Politics and pandering don’t belong in policing

A recent list by Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby called into question the integrity and credibility of 305 of Baltimore city’s police officers. Her list was presented to a state policing commission that is charged with identifying departmental issues. Ms. Mosby related that because of these concerns, the officers on this list would not be able to testify.

In presenting this list, State’s Attorney Mosby did not relate how she came about this list. She did not explain the criteria used, who she conferred with if anyone, and what she wanted to see happen to these officers. Her list provided no insight, no explanations, and definitely no evidence to support her concerns. In essence, she called into question the credibility of a large group of officers without providing the reasons why.

In response, Baltimore City Deputy Police Commissioner Brian Nadeau, disputed this list and related that most of the officers on the list have no credibility issues. Of the list, he agreed that 22 of the officers should not be allowed to testify. Of those 22, only two still work at the police department and were currently on administrative duty. The other twenty were no longer members of the force.

This situation reminded me of a time during the Director Ralph Rivera’s tenure as police director. Director Rivera and those around him, did not agree with the job being done by the street crime unit of that time, the TAC Unit. Due to his lack of understanding of the city of Trenton and its urban crime problems, Director Rivera looked upon the TAC Unit as a rogue group of officers. In an effort to discredit the TAC Unit, he derisively called them the “men in black” at a city council meeting stating that he did not believe the city needed that type of pro-active policing.

As a Sergeant of one of those TAC Units, I took offense to his mischaracterization. I remember the violence that came over the city after the elimination of the Pro-Active Unit and before the creation of the TAC Unit. Shootings and gang violence became the norm with the homicide record being broken. There was a need for a street crime unit to identify and investigate those individuals bent on death and destruction. The TAC Unit was created to tackle those investigations.

To bolster his case for the elimination of the TAC Unit, Director Rivera created a secret list similar to the one created by Baltimore State’s Attorney Mosby. The curious part about Director Rivera’s list is that it only included members of one of the TAC Units…mine.

This secret list was forwarded to the county prosecutor. Once we found out about this secret list, it angered all those officers and me to have our integrity called into question without any proof or opportunity to discuss those concerns.

I, for one, was very upset by this list. I had spent my career developing a reputation with the prosecutor’s office of bringing solid cases, providing quality testimony and having judge after judge find my testimony as truthful and credible. To now have all of that called into question by an individual that did not know me or even discuss his concerns with me, made me question the type of leader he was. In addition, the officers assigned to my unit were some of the most high profile, well known officers in the department and were known on the streets as some of the best narcotics officers in the area due to their dogged approach to combatting violence and narcotics.

Thankfully, the group of officers named on this list were afforded the opportunity to meet with the county prosecutor to discuss this list. We found that this type of list had never been forwarded before or after this one particular time by the Trenton Police Department. The list did not provide any type of measure that was utilized, did not provide the background or the reason it was created, and did not provide any evidence to substantiate such a claim. Similar to the Mosby list, it was a political attempt to discredit officers in an effort to minimize their efforts and to pander to the public.

Director Rivera’s decision to eliminate the TAC Unit in 2012 was based from his own misconceptions about the TAC Unit and this list. The elimination of the TAC Unit led to unprecedented violence in the city, with the homicide record being broken in 2013 at 37 murders.

I, like most officers, have no qualms about these types of efforts for “transparency” by police departments. With the constant scrutiny, complaints of abuse (whether real or not), and the need for public trust, these attempts for transparency are necessary. As long as these efforts are fair, provide some sort of due process where the officers are given an opportunity to defend themselves, and include measurable, articulable FACTS. In such a situation, officers found to lack credibility and/or integrity should be removed from police work because most of what officers do is based on those qualities.

Personal opinion and public pandering are not ways to improve police departments. Conducting fair and open assessments that include actual officers and whose intent is to advance and move departments forward do.

Anything less calls those efforts into question.