So Many Problems at the Baltimore Police Department

The Baltimore city council
held a hearing with the police commissioner, Anthony Batts, and
several other high-ranking officials. Council members probed how
police officers actually made stops and police brass insisted they
expected constitutional policing. The police commanders also said
they wanted more cops to handcuff people while stopping them, for
safety. Asked about the same people being stopped multiple times by
cops, one deputy commissioner called it a “delicate situation,”
saying he and the other commissioners didn’t want cops “to
terrorize the citizens.”

The meeting came after a Baltimore Sun investigation
into the number of lawsuits against police claiming excessive
force. Residents also complained about a 30 day rule cops use to
keep the property of people they put in jail. Property taken by
cops has to be claimed within 30 days or it’s forfeited, even if
the property owner is being kept in jail or otherwise away from hi
things for longer than that. Duane Davis, who was arrested for
putting a toilet in front of the local courthouse and regularly
films cops, said he’s had his cameras taken away that way.

One council member, Warren Branch, relayed in one instance
seeing cops enter a man’s home and search his refrigerator after
detained him, and in another a cop poking a handcuffed man later
released. The police brass there said they’d never heard of it. At
the time, Branch said he reported both incidents to commanders,
including one lieutenant colonel, Dan Lioi, was promoted with two
other commanders in 2013 to get the murder rate down, but, as the

Baltimore City Paper reports:

Since then, two of the three have left the department and have
been charged with crimes. Lioi currently faces assault charges in
Harford County related to a dispute with his wife. When Harford
County deputies seized five guns from Lioi’s residence, they found
that one had previously been held by Baltimore City police as
evidence. There has been no public explanation of how the gun got
to Lioi’s house or how the Baltimore Police evidence control
section lost it. The incident is allegedly under
investigation. 

Last week [Clifton] McWhite was charged with theft because he
allegedly claimed academic credentials he had not earned, which got
him a pay bump. He had resigned abruptly in April after 19 years on
the job. His lawyer told the Sun that he is a victim, as he did not
realize his credentials came from a diploma mill.

The Department of Justice says it will investigate the alleged
pattern of excessive force used by the Baltimore Police Department,
but residents hope other issues are addressed to. Talking about his
experiences having his property seized, Davis told the city
council: “The Justice Department is coming now and you’ll have to
turn the records over to the Justice Department.” We’ll see.