baltimore identified for special attention because of his criminal history:

Continue reading "Top city police commander helps nab suspect" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass, West Baltimore
        

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III sought last night to tamp down rumors about the departure of popular Southern District commander Scott Bloodsworth, while assuring that acting major has his confidence and is "in the pilot's seat" to remain there.

The meeting was called last week as rumors swirled that Bloodsworth had been forced out as part of some political scheming fueled by bar owners and a prominent fundraiser who lives in the district. Bealefeld addressed it head on, saying his first communication with the mayor on the topic was after Bloodsworth had decided to leave, and he said that to this day he had not been contacted by two city councilmembers who represent the area.

He said that if bar owners are upset, he was "ignorant" to it. And a Locust Point resident's concerns about crime were noted but hardly the kind of thing to set off political domino effect, he said.

Instead, Bealefeld emphasized how disappointed he was that Bloodsworth opted to leave rather than oversee reforms in the beleaguered sex offense unit, which the commissioner said was in "crisis" and is at that top of his priority list.

"I lost my ace pitcher - and I didn't get another body. He's just off the team. How did that happen?"

Continue reading "Bealefeld reassures Southern District residents" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: South Baltimore, Top brass
        

I spent the morning walking in the rain with a few hundred police officers who have been visiting Baltimore for the annual National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.

As they traditionally do at the end of every meeting, they walk though a neighborhood that most needs police. They ended with a memorial service at Israel Baptist Church to honor fallen police officers. The next Crime Scenes column will have more on the march and the meeting. Here are some pictures to enjoy from walk along East Biddle Street from the Baltimore Sun's Jed Kirschbaum.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: East Baltimore, Neighborhoods, Top brass
        

Baltimore police have as many as five detectives sorting through police reports dating back 18 months to determine whether any were improperly discarded. This comes after police reporter Justin Fenton's investigation in which he found city police "unfound" more rape reports than any other city in the country.

That has led to concern that police were dumping cases or scaring victims out of reporting legitimate crimes. A full scale review is underway and top police officials promise that it will lead not only to the possibility of opening closed cases but longstanding reform in how sexual assault complaints are handled.

Here's some other stories in the package:

Justin's orginal investigation that shows high number of unfounded rape cases.

Rape hotline gets 20 callers in first two days.

Downgrading crimes common through police history.

Top commander opts to retire rather than oversee unit that includes sexual assaults.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, City Hall, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

Continuing the ripple effect after The Sun revealed that city police have been dismissing rape allegations at an alarming rate, the police department on Friday announced that Maj. Scott Bloodsworth, the commander of the Southern District, will be shifted to fill a vacant position overseeing special investigations, a unit that includes the city sex offense unit.

Since 2008, Bloodsworth has led the Southern District, which includes Federal Hill, Cherry Hill, Pigtown and Westport. Like most district commander positions, it's an around-the-clock responsibility heavy on community relations, and from all accounts he was well-regarded. He'll now oversee child abuse, sex offense, missing persons, financial fraud, and the citywide robbery and pawn shop units.

Part of his job will include overseeing reforms for the sex offense unit, which is under heavy scrutiny. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake ordered an audit and formed a task force to review how the department handles allegations of rape, while a hotline was created for victims who believe their case was wrongly dismissed. Lt. Thomas Uzarowski, who told me that the city's rape numbers were skewed because Baltimore has more people engaged in sex and trying to take advantage of services, had overseen special investigations in an acting capacity but retired two weeks ago, leaving the position open. Here's the department's statement on Bloodsworth's new gig:

Continue reading "Southern District commander to lead special investigations" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Top brass
        

The guns, all 76 of them, covered three tables.

There were cheap 38s, pump-action shot-guns, a few long-guns modified to resemble assault weapons, and a replica of an M-16. There were hunting rifles more appropriate for the wilds of Western Maryland. Tiny guns that could fit in a purse or pocket. Weapons that could belong to a militia.

These are the guns seized by Baltimore police officers in the past 10 days. The photo was taken by The Sun's Gene Sweeney. It shows Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake at the podium, flanked by Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein and ATF Special Agent in Charge Joseph Riel.

Authorities put the guns on display at police headquarters to highlight crime reductions and a surge in weapon seizures that has netted a total of 1,164 illegal firearms this year. Meanwhile, the 99 people killed in the first six months of this year is the fewest killed over the same time frame in the past quarter-century.

Bealefeld stared down at the arsenal displayed before him, the mayor, the federal prosecutor and the local head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

“It certainly is impressive,” he noted, shaking his head. “It’s menacing, threatening.”
But in reality, the city’s top cop was thoroughly unimpressed.

“We’ve all seen tables like this before,” Bealefeld said. “I’ve seen bigger tables. I’ve seen smaller tables. I’ve seen more guns.”

The commissioner basically admitted that the media show timed to the six-month mark of the year was a repeat performance. It proved, he said, “that we still have a hell of a lot of work to do.”

Continue reading "10 days worth of guns ... " »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Breaking news, City Hall, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

Baltimore's police commissioner, the mayor and the state's top federal prosecutor are having a news conference this afternoon to talk about guns. In particular, city cops have seized 1,164 illegal firearms from the streets, including 76 in the past 10 days.

The latest gun arrest came today on Garrison Boulevard in Northwest Baltimore. Police said a search of a house led them to a .38 caliber handgun, drugs and three arrests.

That, says the cop's top spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi, has helped bring homicide numbers through the first six months of the year to a 25-year low, with 99 recorded through the month of June.

In addition, police say the 44 nonfatal shootings in June is the lowest number since the department started tracking the figure in the 1970s. Sad though that we can more more than one person shot a day and still set a record low. There have been 190 non-fatal shootings this year.

"This is not a cause for celebration," Guglielmi told me, "but a cause for further action."

Police plan to display all 76 guns seized in the past 10 days at the news conference. It comes on a sad day, however, just hours after 16-year-old Renardo Brown was shot and killed on West North Avenue in Reservoir Hill earlier today.  

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Breaking news, City Hall, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

Albert "Mad Dog" Marcus is everywhere.

He's dressed in his pin-striped, double-breasted suits and fedora, standing over a body, working his regular beat as a Balitmore homicide detective. He's keeping fans safe at an Orioles game. He's in his uniform on hot the concourse at Pimlico on Preakness Day -- hoping some other cop sloughed off his overtime shift so Marcus could grab it. In case you haven't guessed it by now, that's him on the left, in a photo by The Sun's Amy Davis.

Who can blame him?

He only earned $173,791 last year. Most of it came in overtime -- his base salary is $70,176.

Marcus consistantly tops the overtime list and last year only three other city employees made more than he did -- the finance director, the state's attorney (technically not a city employee as she's elected to office) and his boss, the police commissioner. Yes, Marcus has made more than the mayor in each of the past three years.

Annie Linskey details overtime expenditures in her story today in the Baltimore Sun. Some departments used overtime because they couldn't afford to hire new people. The Baltimore Police Department has reduced overtime from $31.7 million in 2007 to $14.2 million this year. Police also note that crime, including homicides, has dropped to historic 30-year lows.

Annie's story includes a sidebar on Marcus, (and a searchable database of city overtime) the dapper detective who was profiled in a 2001 fashion column. He wears custom-made shirts with french cuffs. He also puts down murders -- including one allegedly committed by a 14-year-old boy this year -- and that requires working aroundt he clock after the body falls.

His boss, Maj. Terrence P. McLarney, defended Marcus' work ethic: Marcus hums like a bird," the homicide commander told Annie. "He loves to put the uniform on. He's a good cop. He works very hard."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Confronting crime, Top brass
        

THIS JUST IN: We just learned that the shooting (referenced below) Tuesday night on Carswell Street in Northeast Baltimore was fatal. More details can be found in the news story. 

Baltimore police have continued their efforts to seize illegal guns from city streets.

On Tuesday, police got two loaded handguns and arrested two people in the 800 block of E. North Avel. Later that same day, police arrested a man in the 3500 block of Horton Ave. with a loaded handgun. That night, cops busted made a drug arrest in the 1300 block of E. Lafayette Ave. and seized four handguns.

Wednesday, police arrested three people and siezed a sawed-off shotgun during a raid at a house in the 3200 block of Ravenwood Ave. But also on Wednesday, police reported three victims in two shootings.

A man was shot in the 1500 block of Carswell St. and about 6:30 this morning two men walked intoan undisclosed hospital suffering from gunshot wounds. Police said the shooting had occurred at West Baltimore and Carrollton Avenue.

A victim of a double shooting Monday night in East Baltimore had been a star soccer player for Archbishop Curley High School and later for Patterson High.

A city police spokesman confirmed that one of the victim’s is Bash Kamara, who came to the United States from Sierra Leone, and had played for the high schools. Another man, who police did not identify, was shot in the abdomen in the same incident.

Police had few details of the double shooting that occurred about 9:15 p.m. Authorities say they believe the men were shot in the 1700 block of N. Montford Ave. and ran a few blocks to East North Avenue and Belair Road, where they were found by police.

Both victims suffered non-life threatening injuries and were being treated at an undisclosed hospital. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said detectives have made no arrests and knew of no motive in the attack. 

In 2009, Kamara was named a player to watch for Patterson. The previous year, the forward was named all-city for the school. In 2007, he was named all-city for Archbishop Curley.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, East Baltimore, Top brass
        

Baltimore's mayor has just released details of a new sexual assault hotline, an effort by city leaders to address a problem raised in Sunday's Baltimore sun that showed detectives "unfound" more rape complaints than in any other city.

City officials have already announced they will audit rape complaints and reports to ensure that victims aren't being shortchanged. We'll have a complete story up shortly. Meanwhile, here is a statement from the mayor:

Continue reading "Mayor details sexual assault hotline" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Breaking news, City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

Baltimore authorities are planning a new hotline for women who are victims of sexual assaults. This comes after Sunday's Baltimore Sun report that showed city police lead the nation in "unfounded" rape reports.

Women are complaining that detectives sometimes try to talk women out of filing reports. Officials have already announced they will audit the police department's sexual offense unit. This hotline is one way for victims to talk with someone more sympathetic. Details will be announced later this afternoon.

Here is what we know so far from the mayor's office:

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld are to announce the creation of a new hotline for victims/survivors of rape and sexual assault to connect with services and report past incidents or mistreatment that may have occurred while reporting a crime of sexual assault.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Breaking news, City Hall, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

The first meeting of a task force charged with auditing Baltimore police rape reports is due to meet July 8. This comes after Sunday's Baltimore Sun article that reported city police have one of the highest rates of unfounding rape complaints made by women.

The audit is being led by the mayor's criminal justice head but will involve top police commanders. As chief police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told me, "The commissioner wants to dig deep. We have to work hard to restore public trust in the fact that we're going to investigate these rapes."

The spokeswoman for the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office, Margaret T. Burns, said prosecutors have heard that nurses at Mercy Medical Center, where most sexual assault victims are taken, have complained about strong-armed tactics of detectives who investigate the cases.

The problem is also born out of pressure to reduce crime, at least on paper. Police commanders are under constant pressure to produce good crime stats, and that reaches down to the patrol cops and the detectives. Even if they're not specifically told to find ways to not write reports, and thus count crime, they understand the pressure to keep crime low. The easiest way to do that is to record it, or record it such a way that it doesn't count toward the stats.

Sheldon F. Greenberg, who runs a polic executive training program at Johns Hopkins University, said, "The problem is national, not just in Baltimore. "Police officials have difficulties defining the value of what their people do on a day-to-day basis other than through statistics. They give the politicians what they want — statistics as a way of measuring success."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

Baltimore Police Commissoner Frederick H. Bealefeld today made his first public comments on Justin Fenton's Baltimore Sun story that concludes city police detectives "unfound" more rape reports than another big police department in the country.

According to The Sun's Julie Bykowicz, here is what the commissioner had to say:

"It certainly draws attention to a situation we've been focused on ... " He said the police have been working with women's groups since Jane Doe legislation passed to "bring structure" to the way rapes are investigated. "It's a good opportunity to evaluate our practices."
 
He said he would "evaluate the leadership and officers assigned to the unit" and added, "We are going to try to do our job better," referring to how rapes are categorized and resolved.
 
He also said the story points to a public relations need to build "confidence that reports are taken seriously." If that is not happening, he said, "we need to shake ourselves hard."

Earlier, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake issued this statement on The Sun investigation:

“I am deeply troubled to learn about the high number of unfounded rape complaints and the decline in reported rapes over the past decade. The data shows the critical need to immediately address the issue with a comprehensive review of investigative practices and response. Sadly, rape is one of the most underreported crimes because women are often ashamed and afraid to confront their attackers. We need to do everything in our power to ensure victims of sexual assault feel safe reporting incidents to police. No victim should ever suffer in silence. The Police Department must examine their current practices and work with leading sexual assault experts to develop and implement new best practices that encourage victims to come forward.  Accordingly, I have tasked the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice to take a leadership role with the Sexual Assault Review Team (SART) to oversee the development and implementation of improved Police Department practices.  Commissioner Bealefeld has assured me that the Department is conducting a full audit of unfounded complaints and an internal review of training and investigative practices.”

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Breaking news, City Hall, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

In today's Sun, we explore a troubling trend in sexual assault investigations in Baltimore: The city has for the past four years recorded the highest percentage of rape cases that officers conclude are false or baseless of any city in the country, with more than 30 percent of the cases investigated by detectives each year deemed unfounded.

But the problem in Baltimore may go even deeper. In four of 10 emergency calls that come to police for rapes, officers conclude that there is no need for a further review, so the case never makes it to detectives – a proportion that experts say is disturbingly high.

The increase in unfounded cases comes as the number of total rapes reported by Baltimore police has plunged - from 684 in 1995 to 158 last year, a decline of nearly 80 percent. Nationally, FBI reports show rapes have fallen 8 percent over the same time frame. We're one of five cities that record more homicides than rapes; most peer cities have a ratio of three to five rapes per homicide.

Police initially brushed off our findings, and the commander of the sex offense unit dismissed the high number of cases by saying, "We have a lot of people that are engaged in sexual activity in this city." He also said that the city's various services for women and victims led women to make up stories to take advantage of them.

In an attempt to solicit a more comprehensive response, I submitted various statistics to one of the mayor's aides. As the story was being finalized, I received an unsolicited three-paragraph statement from Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, saying the data showed a "critical need" to review department policies. She said the police commissioner assured her that a full-scale audit would be conducted and she convened an existing task force to study the issue.

In many ways the story raises more questions than it is able to answer. The numbers were so jarring that, coupled with anecdotes from people engaged with victims and a review of dozens of incident reports, they warranted a long look. But serious questions remain about the number of cases unfounded in the field by patrol officers - or how many are recorded as other, lesser crimes.

Some officers told me privately that the many of the "unfounded" 911 calls are false but are just not being "coded" - or classified - correctly. Experts including the former head of sex offense investigations in San Diego said that was essentially impossible. As for the investigations by detectives, is it possible, as current and former officers said, that they simply do a better job investigating than their counterparts in other cities and face a far different class of alleged victims? The comprehensive audit may generate answers.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: City Hall, Top brass
        

More than two dozen Baltimore police officers received awards on Wednesday for saving lives and performing other heroic acts.

They included Officers Jerome Shaurette and Curtis McMillion (pictured from left to right in the photo by The Sun's Lloyd Fox), who were involved in a wild-west like shootout after responding to a routine domestic call. Both were wounded but managed to returned fire.

Two other officers, Kimberly Hanline and Monica Nashan, were awarded life saving medals for helping save 5-year-old Raven Wyatt, who was shot in the head last summer on South Pulaski Street. She survived, in part because of the work thiese two officers did in performing CPR and holding her near life-less body until paramedics arrived.

After the ceremony, Hanline told me how after work she rushed home to hug her son. "He just looked at me, but he knew that I had cried," she said.

A touching moment you don't often see from cops.

Here is a complete program with details of all the awards (my apologies for the picture): 

Continue reading "Baltimore cops get awards" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

The Baltimore Police Department's zero-tolerance policing practice -- a policy of a past administrations -- is costing the city $870,000 in settlement costs with the NAACP and the ACLU and will result in yet another outside monitor to watch over the cops.

The settlement could be approved this morning by the Board of Estimates, the city's spending board, and will end four years of litigation from people who were arrested for minor crimes and spent hours if not days in jail facing charges prosecutors never planned to pursue.

Funny, because back in 2006, when the suit was filed, here was the city's response, from a former city solicitor:

City Solicitor Ralph S. Tyler said the plaintiffs "will not be able to prove their truly wild allegations. ... The illegal arrests claim rests largely on a false equation. The fact that the state's attorney declines to charge in many cases does not suggest that the arrest was illegal."

The policy of locking up everybody for everything resulted in some years with more than 100,000 arrests, a figure that has dropped significantly under Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, who touts targeted arrests that have led to historic drops in crime.

Today, the ACLU plans a news conference with some of the people arrested on the so-called quality of life crimes. As Justin Fenton points out today, they include a 19-year-old Morgan State University engineer student, a Parkville elementary school teacher, a doctoral candidate in neurobiology from Texas and two Pennsylvania residents visiting Baltimore for a bachelor party.

In 2005, so many people were arrested that judges were forced to release detainees from the detention center because it became impossible to process them with in the 24 hours required by law. Arrests hae dropped from 108,400 in 2005 to 77,600 in 2009.

Here are some of the stories from the people who filed suit, from a 2006 Baltimore Sun article by Julie Bykowicz:

Continue reading "Mass arrest policy of the past haunts cops today" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking news, City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

The final numbers for Operation Safe Surrender, in which Baltimore authorities encouraged people with outstanding arrest warrants to turn themselves in and in return get "favorable treatment" with their cases.

The effort, copied from other cities across the country, attracted hundreds people looking to clear up old cases. Prosecutors dropped many cases, citing age and dead or unavailable witnesses, and dealt with others. They set up in a church and held court in a community center across the street.

The Baltimore Sun's Jessica Anderson documented the final day on Saturday. Here is a statement from authorities on the program:

Continue reading "Final Safe Surrender stats " »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

Responding to a violent weekend that left three dead and eight injured — one critically — Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III urged residents to keep the city's overall crime declines in mind and not to "dwell on the negative."

A sociologist who once worked as an officer in the Eastern District said Bealefeld is right to underscore the overall crime figures, though community leaders warned that satisfaction with the numbers could breed complacency.

Nine people were shot over a period of 24 hours Saturday, and the violence continued with a man killed Father's Day morning and another fatally shot in the back early Monday. Late Monday, another man was shot in the head just a block away from one of Saturday's fatal shootings. But Bealefeld said homicides remained down 14 percent from last year while nonfatal shootings, which plummeted in 2009, were also off last year's pace, albeit slightly.

Nearly halfway through the year, Bealefeld said, police have taken 1,000 illegal guns off the streets and gun crime is down by double digits. That comes amid budget-tightening and deep concern over officers' pensions.

"Based on all the curveballs thrown at this police department in the last year, I think these men and women are doing a damn good job to be down in homicides and nonfatal shootings," Bealefeld said at a news conference Monday. "People have to balance facts against perception."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 9:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: East Baltimore, Southeast Baltimore, Top brass, West Baltimore
        

A consultant has been hired and started work on evaluating the Baltimore Police Department's internal disciplinary procedures, a requirement as part of a multi-million dollar settlement in a class action lawsuit that alleged institutional race discrimination.

James Outtz, who specializes in race discrimination and personnel practices, was hired a few months ago and is in the process of digging into police disciplinary data, said Peter D. Isakoff, the attorney for the plaintiffs. He's getting a late start - according to the settlement, which was finalized in June 2009, the consultant was supposed to have submitted his first written report to the police commissioner by Dec. 31, 2009, and was supposed to receive his first set of exhaustive disciplinary records on July 1. He'll receive updates every six months for the next three years.

Will his reports be made public? Outtz, who is pictured at right and has consulted or testified in cases involving Abercrombie and Fitch, Boeing, Johnson and Johnson and Ford, declined an interview. Isakoff was unsure, referring me to the settlement agreement, which only specifies that the data itself is protected by a confidentiality agreement and doesn't state whether his reports to the commissioner or mayor may be available. If history is a guide, the city will surely seek to withhold the reports unless the plaintiffs insist on their release. The agreement makes no such distinction.  

"In our view, we accomplished what we wanted with the settlement, and we're continuing to monitor the progress of Mr. Outtz," Isakoff said in an interview.

[UPDATE, 1:36 p.m.: Don't expect to see those reports. Says police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi: "Pursuant to the Settlement Agreement itself and the Agreement between the BPD and the consultant (Dr. James L. Outts), all reports generated by the consultant, as well as any BPD responses thereto, are deemed confidential .  Additionally, all materials and reports prepared by the BPD and shared with the consultant for the purpose of carrying out the terms of the Settlement Agreement are deemed confidential.  There is no provision for public reporting contained in the Settlement Agreement or Agreement between the BPD and Dr. Outtz."]

The plaintiffs, who unsuccessfully sought class action status for the lawsuit, had accused the department of condoning a hostile workplace, blocking black officers from promotion, levying uneven discipline and retaliating against officers who spoke out against discrimination. The settlement cost taxpayers about $4.5 million, including a $2.5 million payout to the 15 plaintiffs. The lead plaintiff was Sgt. Lou Hopson, who was fired in 1996 after being charged with perjury but was reinstated after a city judge reversed his termination.

Information sent to Outtz will be broken down by demographics and will include the substance of complaints against officers, the source of the complaint, and the findings of the internal investigations division and trial boards. He's entitled to meet with police officials to discuss the information, and will submit reports to Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III detailing area of progress or concern, along with recommendations. Bealefeld is required to respond within 60 days, and if Outtz isn't satisfied with the response, he can send his reports to the mayor.

[Photo from the Washington Post]

Posted by Justin Fenton at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Top brass
        

Baltimore police have taken a bunch of guns off city streets this week, bringing the yearly total to 979 illegal weapons and more than 400 arrests.

Here is a look at some of the seizures made since Sunday:

A man at Water and Gay streets, near City Hall and Police Headquarters, was arrested with a loaded handgun on Sunday. That same day, police said they executed a search warrant in the 600 block of Wildwood Parkway in Southwest Baltimore and found a shotgun.

On Tuesday, police arrested a man in the 500 block of N. Ellwood Ave. and charged with illegally possessing a loaded .40 caliber handgun. On Tuesday, cops arrested another man with a loaded handgun, this time in the 3200 block of Tivoly Ave. in Northeast. (less than an hour later, a man was fataly shot several times at North Fulton Avenue and West Lanvale Street in West Baltimore.

Also on Tuesday, police arrested two more people and seized a loaded handgun and drugs at one location and then, at another in the 600 block of East 41st St., they arrested a 37-year-old man carrying a lodaded handgun.

On Wednesday, police arrested a 21-year-old man in the 200 block of N. Monroe St. on a burglary charge. Police said he also was carrying a loaded handgun.

And earlier today, a 17-year-old was reported shot during a fistfight in Northwest Baltimore.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Neighborhoods, North Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore, South Baltimore, Southeast Baltimore, Top brass, West Baltimore
        

The head of Baltimore's NAACP sent out a missive demanding answers to questions revolving around the off-duty police shooting of an unarmed man in Mount Vernon. Marvin "Doc" Cheatham complained that a letter sent to Baltimore's police commissioner, the mayor and others went unanswered.

City police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told me this morning that he got in contact with Cheatham to let him known Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III is on vacation and would respond when he returns. Meanwhile, Guglielmi said he's trying to answer as many questions as he can but most revolve around policy issues that would have to be reviewed.

The NAACP head wants to know whether the officer charged, Gahiji A. Tshamba, gets more protection in shootings like these than afforded other suspects. The officer was not arrested immediately after the shooting, refused to make statements or submit to a breath test to see if he had been drinking and was given the chance to turn himself in when a warrant charging him with first-degree murder was issued. The officer surrendered after a 30-hour manhunt.

Here are Cheatham's concerns:

Continue reading "Police to respond to NAACP concerns" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings, Top brass
        

Baltimore police issued this statement on a gun arrest Saturday:

On 12 Jun 10 at 0126 hrs., Ofc. King responded to Water and Gay Streets after being notified by Citiwatch camera operators of a fight in progress at the location. Upon his arrival, Ofc. King observed several males fleeing the area on foot. He pursued one of the subjects when he observed the male throw a handgun to the ground. After a brief foot chase the male was apprehended and the firearm recovered.

Suspect: Clifford Carroll Butler Jr.
                m/b 6-3-91
                7103 Manilla Ave.

Weapon: Colt .25 cal handgun loaded with 5 rounds
                no visible serial number

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Police charging documents have now been released in the murder case against Baltimore Police Officer Gahiji A. Tshamba (left), who is charged in the shooting death of an unarmed former Marine in Mount Vernon nine days ago.

The information in the document is sparse. Top police commanders have already said that the victim, Tyrone Brown, had his hands in the air when he was shot by the officer who was angry that the man patted the rear-end of a female companion. Police have also said there is no evidence that the off-duty officer feared for his life when he opened fire.

This is is one of the few cases when police leaked more details about their case than they put the official document that charges the officer with first-degree murder. The union president, Robert Cherry, has denounced the leaks from police and the Baltimore Sun's articles that he said has already convicted the officer.

There is one important detail change that shows up in the charging document: It says Brown was struck 12 times. We had known from the start that the officer emptied his clip of 13 bullets (it holds 14, but he had loaded it with one shy of full clip). At the very beginnging, police said Brown was hit six times. After a preliminary autopsy, they said he had been hit nine times. Now police say he was shot a dozen times.

Meanwhile, Tshamba is due in court for a bail hearing this morning. We may hear more from his attorney. Here is the police charging document:

Continue reading "Court papers in officer shooting released" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Breaking news, Courts and the justice system, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings, Top brass
        

The police officer being sought on a first-degree murder charge in the shooting death of an unarmed man outside a Mount Vernon bar turned himself in early Sunday. Here is a story posted just a few hours before the officer surrendered just after the Baltimore Sun's final deadline

Police have released many details, but here is brief statement:

Suspended Police Officer Gahiji Tshamba, a suspect wanted for Murder, has turned himself in to authorities at the Central Booking Intake Facility in Baltimore around 1:30am on Sunday morning.

Tshamba's surrender comes hours after Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III ordered an intensified manhunt after Tshamba went missing Friday afternoon. Police attempted to negotiate a peaceful surrender with Tshamba on Friday and when contact was lost with the officer, an apprehension task force was mobilized.

Tshamba surrendered with his attorney and will face 1st degree Murder charges as well as charges of using a firearm in commission of a crime of violence in connection with last Saturday's shooting death of Tyrone Brown.

Bealefeld commended the BPD Homicide Section and Warrant Apprehension Task Force for their diligence and swift action in investigating this case and organizing a complex manhunt to bring Tshamba to justice.

"The Baltimore Police Department is committed to holding itself
accountable to the citizens Baltimore," said Bealefeld. "The men and women of the agency protect and serve our City with the highest integrity. The allegations against Gahiji Tshamba in this incident are an aberration and affront to us all." 

The Commissioner also acknowledged the hard work of Homicide Commander Terrence McLarney and lead Detective Shawn Reichenberg who literally worked around the clock since the onset of this investigation. McLarney and Reichenberg worked closely with city prosecutors to secure Friday's arrest warrant.

The BPD will continue to work with Baltimore States Attorney's Office to support this investigation.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Breaking news, Courts and the justice system, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings, Top brass
        

Baltimore police tonight released a poster and photos of Officer Tshamba A. Gahiji, who is wanted in a warrant charged with first-degree murder. The 36-year-old officer is the subject of an intense manhunt tonight in connection with last Saturday's fatal shooting of an unarmed former Marine outside a Mount Vernon nightclub.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings, Top brass
        

It was quite a Friday for police across Maryland, particulary for Baltimore police. It seemed everything happened at once -- with a cop acquitted of manslaughter, another found guilty of civil rights violations, yet another the subject of a manhunt on a first-degree murder charge.

In one courtroom, a Baltimore police officer was acquitted of manslaughter charges in the shooting death of an unarmed man. I'd love to talk to jurors in this case. The officer had tried to move the trial out of the city, arguing that widespread mistrust of police in the city would prevent him from a fair trial. He lost that bid and chose a judge to hear his case, but when a different judge got assigned, one who has been openly critical of the police commissioner, Tommy Sanders opted for a jury instead. Circuit court jurors found him not guilty in less than two hours. What I want to know is whether jurors trusted a cop charged as a criminal more than the cops who tried to put him away?

In another courtroom, this one federal, jurors convicted a city cop of obstruction and civil rights violations in the beating of a handcuffed teenager. Two of his colleagues, who had left the force, pleaded guilty and testified against Gregory M. Mussmacher. that case was brought by the U.S. Justice Department.

Meanwhile, after much public bickering and leaks concerning evidence, police issued an arrest warrant for Gahiji Tshamba, who shot and killed an unarmed former Marine in Mount Vernon a week ago today. City cops are now engaged in a manhunt for one of their own on a first-degree murder charge.

The day started with sad news out Prince George's County, where a Maryland State Police Trooper, 24-year-old Wesley Brown, working an overtime security shift at a restaurant was shot and killed, possibly by a disorderly man he had ejected for not paying his bill.

Meanwhile, Baltimore County police are stymied in trying figure out an apparent cult and police in Anne Arundel County made another arrest in a human trafficking case linked to prostitution, the second in just a matter of days. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Breaking news, City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere, Top brass
        

A Baltimore Circuit Court jury has acquitted Police Officer Tommy Sanders of manslaughter in the shooting death of an unarmed man at the Hamilton Shopping Center in 2008. The officer had taken the witness stand and testified that he was positive the man he shot was reaching for a gun.

"I am damn certain," an emotional Sanders told jurors. "I was damn sure."

Sanders was the first city officer since 1996 to be charged with a duty-related police shooting.

Also today, a federal jury convicted Baltimore Officer Gregory Mussmacher of civil rights and obstruction charges related to the 2004 abuse of a 17-year-old hand-cuffed prisoner. Two of the officer's colleagues, no longer on the force, pleaded guilty in the case and testified against Mussmacher. The officer had been convicted of assault by a city Circuit Court jury but that conviction was overturned.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

An off-duty Maryland State Trooper working security at an Applebee's in Prince George's County was shot and killed early today.

This just in from the Associated Press:

Officer Henry Tippett said Trooper Wesley Brown escorted a disorderly customer Thursday night from the Applebee's on Donnell Drive in Forestville. Tippett said when Brown was leaving the restaurant around 12:40 a.m. Friday, the customer shot him in the parking lot. Brown was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Gov. Martin O'Malley issued this statement not long ago: 

“Early this morning, TFC Wesley Brown was tragically shot and killed while serving security detail at a local restaurant in Forestville.  Tragedies like this remind us all how fragile life can be, and that the men and women of our public safety agencies risk their lives on a daily basis to keep the people of our State safe.  I’ve visited with Trooper Brown’s family this morning and extended my most sincere condolences.  The thoughts and prayers of all Marylanders are with them on this very sad day.

“The Maryland State Police, Prince George’s County Police, local and federal law enforcement are working tirelessly to investigate this incident, capture the suspect, and bring this killer to justice.”

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Crime elsewhere, Police shootings, Top brass
        

More details spill out by the day on the shooting by the off-duty city officer of the unarmed former Marine during a dispute outside a Mount Vernon bar. Today we learn that the victim, Tyrone Brown, may have had his hands in the air when Officer Gahiji A. Tshamba shot him nine times.

Also, police sources tell us that Brown's shirt had a heat imprint from the muzzle blast of the gun, indicating one or more of the shots could've been fired from as close as 5 inches away (Tshamba is at left, in a WBAL-TV photo).

Detectives have interviewed seven key witnesses -- three who were with the officer and say he identified himself as a cop and that Brown shoved him after Brown patted the officer's female companion on the rear end. Two were with the victim and say Brown apologized and tried to walk away but Tshamba wouldn't let him. Two others described as independent backed the latter version of events. And police sources say that evdience found at the scene, including shell casings, are inconsistent with the events as described by the officer's friends.

It's unusual to have this much detail in an unfolding case. But cops are leaking like crazy because they hear angry public sentiment over why prosecutors haven't yet charged Tshamba with a crime. They also seem to believe that this is one of the worst police-involved shootings they've seen in a long, long time.

Brown's funeral is Wednesday at 10 a.m. at Morgan State University's auditorium. By then, maybe they'll be an arrest and charges. Prosecutors are hanging tough, saying they want an air-tight case before moving foward.

Part of this is a continuing fight between Jessamy and police that has gone back years to the O'Malley administration. Who can forget when Jessamy dropped charges against a city cop accused of planting evidence on an innocent man? O'Malley fumed in a profanity-laced tirade while Jessamy complained that the police investigation had failed.

They don't want a repeat.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings, Top brass
        

A Baltimore police officer took the witness stand in his own defense on Wednesday, saying he felt threatened by a suspected drug dealer who he thought was going for a gun when he shot him in the back on the parking lot of a Northeast Baltimore shopping center two years ago.

Officer Tommy Sanders told jurors about growing up in troubled Park Heights and how that formed his opinion policing the drugs and violence in the city's most dangerous neighborhoods. Prosecutors say the officer needlessly shot the man in the back after stopping and searching him.

The trial at the Baltimore Circuit Courthouse comes amid the furor over the shooting on Saturday in Mount Vernon in which an off-duty officer killed an unarmed former Marine over a slight to the officer's female companion. Sanders is the first city police officer to be charged with manslaughter for an on-duty shooting since 1996.

But that's not all.

Adding to this week's bad news for the department, in yet another courtroom in the city, this time with the feds, Officer Gregory M. Mussmacher is being tried on civil rights charges and obstruction of justice in connection with the beating of a 17-year-old boy five years ago. The U.S. Justice Department is prosecuting, and the case is expected to conclude soon.

Mussmacher was found guilty by a Baltimore Circuit Court jury in 2005 of misdemeanor assault and misconduct in office for striking the teen in 2004. But his conviction was overturned on appeal, and the feds took up the case. Two other officers, now retired, also faced charges but pleaded guilty in federal court and testified against Mussmacher.

Here is some background from a Baltimore Sun article by Tricia Bishop published in April 2009:

Continue reading "More city cops in trouble " »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Police shootings, Top brass
        

It's difficult for anyone to second guess the actions of an officer made in the heat of the moment of a potentially life-threatening situation. Officer Gahiji Tshamba, under scrutiny and likely facing serious charges for killing an unarmed man over the weekend, faced what sounds like a harrowing situation in September 2005: The way he tells it, an SUV full of men pulled up next to him, with its occupants hurling racial epithets, spitting on his car, and throwing a beer bottle. As he followed them, they turned around, and slammed into his vehicle before getting out and coming towards him in a menacing manner. He fired five shots, striking one of them. The men offered a different take, though they admitted driving at him. And the victim was so intoxicated he claimed to have no memory of the events at all.

Was Tshamba's decision to shoot justified? The state's attorney's office felt that it was, and cleared him of criminal wrongdoing. 

But what seems less debatable and may cast some doubt on his account is the fact that, according to investigative records, Tshamba was driving drunk at the time of the incident.

When an Eastern District lieutenant arrived on the scene, he suspected Tshamba was impaired and ordered him to submit to a Breathalyzer - something Tshamba refused on Saturday - and he registered a .12 blood alcohol level. That's above the legal limit of .08.

Though Tshamba was cleared in the shooting, the department disciplined him for being intoxicated.  A year later, Tshamba wrecked his car after losing control and crashing into a gas station. Alcohol was not listed as a factor, but the car was not insured and was unregistered. All in all, those are just more questionable decisions in the recent history of an officer who is being closely scrutinized.

Prosecutors continue to mull charges in Saturday's shooting.  In this article, Peter Hermann gives a rundown of the perplexing police shooting cases that have come across the desk of State's Attorney Patricia A. Jessamy, and how her office has handled them over the years. Those cases deal with on-duty shootings, though it is still instructive to see the factors weighed by prosecutors and why the process can take some time.

"I will not send a message to police officers that I will impose my judgment in place of theirs when they act within the scope of their training and the law," she said at the time. "I will not, because of personal or political consideration, create a climate where police officers hesitate to protect a citizen or themselves."

And speaking of police charged criminally for shooting citizens on-duty, the trial for Officer Thomas Sanders, the first officer charged since the 1990s, began Monday with opening arguments. Sanders' defense attorney said that he was only following his training when he shot Edward Hunt after Hunt ran away during a 2008 arrest. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: East Baltimore, Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings, Top brass
        

In a post yesterday, I published the language of the Baltimore Police Department's rules and regulations pertaining to off-duty cops intervening in on-going crimes, the policy about carrying guns when not on the job.

Today, Baltimore Sun reporter Nick Madigan reveals that city police are reviewing the policy that mandates police officers be armed at all times while within the city limits, except when sound jugment indicates otherwise. You'd that includes a bar. But it doesn't, as we see from Saturday's shooting by an off-duty city police officer of an unarmed ex-Marine who had touched the officer's female companion in an inappropriate way.

Nick also talks to officials in other jurisdictions about their policies. Nick writes:

The internal review is being undertaken as a matter of course and not because the rules "aren't strict enough," Anthony Guglielmi, the department's chief spokesman, said Monday. Of particular interest is whether off-duty officers should be permitted to carry guns when they expect to be drinking alcohol.

"What we ask of officers is that they use common sense and good judgment," Guglielmi said. "They wouldn't take their guns into a swimming pool, and they shouldn't take their guns into a liquor establishment when they know they are going to get intoxicated.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Police shootings, Top brass
        

Baltimore prosecutors plan to re-interview key witnesses in the fatal police shooting in Mount Vernon on Saturday, which could delay by a several days any decision on whether to charge Officer Gahiji A. Tshamba.

The officer remains at the center of a firestorm over his shooting of unarmed ex-Marine Tyrone Brown, who patted the officer's female companion on her rear-end and ended up in a confrontation that left him dead in an alley off East Eager Street.

As the investigation moves forward, several details have been updated. Police had originally said Tshamba had been inside Eden's Garden, though the managor disputed that, though he admitted that the officer is a frequent customer. On Monday, police said Tshamba had been in the Red Maple, about a block away.

Also, police initially said that Tshamba fired 13 of the 14 bullets inside his department-issued Glock handgun, hitting Brown six times. On Monday, they said Brown actually had been hit nine times in the chest and groin. Police still say they have not learned of any reason why Tshamba might have feard for his life.

The officer has not yet given a statement to investigators, and he refused to let them conduct a breath test to determine whether he had been drinking. The officer shot a man in the foot in 2005, and while the shooting was ruled justified, police disciplined him for being intoxicated at the time. On Monday, police said they talked to people at various clubs and learned that Tshamba had been seen with a drink hin his hand, though it could not be determined if it was alcohol.

On Monday, Marvin L. Cheatham Sr., the president of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP, wrote this letter to Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi:

Continue reading "Probe into police shooting continues" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Gahiji Tshamba, Police shootings, Top brass
        

Many are asking legitimate questions about whether police officers should be allowed to carry guns while off-duty and in bars in light of Saturday's fatal shooting of a man in Mount Vernon during a dispute over a woman. Police are trying to determine whether the officer was intoxicated at the time.

Whether this case prompts a ban or a review of the rules will be up to police commanders. Baltimore City police officers are guided by several rules, some of which appear contradictory, but are designed to allow them to exercise sound judgment when dealing with their weapons. In fact, they can get into trouble if they don't intervene in crimes that occurr in their presence even when they're off duty.

Generally, they are required to be armed at all times, off-duty and on, when within the city limits. But there are of course exceptions.

Here is a sampling of some of the rules city police officers operate under, taken directly from the official Rules and Regulations of the Baltimore Police Department:

"Members of the Department are sworn in as peace officers of Baltimore City and, as such, are considered to be on-duty or read for duty at all times. Failure to stop and perform the necessary police duties while off-duty or on leave shall be considered neglect of duty."

In another section:

"All members of the Department are prohibited from indulgence in intoxicating liquors while on duty, or while off duty in uniform or partial uniform. ... Memberes, while off-duty, shall refrain from consuming intoxicating beverages to the extent that it results in obnoxious or offensive behavior which would discredit them or the Department, or to such extent that at the time of the member's next regular tour of duty they are impaired or intoxicated and thereby unfit for duty."

And in yet another section:

"All sorn members of the Department shall be suitably armed at all times when on-duty. Sworn members, off-duty, within the City of Baltimore, shall be suitably armed, except at such times, or under such circumstances, or when engaged in such activities as a prudent person would reasonably conclude the wearing of a firearm to be inappropriate."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (27)
Categories: Confronting crime, Police shootings, Top brass
        

Authories are moving quickly on the police shooting case (more details here) by meeting with prosecutors and top commenaders. Not sure if this means a decision on criminal charges today, but it does show the department is taking this very seriously:

Baltimore homicide detectives have completed their initial inquiry into Saturday's fatal shooting by a police officer of an unarmed man in Mount Vernon and plan to meet with city prosecutors Monday to discuss whether criminal charges should be filed.

This does not mean that charges are imminent. Prosecutors could demand that detectives investigate further, conduct more interviews or gather more evidence. The state's attorney's office could file charges, rule the shooting justified or present the case to a grand jury in the near future.

But by quickly moving to the next stage of the probe into the controversial shooting of an ex-Marine by off-duty Officer Gahiji A. Tshamba, it indicates the department wants to deal with the case swiftly amid news that the officer had shot someone in 2005 while intoxicated.

Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Monday morning that detectives fanned out in Mount Vernon clubs over the weekend, seeking witnesses to the shooting and trying to determine whether Tshamba had been drinking before the confrontation with Tyrone Jones near a back door to Club Hippo

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news, Top brass
        

So now we know that Baltimore Police Officer Gahiji A. Tshamba, back in 2005, was intoxicated when he shot a man in the foot during a confrontation.

What we don't yet know -- and hopefully answers will come today -- is how Tshamba managed to retain his badge after the incident?

Tshamba, as we all know by now, is the off-duty officer who shot ex-Marine Tyrone Brown (left) six times in Mount Vernon early Saturday after Brown patted the officer's female companion on the buttocks. Brown was joking, his relatives say. Police say an argument grew into a physical altercation that led to the shooting. The victim's sister says there was no fight and that Brown apologized but was taunted by the officer.

Either way, police have been unusually blunt in calling this a troubling shooting and saying they are trying to determine whether Tshamba was intoxicated when he shot 13 tiimes. The officer has refused to make a statement and declined to submit to breath test. He has been put on administrative duties. A police spokesman said detectives have not found any reason to believe the officer's life was in danger.

So that brings us back to September 2005. Details remain sketchy but it appears that Tshamba had been confronted by a group of men who yelled racial slurs. Police said one threw a bottle at him, and another struck his car and then advanced toward him. Tshamba shot one of them in the foot.

Police and prosecutors ruled the shooting justified but disciplined him for being intoxicated on the job. I suppose you can be imparied by alcohol and still be justified in using your weapon -- escaping criminal liability -- but it's hard to imagine keeping a guy on the force under such circumstances.

I'm interested to see what new details surface once police can review his entire file later today.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (48)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

Baltimore police have updated details surrounding the police-involved shooting from earlier today outside Eden Lounge the Mount Vernon, Mid-Town Belvedere neighborhood. At this point, it does not look good for the officer involved.

At left, Maj. Terrence McLarney, head of the homicide unit, joins police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi in briefing reporters at a 7 a.m. news conference. Here are some new details:

An-off duty Baltimore police officer repeatedly shot and killed an unarmed man who witnesses said  groped the officer’s female companion outside a Mount Vernon nightclub early Saturday, a shooting that top department commanders say they find troubling.

While police said numerous witnesses confirmed that the victim had physically and inappropriately touched the woman and fought the officer, spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said detectives have “not been able to find a concrete motive” as to why the officer felt he needed to take out his weapon and fire.

The victim, identified as East Baltimore resident Tyrone Brown, 32, was shot at least six times in the chest and groin, according to the police spokesman. The officer, a 15-year veteran assigned to the Eastern District patrol division, fired his department issued Glock handgun at least 13 times, officials said.

Deputy Police Commissioner Anthony Barksdale has been ordered to be “intimately involved in the investigation.” A police spokesman said the officer refused to make a statement and declined to submit to a breath test to determine whether he had been drinking alcohol.

For more:

Continue reading "Police update shooting outside bar" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

On Wednesday, 30 Baltimore police officers from an in-service training class walked a foot-post up and down Greenmount Avenue. It's the sight of two killings in April, including the shooting of an elderly Afro-American newspaper security guard who was caught up in an armed robbery.

Here is some video:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, North Baltimore, Top brass
        

Baltimore police sent 30 cops walking foot up and down troubled Greenmount Avenue today -- a show of force designed to show shop owners that they haven't been forgotten. The cops are all in training, so they weren't pulled from other jobs.

The busy street that cuts through several North Baltimore neighborhoods, including Waverly, home to the farmers market, has several semi-upscale restaurants trying to make a go on a strip with shaky reputation and a hodgepodge of seedy-looking storefronts. The city's top cop walked through after recent violence.

Two recent shootings shook the neighborhood, including the April 8 slaying of Charles Bowman, a security guard at the Afro-American newspaper who had stopped in a carryout for dinner before starting his night shift and got shot in a robbery. (police have arrested two teens in the case). Two days later, on a sunny afternoon, a 22-year-old man was shot and killed after a fight at a restaurant at Greenmount and 33rd.

This morning, Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III addressed an unusal roll call -- one held outdoors in a supermarket parking lot. The photo above was taken by The Sun's Algerna Perna.

After, he said he wanted to reinforce to the officers "what they’re here for and let them know how visible and important this little stretch is in terms of this crime fight, and to reassure them to focus on the problem at hand. Some problems are  beyond they’re control. We’re not asking them to solve crime all over the city. I just want them to do something about this little stretch of Greenmount Avenue and to reaffirm to the people that we’ve got their back and we’re going to make them safe.”

The extra cops is a visible show of force amid threatened budget cuts that could result in laying off 250 or more cops, and trouble in the pension system that has the police union threatening a lawsuit against the city to avoid further trims. And all this is coming amid a surge in violence in which 10 people were killed over four days starting Saturday.

Bealefeld said his officers will remain focused:

“It’s like lamenting the officiating of a game. Athletes play the damn game. Stop complaining about the officiating. I can’t control the officiating, and I’m going to work my ass off to make sure these cops get their money and make sure they get the proper due for their retirements, and I’m going to lobby the people I need to lobby to make sure that it’s done. But at the end of the day, we need to be focused on public safety, and this other stuff, whether they feel good or I feel good — who cares if I feel good? Nobody cares if our morale is up or down. They just want to be safe. They understand that. They’re athletes. They’re professionals at what they do. And they’re going to go out and they’re going to work and they’re going to do their jobs. I’m confident that’s going to happen.”

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, North Baltimore, Top brass
        

The Baltimore police department has submitted to City Hall a list of 250 officers who would be laid off if the budget gap is not closed, officials said.

The cuts are based on union-mandated requirements that would result in the most recent hires being the first out. The patrol division would be the hardest hit, and the officers who could be laid off include 50 officers recently hired using $10 million in federal stimulus money, which officials say would have to be given back.

Layoffs notices have been sent or are being prepared for other city employees across departments, and fire officials released details on the three city fire companies that face closure if no new funds are found. City officials say they remain hopeful that the plans represent only doomsday scenarios as the council works on new revenue streams.

But police commanders were privately expressing concern about morale; the notices will be going out as officers are being asked to be particularly diligent following an explosion of violence over the weekend that left eight people dead and continued Tuesday with another two killings.

Speaking after an event, Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake said the spate of violence underscored the importance of the city "having every police officer we can on the street. That’s why I’m pushing so hard for the comprehensive revenue package.”

“The City Council has a lot on their plate, but we’re hopeful and optimistic that they will pass the mayor’s revenue package,” Guglielmi said.

In the meantime, police say they have not been hampered by the budget woes. “The mayor made it very clear to the commissioner over the weekend that whatever resources the BPD needed, those would not be hampered,” Guglielmi said.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 7:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: City Hall, Top brass
        

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said the weekend violence that saw eight people killed and another five wounded in shootings was generally the result of "minor, petty neighborhood disputes that got out of control."

"Some of these things are beyond the control and the scope of [police] deployments," he said. "...They're not easily solved by saying, 'We're going to put a zillion cops on the street.' We have to be smart about our deployments and focus where we can get the maximum returns."

Providing new details about some of the crimes, Bealefeld said a double-homicide in the Southwest District on Sunday stemmed from an argument at a street corner cookout that "devolved into a fight between a 30 year old man and a woman who was at the party and went home and alerted relatives that had access to cheap, semi-automatic weapons and went back to settle the score themselves."

"Two men ended up losing their lives over a stupid argument - some hair-pulling and a minor assault led to two people being dead," Bealefeld said.

Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake said "we have to have the ability to get together, to enjoy ourselves over the holiday without it turning into fights ... arguments that turn into shootings."

"We have to want more for ourselves in our community than this type of lawlessness. It's going to take the community working with our police to make that happen."

Bealefeld said he was more concerned by Sunday's two killings along the Monument Street corridor, where police have focused more resources in the past year. Two men were shot and killed within blocks and over the span of about 45 minutes. Bealefeld indicated one suspect was responsible for both shootings.

"The Monument Street cases certainly have us evaluating what we could have done better," he said. "When you have two street disturbances, two street fights that lead to two deaths in an hour of each other and with one common suspect, there's some breakdowns there."

Continue reading "Bealefeld: Weekend violence stemmed from "petty neighborhood disputes"" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)
Categories: City Hall, East Baltimore, Neighborhoods, Top brass
        

It's open to people wanted on nonviolent misdemeanors and felonies who want to clear their name without ending up in handcuffs. In return for your surrender, prosecutors say they will do what they can, within reason, to keep you out of prison.

It's to be held June 16 through June 19 at New Baptist Metropolitan Church on McCulloh Street, the idea being a place of worship is a non-threatening environment. It is not an amnesty program in sense of the word,” stressed Assistant State's Attorney Patricia Deros. “All we can say that we will offer favorable consideration. We will do what we can to not incarcerate people.” (above is a pile of unserved arrest warrants in Baltimore, some dating back two decades).

People want on warrants charging them with shootings, handgun violations and other violent crime don't qualify. But for others on old shoplifting cases, here's a chance to get that old baggage all cleared up.

In Washington, officials hailed the program, which they did in 2007, as such a success they wished it had last longer. It's sponored by the U.S. Marshals Service and they do only one per city. So this is the last change. Officials plan to move everything from office furniture to high-speed copy machines to the church, as well as generators to ensure there's enough power.

They'll be prosecutors, judges, public defenders and clerks on hand. Judges will work out of a community center across the street -- they objected to rendering justice inside a church. Some people not happy with what they're offered will no doubt demand trials and will be put back into the regular system. But the program is designed to get people through the system without handcuffs, without jail, and in the quickest way possible.

Over the past several weeks, Deros (left) has been working hard to examine many the 40,000 open arrest warrants still lingering in the system, and to throw out ones that can't be prosecuted. In some, police officers or even the crime lab chemist have died. A full account of how she's doing this seemingly impossible task is the subject of Sunday's Crime Beat column in the Baltimore Sun.

DC officials have a great web site on the program that explains it in more detail and even offers up testimonials from suspects who went through it. The U.S. Marshal's Office also has a site that offers information.

In DC, 530 people surrendered over the course of three days, and officials there said had it gone a week, they could've gotten more than 1,000. For more information, here's a flier explaining the program:

Continue reading "Turn yourself in to the cops!" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

Baltimore police called it a quiet Preakness -- with zero arrests and 23 people tossed for fighting or throwing beer. But a video has surfaced on YouTube that shows a young woman bleeding and being arrested.

The poster wonders whether cops used excessive force. Police say absolutely not.

Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi tells me that the woman was drunk, punched a police officer and resisted arrest. He's not quite sure how she became injured but said it was probably during the altercation with officers. The video does not show the initial dispute, but starts with the woman on the floor and officers trying to handcuff her.

At one point, an officer picks a ticket off the floor and notes that it was a winning ticket, but not for the race that the woman was apparently trying to claim. I'm not sure if that's what started the fracas. Guglielmi said the fight occurred at a betting window well after the Preakness race had concluded.

The woman was arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer.

At the very end of the tape, an officer tells the camerman to leave the area and turn off the recorder. "Do me a favor and take a walk, now," the officer says. "Do me a favor and turn that off.
It's illegal to record anybody's vocie or anything else in the state of Maryland."

The officer is partly right. It's illegal to record a voice without consent from the person being recorded, even in a public place. Maryland State Police last month charged a motorcyclist who recorded his traffic stop with violating wiretap laws.

It's not illegal to record images, but in this Preakness case it's a bit more murky. Pimlico is not a public space, but a private one, and the owners can eject anyone they want.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (42)
Categories: Breaking news, Top brass
        

Baltimore's liquor board chairman, Stephan Fogleman, called me this morning with an update on Club 410, the bar that had been padlocked, linked by federal authorties to a drug gang and then ordered to sell its license.

A man who leased the club from the landlord threw a party Saturday night that got busted by police who said alcohol was being served. The man renting the space told me that while he charged a $5 cover, he gave away alcohol for free. He insisted the cover charge was not for the alcohol.

On Tuesday, Fogleman said authorities would have to prove that the cover charge also covered the alcohol in order for it to be a violation of the liquor laws. The owner is forbidden to sell alcohol until he resells the liquor license.

But Fogleman told me this morning that he researched the issue and it is illegal for any alcohol to be served when a cover is being charged. He told me authorities do not have to prove that the cover was for alcohol -- the mere fact there was a charge to get inside means the club owner violated the liquor board rules.

Fogleman's board must approve the sale or transfer of the liquor license, and he told me that this party could pose problems for the landlord.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Gangs, Northeast Baltimore, Top brass
        

With all the talk about the Baltimore Police Department's internal crime meetings being suspended and then reborn, here's a novel concept out of the once-corrupt New Orleans Police Department: invite the public in.

That's right, open the doors. Talk about transparancy, and then maybe some of of the misgivings Baltimore residents have about cops hiding crime might go away. It would also give the public  valuable insight into just how much the police are really doing to confront crime in their version of Comstat.

Of course, police talk about operational issues that they'd rather keep from criminals and the public, and it remains to be seen whether the police in New Orleans have separate, private meetings to talk about what they can't talk about in front of people and the news media. That could render the public meetings a farce. I also wonder whether police in New Orleans use the meetings to dress-down their top cops the way Baltimore does.

I attended one Comstat meeting in Baltimore -- one of the first they did -- and watched how detectives investigating seemingly unconnected shootings suddenly realized they were looking for the same suspect. I watched as they put dots on a compute map showing 911 calls for drugs and then put more dots on the same map showing where cops were. They weren't in the same place. And that was with old technology.

Comstat uses a dizzying array of computer maps, charts and data to plot crime and guide officers on the street. It's also been criticized for encouraging downgrading crime as commanders struggle to make the numbers, and thus themselves, look good.

I also spent some time in New Orleans, back when Martin O'Malley became mayor, because they  were openly practicing zero-tolerance policing, the kind of strategy O'Malley wanted here but couldn't admit. I was allowed into a Comstat meeting there as well.

Let's see how this New Orleans experiment works. The New Orleans Times-Picayune wrote a story on the first open meeting:

Continue reading "New Orleans opens crime meetings to public" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Crime elsewhere, Top brass
        

Florence Steffen was a sweetheart with a gruf voice -- she loved reporters but she'd never let on. She loved gossip but she did her best to preserve the dignity and privacy of people whose names appeared in piles of reports in the Anne Arundel County Police Department.

Every morning reporters from the Baltimore Sun and the Annapolis Capital plowed through the robberies and the break-ins, the car accidents and the assaults, the domestics and the shootings, looking to fill blotters and briefs, and maybe, if we were lucky, find a story or two.

Florence died Saturday at the age of 79, and for 35 years with Arundel police she was the keeper of the reports, the guardian of what did and did not appear in the paper, the gatekeeper to countless spokespeople. Get on her good side and you had good copy for your editor.

She hated the fact that phone numbers appeared on police reports and the unwritten rule many years ago was that reporters didn't look at them. For us at The Sun, this was easy -- simply copy the number down and call later. Our deadlines didn't loom until evening. But pitty the Capital reporter who was on deadline, and had to go through the motions of pulling out the phone book (pre-Internet, I remind you) and pretending to find the number that was on the report.

Anne Arundel County police put out a tribue to Florence. Here it is:

Continue reading "Longtime Arundel police press aide dies" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Breaking news, Top brass
        

So you thought this years Preakness -- with the Get Your Preak On promotion and unlimited beer for twenty bucks -- would mean a return to the debauchery of years past?

Think again.

The infield was so tame that Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III (at left, in a photo by The Sun's Gene Sweeney) moved cops out of there and sent them to other spots around the race track. So quiet that I spotted more than a few yawning tactical guys doing more watching than arresting. Cops sat on picnic tables and thumbed through race forms.

"A great day for Baltimore," Bealefeld said as he walked through the infield.

The stats from a day 38,000 people drinking?

Zero arrests. Twenty-three tossed for throwing beer or other frat-like issues.

That's nothing. Some Baltimore bars have more activity on a regular weekend.

That may have put frowns on some in the infield who wanted to repeat the "running of the urinals" but it put a happy face on Bealefeld who noted young people can get together, drink, have fun and still stay out of jail.

The complaints: people couldn't drink fast enough because it took so long first get, and then refill, the bottomless cups of beer. It seems Pimlico struck the balance they wanted -- give back the alcohol but with a catch. Without the bring-your-own kegs, people couldn't binge drink, and many tended to sober up between gulps.

Of course, you could get drunk if you really wanted too. But overall, the scene didn't turn into a total anything-goes drunk fest as it had in years past, but wasn't exactly a family affair either. The real test will be next year.

There some more debate in Sunday's Crime Beat column, and The Baltimore's Sun's Kevin Cowherd also weighs in on the sports pages.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Confronting crime, Crime humor, Top brass
        

The Village Voice in New York has obtained secret tape recordings made by an NYPD cop of his colleagues, giving the public an unusual and unvarnished view of what it's like to be a police officer in New York, and of some of the attitudes that come with it.

The recording are raw and uncensored, and quite revealing. Reminds me a bit when I took an unsanctioned ride with a city cop last year who wanted to demonstrate how poorly staffed the department was. Commander promptly launched an investigation -- not to fix what was wrong, but to uncover the cop's identity.

Here's how the Village Voice describes the find:

Made without the knowledge or approval of the NYPD, the tapes — made between June 1, 2008, and October 31, 2009, in the 81st Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant and obtained exclusively by the Voice — provide an unprecedented portrait of what it's like to work as a cop in this city.

They reveal that precinct bosses threaten street cops if they don't make their quotas of arrests and stop-and-frisks, but also tell them not to take certain robbery reports in order to manipulate crime statistics. The tapes also refer to command officers calling crime victims directly to intimidate them about their complaints.

This pressure was accompanied by paranoia — from the precinct commander to the lieutenants to the sergeants to the line officers — of violating any of the seemingly endless bureaucratic rules and regulations that would bring in outside supervision.

The tapes also reveal the locker-room environment at the precinct. On a recording made in September, the subject being discussed at roll call is stationhouse graffiti (done by the cops themselves) and something called "cocking the memo book," a practical joke in which officers draw penises in each other's daily notebooks.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Crime elsewhere, Top brass
        

Baltimore police on Thursday went before the City Council's budget committee to fend off suggested budget cuts that the commissioner said would set back historic gains made in crime reduction by 10 years.

I have the power point presentation and it's filled with great stats and budget numbers.

Here is a taste of what you'll see by clicking on the above link:

Continue reading "Baltimore police budget and crime stats" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

Update: See below for police answers to questions posed by City Council members.

Thursday's routine budget hearing for the Baltimore Police Department started off anything but routine. First off, chairwoman Belinda Conaway had to take on her critics. The police brass was irked at the questions she sent in advance of the meeting -- most, they felt, had nothing to do with the budget.

Many of the questions dealt with the racial make-up of the force. She wanted to know how many officers had complaints sustained against them. Police were desperate to show off to the City Council glowing crime stats that showed homicides and other crime dropping to historic lows even while they cut back overtime by nearly half.

The numbers are impressive: murder down to a 33-year low; shootings down 31 percent from three years ago; carckings down 20 percent; residential robberies down 17 percent; commericial robberies down 13 percent; assaults down 14 percent. All while making tens of thousands of fewer arrests then past administrations and cutting back on overtime from $31.6 million in 2007 to $14.2 million this year. And now the mayor's proposal is to cut another $16 million from the budget, which could force laying off up to 300 cops and eliminate the helicopter, marine and mounted horse units.

City council members, Bealefeld and the finance chief tussled over the cuts. Finance proposed cutting from detective and other specialized units. The top cop said, "It doesn't work that way. It can't work that way." It's a union shop and that requires last hired, first fired. So the cuts come from the cheaper patrol units, the backbone of the agency, and because those cops make less money then detectives, it would mean not cutting 173 officers as the finance department says but 300 to 350 officers.

Of course, if the mayor's $50 million package of new fees and taxes gets approved by the council, all this back and forth becomes moot. The police department and other agencies would be fully funded again.

Through all this discussion, Conaway managed to at least ask some of her non-budget related questions. But at the onset of the hearing, she blasted police commanders for the leaks of her questions to the media. Why did she want to know how many cops have complaints about race lodged against them? Or want to know the racial makeup of the accident investigation unit? Or how many officers are suspended?

It's a budget issue, Conaway said, listing a series of out-of-court settlements in racial discriminatiion cases, some totaling $500,000, to officers and civilians alike who claimed disparate and unfair treatment. "We cannot afford this," she said. "Year after year after year there is a culture of discrimination in the Police Department, and it is costing the citizens money in out-of-budget revenue."

I posted Conaway's list of questions in an earlier blog. The Police Department has written answers which they promised to give me today. Here they are:

Continue reading "Police budget and (non) budget questions" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

Later this afternoon, Baltimore police commanders are going before the City Council's budget committee to talk about money. The department is facing a $16 million cut that could eliminate its helicopter unit and up to 300 police officers (the number varies depending on who you talk to).

So you would think the budget committee would want to talk about the budget. Think again.

A series of questions sent to the commissioner to help him prepare for the meeting, however, shows that they want to talk about the racial make-up of the command staff, about rental cars and about how many cops are suspended.

In one question, the lawmakers call citizens constituents. In another, they refer to precincts. In still another, they demand answers about extending a program that ended in January with a new police contract. Politicians, not cops, have constituents. And the city has police districts. Precincts are in the county.

But even those gaffs aside, what gives? When Martin O'Malley was mayor, his top cop had unlimited overtime, unlimited resources and the force busted more than 100,000 people a year. Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III runs a cash-strapped agency with pension problems so severe half the force wants to bolt, doesn't have enough money to feed a police horse, has arrested tens of thousands of fewer people than did past chiefs, and yet homicides and shootings are at 33-year lows.

Police commanders are understanably upset and perplexed. As one told me, "Let's talk about money."

Here's how Robert F. Cherry, the police union president, sees it:

I think that the police department has gone to great lengths over many years to diversify the ranks and I think the issue that should be discussed at the budget hearing is, if anything, a commendation to the commissioner and the entire police department, black and white, male and female, who have brought his city to levels of crime that haven’t beens seen in decades.

I would hope that the council members would who wrote that memo would not be using this budget hearing for poltical grandstanding and instead ask the real question that matter to the homeowners and residents of this city -- how can we further give you the resources, the money and the tools to continue the good fight.

These are tough economic times. I have to give credit. The commissioner's plan is working and it's working because the men and women on the sreet are making it work. These questions arren't the kind of questions that should be asked at a budget hearing. The city's own survey showed the public ranked fire and police one and two in terms of their top priorities.

I would hope the budget committee works hard to give Commissioner Bealefeld the resources he needs to continue cutting cirme. If the police department was a Forturne 500 company in the private sector, police officers on the street would be receiving bonuses for the work they’ve accomplished. We have to draw the line in this thing that everybody needs to share the pain. The bottom line is that public safety is paramount.

The chairwoman of the budget committee told me these questions are all "very relevant" to the police budget. Here's the list. You decide:

Continue reading "Are these really budget questions?" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

Baltimore's top cop's crusade against guns continues -- city police department officials announced three more arrests overnight:

Mark Taylor, 24, was arrested in the 2800 block of Waldorf Ave. in Pimlico, in Northwest Baltimore, with what police say an illegal .38 caliber handgun. A traffic stop led police to arrest Keisha Cohen, 21, with what they say as a fully loaded .38 caliber Hi-Point semi-automatic handgun.

And, police say convicted felon Dana Smith was arrested in South Baltimore's Cherry Hill neighborhood with drugs and a .45 caliber gun hidden in the engine of a car. All three suspects were charged with illegal possession of handguns; Smith also faces drug charges.

The photo at left is an old one, a police-sponsored gun-buy back program in 1997. It was taken inside the Baltimore Police Department's gun store vault.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

The Washington Post Maryland Politics blog had a little fun this week with the governor and a Baltimore murder:

Here at The Washington Post Maryland Politics blog, we don't typically write about crime, especially crime in Baltimore. But when news of the brutal killing of a pregnant woman makes headlines on the same day that Gov. Martin O'Malley is touting the state's lowest crime rate in 35 years, the juxtaposition raises eyebrows.

The Post is talking about the slaying of Betsy Sue Riggin, a 28-year-old food service worker at the city jail who apparently met the love of her life, who happened to be incarcerated at the time. He is now charged with killing her. It has been particularly painful for the Riggin's family, who had been told their daughter met her future husband, and father of her soon-to-be-born baby, at a restaurant salad bar.

They had no idea the circumstances of the relationship until a Baltimore Sun reporter called the day before Mother's Day. Then came revelations that the suspect, who has a long arrest record, had an outstanding warrant that went unserved, despite speeding that process along has been a centerpiece of O'Malley's crime fighting efforts.

The Post blog:

It becomes a statewide political story and gets a mention here if within 24 hours documents show the suspect in the slaying -- and a target of the governor's award-winning crime-prevention effort - should have been locked up at the time his girlfriend and unborn child were killed. Police say the suspect has confessed to the crime.

It also helps if the spokeswoman for Patricia C. Jessamy (D), the Baltimore State's Attorney, tells television reporters that it's unclear why a state parole and probation agent appeared to have failed to file paperwork for a warrant that would have allowed the suspect to be put behind bars before the killing. In other words: why did O'Malley's signature "Violence Prevention Initiative" break down?

Turns out everything worked perfectly in this case. The courts and the state exchange warrant information through the mail, and there's typically a two-week delay. That's all it took for a criminal suspect to stay on the streets and a 28-year-old pregant woman to lose her life.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

Baltimore's new marketing campaign: Find Your Happy Place!

We mocked the old slogan, "The City that Reads," turning it into the "The City that bleeds" -- complete with cops wearing it on T-shirts. I'm not sure that the "Get In On It" campaign produced any riffs on crime.

How about it readers. Give me some ideas on where happy place and crime!

One reader has already posted this to the story comment section:

Yeah, I found my happy place--150 miles away. After eighteen years of crime, parking b.s., high property taxes, and assorted other oddities such as Sheila Dixon, I moved last fall. Don't get me wrong, there were great things, too, like the '96 and '97 Orioles, the restaurants, Center Stage, the BSO, the Book Fair and Flower Mart, but I just couldn't take it any more

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

(Here's an extended version of the driver's video.)

Today's Crime Beat column on the motorcyclist who recorded his traffic stop with a helmet-mounted camera raises two questions. One is whether the plainclothes Maryland State Police trooper over-reacted by taking his gun out, and second, whether authorities are being vindictive by charging the man with violating the state's wiretap law.

It's illegal in Maryland to record a conversation without getting that person's permission. The trooper says he didn't know he was being recorded with sound and authorities filed charges after seeing the video on YouTube. It's something I bet a lot of us have done when we aim our camcorders or cell phones at something on a public street. In this state, pick up sound, and you could be violating the law.

Rarely does the wiretap law get used this way. But with this allegedly dangerous driver, authorites went all out. Here's some differing opinions on the issue. Watch the video and decide what you think (keep in mind, police said the video doesn't show the whole story, such as the marked police car and uniformed trooper who also particated in the stop):

Harford County State's Attorney Joseph I. Cassilly: "It seems to me that that the taping was done deliberately to provoke some sort of response from police so he could turn around and use it against the police. I mean, who rides a motorcycle with a helmet cam on and flies up 95 like that unless you're trying to orchestrate contact with the police and instigate some issue."

Baltimore criminal defense attorney Steven D. Silverman told me he's "never, never, never" seen the wiretap law used this way. "I guess it's more of the 'contempt of cop' than the violation of the wiretapping law."

Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said his officers have little time to worry about legions of videographers. "We're focused on going after bad guys with guns," he told me. "We're not focused on going after citizens with video cameras."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

The last time I put Tim Longo's name in a story was back in 2000, and it was about the retired colonel having to return to the police department to testify at an administrative hearing against a cop seven years earlier had taken a bribe from a drug dealer. He had led the investigation.

I knew Longo had gone on to lead the Charlottesville Police Department in Virginia (he's at left in a photo by The Daily Progress), but I haven't kept in touch. Today, Timothy J. Longo Sr.'s name is all over the news -- from the pages of his old Baltimore Sun to The New York Times -- talking about Yeardley Love, the 22-year-old senior from Cockeysville who was found slain at the University of Virginia.

The varsity lacrosse player was allegedly killed by another lacrosse player, 22-year-old George Huguely, of Chevy Chase. The slaying has stunned the college campus and our region and there's Longo front and center, straddling both worlds with ease.

Here is a little of what I wrote in February 2000 when Longo left the Baltimore Police Department:

Another Baltimore police colonel has announced his retirement, continuing a stream of high-level departures since January, when a new commissioner took over and began to reorganize the force and reinvigorate efforts to stem violent crime. Col. Timothy J. Longo Sr., 37, said yesterday that he will leave the department March 10. The 18-year veteran is stepping down two years shy of being eligible for a full pension."This is a positive move for me personally," said Longo, who met with Commissioner Ronald L. Daniel a week ago. "He was very complimentary of what I could contribute to this agency. As a result of the conversation, I felt it was in my best interest and his for me to seek an early retirement." Longo was well-regarded as a young commander who began his career as an 18-year-old cadet, earned a law degree while on the force and rose quickly through the ranks.

Here's a bit more:

Continue reading "Old Baltimore police face back in the news" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Top brass
        

The Baltimore Police Department's intelligence gathering and sharing meetings known as Comstat will resume this week, the department says. This is where commanders gather for hours to discuss crime trends and tactics, with plenty of fist-pounding accountability. Baltimore's been using the New York-based process, now a law enforcement staple across the country, since 2000. But Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III suspended them one month ago, amid concerns that they had become "stale" and "laborious," according to his chief spokesman. It's now coming back with few changes, namely a cut-off limit on presentations, a new seating configuration, and a ban on cell phones. After a month of hand-wringing, they're basically telling people to keep it snappy and turn off their darn phones.

Here's part of the memo distributed to officers:

Continue reading "Comstat intelligence meetings to resume" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 7:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Top brass
        

With April in the books and the year a third of the way complete, police are again touting crime declines, led by a 25 percent drop in homicides. As of this morning, 57 people have been slain in Baltimore - still a large number compared with other cities, but down considerably from the 75 killed at this point in 2009 and 94 who were killed at this point in 2007. The city had seen 154 non-fatal shootings on average over the past three years, but has recorded "only" 95 so far this year. That's a drop of 40 percent, despite the first weekend of May bringing at least three non-fatal shootings and a homicide.

I know many people continue to point to the snow as a driving force for this decline, but April wrapped with 16 homicides. Since 1970, the city has recorded 16 homicides or less only 10 times, according to my records. The Southeast District, which includes Canton, Fells Point, part of the Monument Street corridor, and Greektown, has yet to record a single homicide after notching 27 last year.

Total crime is down 6 percent as of April 24, but has been on the increase over the past month, according to most current police statistics available. In the past four weeks, the city notched 751 violent crimes, compared to 621 the previous month, and 2,029 property crimes, compared with 1,822 in the previous month. Those numbers, however, still compare favorably with the corresponding period last year, just not as favorably. To put it succinctly: crime increased in the past month but has still been down compared with the same period last year.

Continue reading "A third of the way into 2010, killings, overall crime down" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Top brass
        

The idea for this thoroughly unscientific but thoroughly fun experiment came from a news story by my colleague Frank Roylance (otherwise known as our weather blogger -- see Maryland Weather) on the fruitless search for a man and his three children whose boat reportedly sank off Middle River.

The boat never turned up but Frank included some detailed information about how much the search cost. That prompted a comment on our web site from Esther: "Yes, but did it cost more than Jon Cardin's stupid proposal?"

Good question Esther. I decided to find out!

Continue reading "How much did Jon Cardin's proposal really cost?" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Top brass
        

There was a lot of police news on Wednesday. Cops in Arundel busted a drug network in Brooklyn Park; detectives in Baltimore County announced that long-ago death of a woman was a homicide and pleaded for help; city prosecutors went after a woman who lied to help her boyfriend escape a gun charge; and the father of a city police officer was killed when two drug suspects fleeing from cops rammed into his car in Northwest Baltimore.

So what's the top police story all day on the Baltimore Sun's web site?

WJZ sports director Mark Viviano was hit by teens as he jogged through Druid Hill Park on Tuesday afternoon. He was wearing headphones and didn't hear the teens come up behind him. He wasn't even injured, and nothing was taken.

(The second most viewed story, at least for a while, was a Laura Vozzella column item on how a pimp was angry at being called a wannabe pimp).

Yet 28,890 people clicked on the Internet version of the story by 3 p.m. (it ran as a small brief on page 6 of the print edition, but took on a life of its own on line). It's one of those Internet sensations, driven by the most popular search terms on cyberspace: crime, sports and celebrity.

Even Baltimore's police commissioner got into the act, sounding off on WYPR, on a show hosted by the Baltimore Sun's Dan Rodricks, that he was troubled that the officers who handled the complaint didn't immediately notify top commanders.

Viviano is a sports personality, but I'm not sure such a minor attack on him warrants alerts at City Hall.

The story generated more than 150 comments, many of them racist rants about how white people shouldn't jog in Druid Hill Park. To me, the elderly father of the city police officer and the suspected drug dealers who killed him is the more important story here, a tragedy highlighting the losing war on drugs and the damage to innocents it can cause.

I know we're guilty in all this because we ran the story on Viviano. But in the print edition, the park assault is dealt with in a few sentences while the dead father is a full story. On the Internet, the play often goes to the story that generates the most interest.

That should be the debate over drugs and tears for the innocent victim in Wednesday's crash.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)
Categories: Confronting crime, Top brass
        

"I hope there's two places for them: one here on Earth, and one in eternity, and they deserve to spend as much time as possible in both places."

That was Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III's response when asked by a radio show caller if the two teens charged with killing 72-year-old Charles Bowman at a carryout restaurant will face severe punishment. It's more of the blunt and colorful talk we've come to expect from Bealefeld during his tenure as police commissioner.

Bealefeld was speaking on WOLB 1010 AM's "Taxi Talk Radio," an appearance that started slow but led to some interesting comments. When asked about police barricades near The Block, Bealefeld revealed that the impetus for the heavy presence was intelligence that Bloods gang members were attempting to infiltrate businesses and the drug trade there. And he said he recently met with the NAACP and police union to talk about outreach efforts in South Baltimore's Cherry Hill neighborhood.

I was anticipating this appearance because of the potential dynamic between Bealefeld and one of the show's co-hosts, A.F. James MacArthur, a citizen journalist who appears fairly often at events and crime scenes. On his blog, he regularly admonishes government and police over the city's violence, as well as the media for not adequately covering it. One entry was titled: "Battle Ground Baltimore Remains a Bloody Bastion of Boundless Mayhem and Murder." He recently Tweeted to me in response to a story, "Don't gimme that crap statistically, crime is down. That's just a public appeasing load of bull."

Continue reading "Bealefeld has hopes for accused Greenmount Ave killers during radio apperance with police critic" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 7:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: North Baltimore, Top brass
        

Baltimore City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young wants to impose higher fines to curb rude and obnoxious -- and illegal -- behavior outside of bars. This partly in response to complaints from people in neighborhoods upset by rowdy behavior from drunks in and around bars.

Last summer, city cops were busy with fights, robberies and shootings blamed in part on emptying nightclubs and some gans at the Inner Harbor and further north in Mid-Town Belvedere. Friday night, reporters Justin Fenton and Julie Scharper toured Federal Hill near the 2 a.m. bar closing time and witnessed a fight and one case even got mooned (the video was taken by Justin).

Here is a summary of what the council president plans to introduce at tonight's council meeting:

Increase fines for a variety of misdemeanors including scalping tickets and selling loose cigarettes. People drinking or holding open containers of alcohol in public could be fined as much as $500, 10 times as much as the current penalty. Those found guilty of "disorderly drinking" could be forced to pay as much as $1,000 under the proposal. Lighting up indoors, which was outlawed in 2008, could cost the smoker as much as $500 and the bar owner as much as $750. Adults found urinating or defecating in public places could be fined as much as $1,000 — twice as much as the current fine.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Confronting crime, Downtown, South Baltimore, Top brass
        

Today's Crime Scenes article describes the winners and losers in police-related legislation passed by the just-concluded General Assembly. I forgot to mention (well, actually, it didn't quite fit) one bill important to law enforcement.

When you get a speeding ticket, you no longer automatically get a court date assigned. Instead, if you want to contest the citation, you have to request a court date. It seems a small change (and it prompted lots of debate -- see my colleague Mike Dresser's Getting There blog and some of his columns).

For police, it should cut down on the number of no-shows in court. Too often, they said, cops were forced to attend hearings automatically set up but that the ticket recipients had no intention of attending. Now, hopefully with the burden on them to make the appointment, only the people who really want to contest the fines will show up.

Savings in overtime run into the millions.

Kristen Mahoney, who heads the Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention, gave me permission to reprint her e-mail to me (and following that is a fact sheet from a local law enforcement agency):

Continue reading "Police agencies laud passage of traffic bill" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Top brass
        

The General Assembly finished its 90-day session early today having considered several crime bills, including toughening laws on sex offenders and strengthening sentences in gang cases.

Perhaps the most emotional moment on Monday came when Jennifer Foxwell, the mother of 11-year-old Sarah Foxwell (left in photo), who police say was abducted and killed by a registered sex offender in December on the Eastern Shore, marched hand in hand up the steps of the State House with Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis, the girl's aunt and an advocate. The photo was taken by the Baltimore Sun's Karl Merton Ferron.

Here is a look at what happened to some of the crime bills:

Death penalty: Lawmakers passed rules last year that greatly restricted capital cases, but some thought the limits went too far and wanted to broaden the application of the death penalty. Legislators could not reach agreement, however, on allowing fingerprints or still photographs to qualify as evidence in capital cases.

Domestic violence: Temporary protective orders that do not become final can be wiped from the state's public court case database with a judge's approval but the information remains available to law enforcement.

Gangs: Over the objections of some Baltimore lawmakers, the Senate joined the House in approving legislation that gives prosecutors more tools in going after gangs by carving out a new crime for gang leaders and extending sentences for gang members convicted of certain crimes. Both chambers also approved a measure aimed at increasing communication between schools and the police about gang activity.

Sex offenders: Violent and repeat sex offenders receive fewer good-behavior credits in prison and are subject to lifetime supervision upon release. The state's publicly available sex offender registry is to include more information and minimum prison sentences for some child molesters have been tripled to 15 years.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Comstat - the New York-based, statistics-driven crime management tool that has become the standard in major American cities - may be in for a makeover in Baltimore. The Sun reports that this week, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III scrapped the next month's worth of meetings as he considers new ideas. Comstat forms the basis for Martin O'Malley's award-winning CitiStat and StateStat programs, and O'Malley has been encouraging local police agencies throughout Maryland to institutionalize the process.

Police stressed that they are not abandoning statistics-based policing, but it's also not clear what sort of changes Bealefeld has in mind. Many are saying the process is tired and has become a forum for brow-beating and downgrading of stats, but that's been a general complaint of Comstat since its inception. Comstat meetings are closed to the public, though a scaled back version of the meetings was depicted in The Wire. (Warning: foul language in that clip)

Click here for more about where Comstat stands in Baltimore now.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Top brass
        

Baltimore prosecutors have never jumped up and down over police surveillance cameras. And so it should come as no surprise when the city State's Attorney's Office issues a news release touting the conviction of a man involved in a shooting captured on video it is full of hidden digs.

Yes, the video helped prosecutors obtain a guilty plea that sent a man away for 20 years for shooting another man in Park Heights last year. And yes, as prosecutors point out, the camera system helped Baltimore police arrest 759 people last year, of which 207 were found guilty of crimes and another 214 have cases pending in the courts.

And yes, City Hall has indicated that even in tough budget times, it would "fully fund crime cameras which serve as a force multiplier, and are shown to reduce crime and assist prosecutions."

But that is where the praise ends:

Continue reading "Police, prosecutors fight over cameras" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III is profiled in today's Sun, in a piece exploring his challenges in trying to get the city and his own force to buy in to the city's progress. You can read the piece here, but I wanted to expand on one section that didn't make the final version: the city's pursuit of former DC Chief Charles Ramsey in 2007. It's not news that Ramsey was in the running, but in reporting this story I learned that Ramsey actually signed a contract to become Baltimore's 36th police commissioner.

Bealefeld had competition. Dixon’s advisors pressed her to go with a proven commodity, and, preferably, one who was black. Former Washington D.C. Chief Charles Ramsey sat for several interviews and generated a vocal backing, including Dixon’s chief of staff, Otis Rolley III, and O’Malley, at that point a key Dixon ally. City officials sought input from the mayors of New York, Chicago and Washington D.C., all who supported Ramsey’s selection.

Only two Dixon aides, Howard Dixon (no relation) and Sheryl Goldstein, were advocating for Bealefeld. His critics wondered why, as deputy commissioner running the department, Bealefeld hadn’t pushed harder on his policies then to curb the violence? (Bealefeld said it was his job to follow Hamm’s lead)

Ramsey’s appointment was imminent. In the blue-walled commissioner’s office overlooking the mouth of the Jones Falls Expressway, Bealefeld was hearing the whispers. Officers – working security at City Hall and city parking garages, monitoring cameras, even those on Dixon’s own security detail — were passing on news of Ramsey sightings. Ramsey and his key staff members were looking for housing in the area, and people were even stopping by police headquarters.

“Some guy calls up here one day and argues with the staff out there, ‘I want to speak with Chuck Ramsey,’” Bealefeld recalled. “He says, ‘Of course he’s here, I’m a friend of his, I know he’s the police commissioner.’ These are the calls I’m getting.”

Dixon said in a recent interview that she was turned off by some of Ramsey’s contract demands, and former aides say she wasn’t keen on the prospect that Ramsey might overshadow her. But she was also liking what she saw out of Bealefeld, who was deferential and kept her constantly updated with text messages and e-mails. And of course, perhaps most important, the crime wave was already showing signs of subsiding.

“He was focused like a laser beam,” said a former staff member. “No one got him that job. He got himself that job.”

Dixon had changed her mind. It was not as simple as that, however. Ramsey had already been offered the job by Dixon and sent a contract, which he signed. Dixon called him from her cell phone while Ramsey, who is now the Philadelphia police commissioner and declined requests for comment, was said to be infuriated but ultimately stood down.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Top brass
        

With all the talk of possibly hundreds of officers being laid off in Baltimore, here's a story out of New York City where Mayor Michael Bloomberg is concerned over an increasingly thinner "thin blue line," as the article puts it.

New York has attracted much attention for its dwindling murder rate, but so far killings are up 22 percent, and shootings and rapes are up as well, the New York Post reports. (Bloomberg notes that even an increase this year is still well below the city's crime levels from a decade ago; NYC's murder rate is about 1/6 of Baltimore's 2009 rate)

Officials believe the NYPD's shrinking manpower is playing a factor. The department had about 41,000 police in 2001, which is down to 35,000 today, the Post reported. The city expects to shed 1,300 officers in the upcoming year through attrition, and is threatening to lay off 3,150 cops if state slashes funding. In Baltimore, though the proposed budget calls for layoffs, Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake is vowing that it will not come to that.

How has Baltimore's sworn strength fluctuated in recent years? Baltimore counts 3,119 sworn officers for fiscal year 2010, down about 6 percent from a high of 3,329 in 2003, according to statistics obtained by The Sun. That's a difference of nearly 200 officers, which is the equivalent of an entire patrol district. The number has been pretty steady under Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III's entire tenure, and crime is down nearly across the board this year. 

Click below for the annual breakdown:

Continue reading "New York City could lose thousands of officers" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: City Hall, Crime elsewhere, Top brass
        

The news was bad enough earlier this week. The Baltimore mayor's proposed budget could mean eliminating up to 200 city police officers, ground the helicopter and the marine unit and permanently stable the horses.

But Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III made a far more dire pronouncement on Thursday (he's at left in a photo by The Sun's Amy Davis). A $16 million cut would actually mean cutting up to 300 police officers. That's because the folks suggesting the cuts picked cops from units such as tactical, where some of the department's most experienced -- and thus highest paid -- officers can be found.

City police are unionized, and that means cuts come from the bottom up. You'd have to fire two rookie cops to meet the salary savings of one veteran. And you wouldn't be eliminating specialized units -- you'd be cutting from patro, the backbone of the department.

Continue reading "City's top cop: budget cuts could destroy progress on crime" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: City Hall, Top brass
        

The Velvet Rope nightclub near Baltimore's Inner Harbor, scene of a recent disturbance and then a shooting linked to patrons who had been kicked out for fighting, was fined by the liquor board today. But the troubled club staved off harsher penalties.

As you might recall, Baltimore's police commissioner called for the club to be shut down after patrons stormed the doors after a show was overbooked, leaving paying customers stranded outside. It took officers from several districts to quell the disturbance and club security guards sprayed mace on the crowd. The shooting occurred about two weeks later.

Here is some of what Brent Jones reported from todays Liquor Board hearing:

Continue reading "Velvet Rope club fined; agrees to plan" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake's proposed budget has done something quite unique - it's got Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, Baltimore City State's Attorney Patricia A. Jessamy and Fraternal Order of Police Robert F. Cherry to agree on something, with each issuing, to varying degree, a rebuke of a budget Rawlings-Blake's people have been scrambling to warn is only a worst-case scenario. 

Union leaders accused the mayor of "posturing" and attempting to frighten residents into accepting new taxes by presenting the doomsday scenario. Cherry said this wasn't what "real leaders" do.

"It's unfair to play games with city employees who are nervous about being laid off," said Cherry. "It's even more disingenuous to play these games with the citizens and taxpayers of Baltimore City who demand real answers from the leaders of the city during these tough times."

Jessamy went a step further, calling Rawlings-Blake's proposal "unconstitutional." She said the city can cut her budget but not instruct her specifically how to do it.  About $1.5 million would be cut from the Baltimore state's attorney's office, including about $800,000 in funding for 14 community outreach positions in the city's District Court. She claimed SRB was the first mayor to try such a manuever and said they were "usurping" her authority.

Bealefeld, as we noted here last week, got out in front of the proposed cuts, saying they were "unconscionable." 

Read full text of Cherry and Jessamy's statement below:

Continue reading "Mayor's proposed budget generating anger" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (26)
Categories: City Hall, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

The Baltimore Police Department needs to continue exploring redistricting, is "top heavy" and needs to phase out the rank of deputy major, and should disband its neighborhood services unit, according to recommendations made by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's transition committee for public safety.

The report, released today, is notable not only for the recommendations made by the transition committee, but for the "major immediate action items" compiled by the BPD in its own assessment: police leaders want the city to lift a hiring freeze in the crime lab and for 911 personnel, and would like to give district commanders, who in some cases earn less than the lieutenants below them, a pay bump. The agency has in the past boasted about cutting overtime spending significantly, but officials say that additional cuts cannot be sustained and that additional spending would "significantly bolster the crime fighting efforts for the department."

The agency also criticized the city's new approach to budgeting, called Outcome Budgeting, describing the approach a "labor intensive process that leads to arbitrary results" and saying it asks "groups of people who are unqualified in policing" to rank budget proposals.

In a separate assessment, the transition committee recommended that the Mayor's Office on Criminal Justice, which works hand-in-hand with the police department, look to bolster the city's surveillance camera network by wiring in public and private camera systems, and said it should explore the creation of a volunteer program to assist in running the juvenile curfew center.

Here are the transition committee's recommendations, followed by the action items that the BPD submitted. There's little overlap:

Continue reading "Mayor's transition report for the BPD" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: City Hall, Top brass
        

With Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake's first budget proposal due next week, Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III is getting out in front, saying the target amount the mayor wants to cut from the police budget will force layoffs of up to 300 officers, something he calls "unconscionable."

His comments come with a huge caveat: no one seems to know what exactly Rawlings-Blake's budget proposal actually calls for, other than that she's told members of the council that the department's helicopter, marine and mounted units are on the chopping block. What Bealefeld is saying is that City Hall wants to cut $15 million from his agency and that he can't fathom how his agency can achieve that figure without resorting to layoffs.

Aside from the obvious negatives, laying off cops would be no simple task from a logistical standpoint, given the police union's contract and the fact that the city recently accepted millions in federal funds to hire new officers, funds which would have to be given back. The head of the federal agency that gave them that cash was just in town at BPD headquarters for a press conference to boast about that funding as part of a series of events to promote stimulus spending.

As for what the budget actually calls for? The mayor is holding her cards close to the vest until next week, but her aides are saying that it will represent something of a worst-case scenario as new revenue streams are discussed.

Continue reading "Bealefeld: Proposed cuts mean layoffs of cops" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: City Hall, Top brass
        

The bad blood between the city state's attorney's office and the Baltimore Police Department is well-documented, but in recent years there's been a calculated effort to present a public united front even as much of the frustration continued behind the scenes. The gloves may be close to coming off again. In the past week, prosecutors decided to take the unusual step of issuing a warrant for an officer who had failed to appear in court, which resulted in her having to spend the night in Central Booking. Before that, word broke that Jessamy's office was looking into placing a veteran homicide detective on the dreaded "Do Not Call" list of untrustworthy cops - a distinction that is a career-ender because they can no longer testify - based on a 19-year-old incident that police say has been no secret to prosecutors.

The Fraternal Order of Police tweeted this ominous message last night in response to the recent developments: "Message to the State's Attorney's Office: "A city that makes war against its police had better learn to make friends with its criminals."

Observers are tracing this supposed offensive by the prosecutors office to an incident that occurred last week in Annapolis, when State's Attorney Patricia Jessamy was in town to testify on gun legislation. Former federal prosecutor Steve Levin, who was there to give his own testimony, blogged about the incident, saying Jessamy left in a huff and without giving her prepared testimony. Others who were there claim Jessamy was frustrated that Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake did not give her office enough credit for its work on pursuing repeat gun offenders.

Jessamy's office denied this account when I asked about it last week. Spokeswoman Margaret Burns said there were several meetings on their agenda and that they had to leave for an appointment in the House of Delegates building.

Continue reading "FOP, Police Department believe Jessamy on the offensive" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

News coming out about budget cuts sounds dire for the Baltimore Police Department. At the moment, the police helicopter known as Foxtrot is on the chopping block.

Police already are mounting their defense of the $4 million a year expenditure, with a spokesman calling its loss "devastating." The Baltimore Sun's Julie Scharper noted that Baltimore could be just one of three cities with more than a half million people without a police aviation unit. And given we're consistently among the cities with the highest crime, that does not bode well.

Foxtrot flies almost 24 hours a day and is used to help officers chase suspects on the ground and makes car chases, at least the kind you see on TV out of LA, obsolete. Officers use the powerful light to illuminate crime scenes and to guide officers through streets and alleys.

I suspect in the end that Foxtrot -- which gained unwanted notoriety last year when its pilot helped a state delegate propose marriage during a stunt that involved a mock police raid on a boat -- will remain. It's too high profile to cut, and might just be included on the list as a scare-tactic. Some city council members say the proposed cuts, which include closing three fire stations and the police marine and horse units, are designed to make other fees more palatable.

The mayor is to present her formal budget on Wednesday. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Breaking news, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

It's a busy day, so I'm ripping this straight from the press release while chasing down some other leads. The funding includes $1.1 million for the gun trace task force, $200k for juvenile diversion programs and $500k for a prisoner re-entry program to help ex-offenders get jobs:

(Baltimore, MD) – Congressman C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) today was joined by Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (D) in announcing $1.8 million in federal funding for several crime prevention and enforcement initiatives. The funding will help Baltimore City Police disrupt the gun pipeline, combat gangs and encourage students to stay in school. A portion of the funding will also help ex-offenders develop new skills to land – and keep – a job, helping them to become productive members of society.

The announcement was made from Northwood Plaza, the site of the murder of former Baltimore City Councilman Ken Harris, who was shot to death September 20, 2008, in what police say was a botched robbery. Three suspects, including two teens, have been charged in the crime. The Northwood community was identified by Baltimore City Police as an area that could specifically benefit from this funding.

“Ken Harris could see a better future for his city and wasn’t willing to sit on the sidelines and wait for someone else to make it a reality,” said Congressman Ruppersberger, a member of the House Appropriations Committee. “His murder was a senseless example of the destruction that guns and gangs can cause, robbing our city of a great leader. It is my hope that this funding will take Baltimore one step closer to Ken Harris’ dream – getting illegal guns off the streets, keeping kids in school and helping ex-offenders avoid lifetimes of crime.”

Continue reading "Federal funding announced at site where Ken Harris was killed" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Top brass
        

The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports this morning that the Baltimore Police crime lab is amassing a troubling backlog of cases due to short staffing and a notable uptick in requests from detectives. Submissions to just the 10-employee serology section, which tests for the presence of bodily fluids, were up 42 percent last year. Roughly 3,100 cases are now awaiting lab testing for bodily fluids, 3,000 cases are awaiting drug analysis, and more than 400 cases need to have DNA analyzed by one of the six DNA analysts on staff.

Administrative Judge Pamela White said in court that she saw a stream of DNA delays in one week - roughly 10 cases.

Continue reading "City police crime lab is swamped" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

Can a retired drug cop from Prince George's County oust the longtime delegate Joseph F. Vallario Jr., who has chaired the House Judiciary Committee in Annapolis for 17 years? It's possible. Police fraternal groups from across the state are expected to back Percel O. Alston, known as "Percy" in his primary challenge in September.

It could the first serious challenge that Vallario, 73, (at left, in a photo by The Sun's Amy Davis) has encountered since he became a delegate back in 1975. Vallario has incurred the wrath of police chiefs, prosecutors, victim's rights groups and women's organizations for repeatedly blocking legislation favored by law enforcement groups. He has stood in the way of proposed laws to broaden the definition of gang members, to stiffen gun laws and help get drunk drivers off the streets.

The defense attorney has been accused of putting criminals -- his potential clients -- ahead of the citizens, and Alston, a retired 24-year veteran of the Prince George's County Police Department and four-year head of its Fraternal Order of Police, calls that a "conflict of interest." He told me: "It seems that a lot of legislation that will affect him as a defense attorney is legislation he will oppose."

Continue reading "Can an ex-cop oust Vallario?" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere, Top brass
        

I'm a day late posting this, but hey, it's not like we're sitting on our hands over here. WBAL-TV was apparently profiling Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III's two-year old Diamond Standard training program, following 40 officers in training at Lexington Market, when two separate robbery attempts occurred right in front of them. (Watch the video link to see the arrest in progress)

"Either they didn't know and they didn't see us, or they didn't care," said Sgt. Dennis Raftery, a former homicide detective who works in the department's education and training section.

Bealefeld, who likes to talk tough about "bad guys," told WBAL's Kerry Cavanaugh: "If they want a fight, we're gonna fight."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Downtown, Top brass
        

Former Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Clark's case will be argued before the state's highest court Friday morning, and you can watch the arguments on a live web cast here. (Say what you will about the state's criminal justice system, but these webcasts and the Maryland Judiciary Case Search database are great tools). Clark was removed from office in 2004 by then-Mayor, now Governor, Martin O'Malley, amid allegations of domestic violence that were later deemed unfounded. After several rounds of lawsuits and appeals, courts have found that he was wrongfully terminated. But he has been denied monetary damages or the ability to be reinstalled as commissioner, and those points will be argued by his attorneys Dwight Pettit and Neal Janey. It will be the second time his attorneys will take the case before the Court of Appeals, which found in his favor last time.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: City Hall, Top brass
        

The agency won't comment, but I'm told that the Baltimore Police Department's chief of administration, Ann Wells, is no longer with the agency as of this morning or yesterday afternoon. It's not clear whether she resigned, was laid off, or terminated. Wells' job was a civilian position, but she was listed as the second-highest-ranking official on the administrative side, below Deputy Commissioner Deborah Owens, and the sixth highest-ranking official in the agency overall (at least according to an ever-shrinking list of command staff members published in graduation/promotion ceremonies). The dismissal may be part of a general downsizing both in the agency's administrative ranks and its command staff. Numerous command-level positions have been left vacant or merged with other positions as officers leave or are fired (for example, a replacement was not named when Col. Dean Palmere moved from heading the Violent Crimes Impact Division to the broader Criminal Investigations Division, which oversees homicide, the crime lab, sex offense unit, etc. Instead, they made VCID a subsection under CID) and the agency has been aggressively pushing desk-duty officers into operations functions to keep cops on the street. Then again, you wouldn't think something like that would elicit a "no comment on personnel actions" response from the agency...

We'll post more as we hear it.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Top brass
        

With the South Baltimore pub crawl stabbing dominating the Internet, just wanted to point out a few other important crime stories of the day:

Julie Bykowicz write about testimony in Annapolis seeking tougher gang laws. Complaining that legislation passed two years ago has resulted in only one conviction (a guilty plea), law enforcement officials including Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy are urging changes to better define gangs and stiffen penalties. (At left, Jessamy testifies in Annapolis on Tuesday in a photo taken by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor).

Continue reading "Prison, gang reform and other crime news" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Gangs, Top brass, Witness intimidation
        

A four-year-old lawsuit alleging a broad pattern of abuse by Baltimore police and state prison officials appears to be nearing an end with a settlement. My colleague Justin Fenton reports today that the state and NAACP have agreed on closure to one part of the suit -- strip searches and the detentions of innocent people in jail (Baltimore Sun staff photo at left).

A second, more complicated part of the litigation alleging city police for years arrested many people without proper authorization is nearing completion, according to people involved in the case. Both issues target a zero-tolerance policing strategy that called for arresting people on the pettiest of crimes. Many complained they were innocent but got caught up in a broad web, and it led to overcrowded jails and detention centers.

Angry judges set people free when their hearings were delayed more than 24 hours and prosecutors complained that the cases being brought to them were weak. The city State's Attorney's Office declined to prosecute hundreds if not thousands of arrests, and even though thsoe people never got records, they still ended up being detained for hours in the dingy booking center.

The past practice has been criticized by the current police commissioner, Frederick H. Bealefeld III, as a bad way to police a city. He favors targeting guns and drugs and having his officers use common sense and discretion in enforcing so-called quality of life crimes. Justin reported:

In recent years, officials have trumpeted a steady reduction in arrests and arrests without charges. More than 108,400 arrests were made in 2005, a figure that dropped to 77,600 in 2009.

Here are some complaints spelled out in the lawsuit:

Continue reading "Agreement reached in lawsuit against police, prisons" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Prisons, Top brass
        

Just as Baltimore's liquor board was hearing testimony about a troulbed Fells Point bar, a city police major handed the chairman a letter asking members to suspend the liquor license of another establishment -- a nightclub on Redwood Street.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III then held a news conference where he told how promoters at the Velvet Rope oversold a concert to Yo Gotti Wednesday night and that up to 300 angry ticket-holding patrons stormed the front door. It took 50 cops to quell the disturbance. The board will schedule a hearing but cannot pull the license beforehand.

Meanwhile, the board dealt with another troublespot -- Chubbies -- which got its license yanked for a year for serving alcohol after hours and for not closing at its designated time, 1 a.m. Community residents have been up in arms over the Eastern Avenue club for quite some time.

The Sun's Brent Jones covered the hearing and wrote (here is a longer version of his story):

About a dozen community members attended the revocation hearing. Victor T. Corbin, president of Fells Prospect Community Association, testified that residents have repeatedly complained about late-night parties at the club, including one on the Fourth of July last year.

A city police officer testified that he responded to a call for loud noise at Chubbies in the early morning of July 5 and found customers drinking after hours.

"We would have preferred to have it revoked, but considering the circumstances and how long of a fight we've had, this is better than what we've had in the past," Corbin said. "Maybe [the owner] will decide to relocate and say this is not worth doing business."

[Baltimore Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum]

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Downtown, Southeast Baltimore, Top brass
        

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake, in her first state of the city address, vowed to keep the police force staffed and possibly scale back the rolling closures of fire stations, despite facing what she described as a "devastating" deficit.

Here are some highlights from her speech regarding public safety (photo by The Sun's Algerna Perna):

"On February 11th, at 1:14am, firefighters responded to a 2-alarm fire in the 1700 block of Montpelier. A woman was trapped in a rowhouse and overwhelmed by smoke. A slow response would have set the whole block ablaze and caused certain death. Instead, our firefighters battled the blaze in 3 feet of snow and Truck 5 rescued a woman off of a second story porch roof.. The Firefighters of Truck 5 are here today. From the bottom of my heart, and on behalf of every single person in Baltimore, thank you.

"By making everything a priority, nothing is a priority. Our limited resources have been spread too thin, in too many areas. As a result, we now inherit a devastating $120 million deficit.

"Let me tell you what $120 million means to Baltimore: It is seventeen-hundred Police Officer Positions – half of our police force. It is 100% of our firefighting force. It is the combined general fund budgets of Health, Recreation and Parks, Housing and Libraries. $120 million equals twenty-two-hundred City employees or 55% of our civilian workforce.

More of the mayor's remarks on police and fire:

Continue reading "Mayor faces cuts, vow to to maintain police" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

Asked by WBAL radio host Ron Smith this evening whether he had a good relationship with Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings Blake, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said she "gets" public safety and they're "going to get along fine." Just about the same kind of lukewarm endorsement she gave him when she said she would keep him around because his numbers spoke for themselves and, well, leaving it at that. Smith then asked if Bealefeld was an at-will employee.

"Sure," Bealefeld said. "I also have a great contract. God bless the laywers."

So what about that contract? I decided to fish out my copy of it to review the areas covering Bealefeld's termination or departure from the agency. I'm no lawyer, but the contract does seem pretty favorable regardless of the circumstances under which he exits, and there is language built in such that his agreement is immune from whatever happens in the ongoing legal drama regarding former Police Commissioner Kevin Clark. Technically, Bealefeld's contract calls for him to be commissioner until 2014, but no one has served that long since Donald Pomerlau's reign from 1966 to 1981, so it's a safe bet that unless Bealefeld rides off into the sunset on his own terms, this may become an issue at some point.

Here's how the contract outlines termination:

Continue reading "About that contract..." »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Top brass
        

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said in a radio interview this afternoon that the police department is scaling back the security detail outside of former Mayor Sheila Dixon's house, which the Sun wrote last week remained intact during a blizzard and despite her resignation as part of sentencing for a criminal conviction.

"Like any of the other security details that we're associated with, they have to be phased out, and it has to be done in an appropriate way. You have to evaluate what the security concerns are... that's not an unusual practice. It's not something that's not without precedent," Bealefeld told Ron Smith on WBAL 1090 AM.

In our article, we noted that Mayor Kurt Schomke said his detail remained intact for a few weeks - and his house was promptly burglarized not long after. Sources told me that after the story, and subsequent editorial, appeared in the paper, police altered the deployment. For obvious reasons, I won't get into the specifics, but its fair to say its being scaled back.

"It's a balance," Bealefeld told Smith. "We've altered the way the deployment is conducted, and it's different from what it was. As we progress along, it'll change according to those assessments. It's a matter of transitioning from what she had, to eventually getting and having no security there at all."

Bealefeld also chafed at the notion that last weekend's snow was the reason that crime was muted over the past week. He noted that there was looting in 1979 and "cops got a pinch for that." "This team of people deserve a huge amount of credit for keeping this city functioning during that critical time," he said. "... Their work shouldnt' be cheapened by theories about cold weather and barometric readings."

Of course, as we've noted in this space multiple times, there were six homicides during the first two major snow storms that hit the area this season, including two on the weekend of Feb. 6-7, so it's hard to chalk up the past eight murder-free days solely to the elements.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall, Top brass
        

City Councilman Bernard C. "Jack" Young has been chairman of the City Council's public safety and health committee since 2007, and next week he is expected to be elevated to City Council president to fill the vacancy created when Stephanie Rawlings-Blake became mayor. Young, an East Baltimore Democrat, has called investigative hearings to grill police about various issues and in January 2009 was escorted out of a commanders meeting. Young addressed his stint on the public safety committee and his relationship with the Police Department in a brief question-and-answer session with the Baltimore Crime Beat.

Q: What were some your accomplishments as the chair of the public safety committee?

A:  Mostly the issues that we focused on were, police shootings, naming officers involved in shootings. There were [also] investigative committees about how they discipline police officers. Transparency with the Police Department has been one of the issues that I've been working on, and I think they're a bit more transparent than they were.

Q:  Do you think the city is on the right track with its public safety strategy?

A:  I think we're pretty much on the right track, with the exception that I think we need to put more focus on community policing. When you have officers on these beats, they get to know their area and their district. That would foster a better working relationship - they know the good, the bad, and they know the ugly. Also, trying to reconnect with our schools so students will not have the attitude that police officers are against us. I heard students say, 'I don't talk to them, all they want to do is lock us up.' Under Officer Hite [Col. Rick Hite, who retired last year], they were starting to look at officers as Officer Friendly again.

Q:  What are some unanswered questions you still have based on your experience leading the public safety committee?

A:  As you know, the homicides. Those homicides stats - we have all these people that are still at the medical examiner, whose deaths have not been ruled, and we need to know so we know whether we have the correct homicide stats. They say crime is down, but most people in the community don't feel crime is down. We want hard, factual numbers.

I continue to support Commissioner Bealefeld. The incident that happened [when he was escorted from the Comstat meeting] is behind me, and it was always behind me. I never exposed it to the media, and I still want to know how it was done.

Q:  You were pretty upset at the time..

A:  I was a little upset. But I really want to work in cooperation with Commissioner Bealefeld and our new mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, to work as partners to come up with priorities.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall, Top brass
        

Continue reading "Public safety transition committee convenes" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall, Top brass
        

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III and incoming mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake will be in Annapolis today to testify about guns and other crime issues.

The Senate Judiciary Proceedings Committee is holding hearings on a broad range of law enforcement issues, including hearing testimony on a bill that would restrict police in strip searching suspects in public.

Bealefeld is to testify on tougher penalties for gun offenders. Bad guys with guns is the top cop's running theme. You might remember that he once busted two guys with guns but even after they pleaded guilty a judge gave them no jail time.

Here's the schedule for the 2 p.m. hearings at 2 East Miller Senate Building, 11 Bladen Street, Annapolis:

Continue reading "Crime day in Annapolis" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
        

I reported this via Twitter on Friday, but it merits a mention here as well. William Davis, who has been acting major of the Southeast District since mid-October, has been officially given the title permanently. This district includes Fells Point, Canton, Little Italy, McElderry Park, Greektown and Highlandtown. You may remember that Davis took over the position when then-Maj. Roger Bergeron was suspended amid a probe of his office computer, and Bergeron eventually accepted a demotion and a transfer to the Western District. 

Davis was "Johnny on the spot" since taking over, community leader Melissa Techentin told me, and I personally bumped him several times at community meetings or on the streets. I was with friends at a bar in the Fells Point area when we saw flashing police lights, and I ran outside and there was Davis, helping officers with a traffic stop. Another time, when British journalist Mark Hughes visited the city, we went to a shooting scene and saw Davis. But there were also whispers that Southwest District Maj. Tony Brown was being considered.

Officers with long memories have been quick to remind me of a scandal from 14 years ago involving Davis and Orioles tickets that was covered by the CityPaper years later when Davis received a promotion from then-Commissioner Edward T. Norris (UPDATE: The Sun reported about the incident at the time, but Davis' name didn't come out). While Davis is now among the top ranks of the department, one of the others officers involved in the incident, Gerald Tarud, left the department and is now a defense attorney. You'll note that one of the other officers singled out in that article, Deborah Owens, is now deputy commissioner, and the officer who filed a discrimination complaint against her, Johnny Delgado, is now major of the Northwest District.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Southeast Baltimore, Top brass
        

Today we reported on a reversal by the Police Department, reinstating the decades-long policy of naming officers who shoot or kill. Police quietly began withholding the names - possibly in violation of state law - in late 2008, and in January 2009 we got them to confirm that it was in fact a policy shift. To many, it wasn't so much about knowing any individual officer's name, but the symbolism of a department that was seeking to rebuild trust with the community seemingly on a whim deciding to restrict the information. They hit plenty of stumbling blocks, including the admission that none of the 23 threats against police that they had used to justify the change were related to police shootings. A cat-and-mouse game ensued, redacting names from public documents, or writing only an officer's badge number in charging documents.

Policies vary from city to city, but all Maryland departments release the names and St. Louis police just reversed their policy and no longer withhold them. "There will be times when, to protect cases or lives, the department will withhold information that should be available to the public. But, those occasions should be rare," said St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay.

So what caused yesterday's change of heart? The department says publicly that they were just taking their time to weigh opinions from various stakeholders. But that doesn't hold much water considering the Fraternal Order of Police and the incoming mayor weren't even given a heads up until the decision had been made. It probably has more to do with Stephanie Rawlings-Blake about to take over as mayor - of course, we reminded everyone on this blog earlier this month that Rawlings-Blake was against the police department's decision last year to withhold the names, though aides told me that as a remedy she was leaning towards posting investigative documents online and keeping the names restricted. Will this work as a pre-emptive strike by the police department or will she push her idea?

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Police shootings, Top brass
        

The Baltimore police union agreed to a new contract with the city on Thursday that calls for alterations in shifts that could help ease staffing shortages in districts.

The Sun's Julie Scharper details those provisions in her story today. The agreement has to be voted on by the rank and file on Tuesday. Aside from scheduling and avoidng forced days off to help the city's budget crunch, the officers won two other key provisions:

The police commissioner will have to meet with union officials and revisit a policy that prohibits cops from working overtime in establishments that sell alcohol. Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III implemented this rule to avoid conflicts of officers working for bars and his feeling they were more accountable to the owners then do the department.

In some areas of the city, such as Federal Hill, bar owners pay into a pool and the city assigns extra-duty officers to patrol neighborhoods that are popular night spots. That way, the bars get the protection and the officers still answer to the city. But some police say this has cut into their livelihood and some bar owners don't like loing control over their hires.

Also, police officers put on the so-called do-not-call list kept by prosecutors cannot be fired simply for being on the list. Prosecutors prohibit such officers from testifying in court and officers end up on the list at the discretion of the State's Attorney's Office, sometimes even if they haven't been disciplined by the department. But it means that cops on the list can't make arrests because they can't follow through in court.

City and union officials tell me that no officer has ever been fired simply for being on the list, so this contract provision is a pre-emptive strike in case a commander decides a cop should be fired because he can't perform all his duties.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Top brass
        

One of the most tragic and painful cases I can remember ended today when a man pleaded guilty in connection with the killing former Baltimore Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm's stepdaughter. Details of the plea deal are here (it appears she was killed by someone she knew in a dispute over drugs) and the New York Times profile is here.

It was just last near that the body of Nicole Desiree Sesker was found in Northwest Baltimore, the day after her 39th birthday. In 2005, the New York Times talked at length about her for a story on Baltimore, and how a big-city police chief handled a relative strung on drugs and surviving by prostitution. Above, in a picture by The Sun's Andre Chung, police officers question Sesker after arresting a drug suspect in Northwest Baltimore a day after The Times story was published.

Hamm, a product of Baltimore, was one of the first police commanders I had ever met, and he called me angry about one of the first stories I had ever written. He was commander of the Central District at the time, 1994, and I had written about a man wounded in a hatchet attack. It was a short story, but the then-Evening Sun gave it big play above the fold for its early afternoon edition. He thought we had hyped the story, and he was right.

The New York Times wrote about Hamm and his daughter because it showed how, in a city already known for its addiction to drugs and violence, even the police chief's daughter is not immune. Hamm talked about how difficult it was given she refused all help, and when we had reporters go out the next day, we found police, the very ones who worked for Hamm, arresting a man and giving a lecture to Sesker. In the profile, the New York Times ran a picture of Sesker standing on a corner prostituting herself.

A difficult time for the city. A telling story about how drugs has ravaged some neighborhoods and some lives. And proof that arrests won't get us out of this problem.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Top brass
        

I guess you can view the latest ouster (or resignation) of a city attorney who apparently couldn't get a Baltimore police officer fired for assaulting a man in one of two ways: more tumult within the police disciplinary process or top brass wanting to crack down and frustrated they can't.

Maybe it's a little of both.

Disciplinary hearings are supposed to be fair and impartial. It's a chance for a cop to fight internal charges lodged against him at a hearing in front of fellow cops (including a top commander and an officer of equal rank as the accused). It's run like a trial and the board votes on the charges and recommends discipline. The police commissioner can up the discipline but cannot go below what the board decides.

In this latest case, Officer Michael D. Brassell was accused of assaulting a Morgan State University employee outside a pizza shop on Light Street in Federal Hill back in 2005. The victim complained two white plainclothes cops who didn't identify themselves interrupted his private conversation about race and a fist-fight broke out outside.

Both officers pleaded guilty to second-degree assault in court (after a tortuous legal process in which charges were filed, dropped on a technicality and refiled again) by taking Alford pleas, in which they didn't admit guilt but conceded the state had enough evidence to convict them. They each received suspended jail sentences.

One officer, James Odom, resigned from the force. Brassell decided to fight internal charges that would have led to his firing -- assault, lying to investigators and using racial slurs. But at the trial board on Thursday, he was found guilty only of assault and the board recommended a 60-day suspension without pay. The prosecutor, a 19-year lawyer with the City Law department, was promptly fired.

This comes shortly after the city attorney who oversaw trial boards was fired for backdating administrative charging docuements and the attorney who investigaged racial discrimination complaints resigned after it was learned she moonlighted as a defense attorney representing some of the same people city cops were arresting.

(Brassell, interestingly enough, has forged a new career as a sketch artist with the deparmtent and has work in the Walter's Art Museum. He reconstructed a mummy and got himself an interview with Archaeology Magazine).

Now we have a new dispute. Police union officials and Brassell's attorney are backing the prosecutor, Sandra Holmes, who they said got a raw deal by being forced to take a weak case that her superiors had botched by failing to do basic advance work. The bottom line for the citizens is whether the cop should be back on the street or got justice, and for the cops whether they can get a fair shake in their own department.

The cast of characters is beyond interesting. Brassell's lawyer, Malone, used to prosecute city cops as the department's chief legal advisor (he was later the city's labor commissioner) and he went up against the very police unions that he's agreeing with now. He was accused by a former police commissioner of misusing a city-owned computer (stolen from his house in a burglary and recovered with pornography on a hard-drive) and accused by black police officers of conducting racist disciplinary hearings. His supporters fired back that the former police commissioner was unfairly targeting him for revenge.

And the chairman of Brassell's trial board, Deputy Major Dan Lioli, had just gotten off being suspended himself after being cleared of being in text-message contact with an East Baltimore community leader wanted on a warrant charging him with assaulting his wife. The man attacked his wife on a city street and killed her; he was shot by a police officer and survived. Though Lioli was cleared, there still are unanswered questions as to how hard police tried to arrest the man before the attack and why the case was handled at the district level instead of turned over to the domestic violence unit.

On Thursday, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III told new recruits as their graduation ceremony to be above-board and he reminded them, "It's what you do that counts."

Indeed.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Top brass
        

Baltimore police moved to restore some credibility to its disciplinary process by getting rid of its head of the equal employment opportunity commission. We learned earlier this year that Kim Y. Johnson had been moonlighting as a defense attorney for suspects arrested by cops in her own department, all while collecting a $94,000 city salary.

Now, she's either resigned or been forced out.

The move comes just weeks after the department clarified the kinds of cases she could work on during her own time. She was allowed to represent people in cases such as bankruptcy, but not those accused of crimes. Then a website InvestigativeVoice.com invoked her name in a dispute over a falsified discrimination complaint.

My question is when does Johnson find time to be a private attorney when she's got so much work to do in the Police Department? We've seen over and over investigations into misconduct gone awry -- many charges were thrown out because simple filing dealines were not met.

The city deserves a competent and open process to ensure its police force is above-board and working to resolve one of the most vexing problems Baltimore faces, and the cops deserve a system that treats them fairly.

While we're talking about credibility, a city police officer shot and critically wounded a 14-year-old boy Wednesday night on West Lexington St. Police say the boy had been armed with a BB pistol and had just robbed somebody. When the officer pulled up, the victim, a third-year medical student at the University of Maryland, yelled, "He's got a gun," police said.

A department spokesman said the youth ignored the officer's warnings to drop the weapon and turned toward him. The officer fired two shots, hitting the youth at least once in the stomach.

Police have routinely declined to release the names of officers who shoot people, and now are even finding ways to get around identifying them in initial court documents filed along with criminal charges. They haven't yet released the name of the wounded boy, and might not, and will most certainly regard the medical student as a witness to a crime and deem his name unreleasable as well.

All of this will eventually come out in court, if the youth survives, and if charges are filed, but it's impossible for the citizens to ascertain anything more about the incident other than what police have put forward without information that in years past was made public as a matter of routine. The policy of withholding names of officers in such circumstances has been under review for roughly 10 months now and the City Council hasn't followed up prior hearings on the issue.

Police who legitimately fire their weapons to protect themselves or others should have nothing to fear and open process. And the citizens deserve to have information to satisfy themselves that their police force is beyond reproach.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Police shootings, Top brass