Responding to allegations of corruption in a district station house, Baltimore’s police commissioner said yesterday that he is committed to restoring the “internal integrity” of the department and has begun implementing safeguards aimed at keeping officers honest.
Commissioner Leonard D. Hamm, speaking publicly for the first time about the arrest and suspension of several officers from the “flex squad” in the city’s Southwestern District, said he has reinstated procedures that were in use when he left the Police Department in 1996 but were later eliminated. Those include a strenuous screening process, random drug testing and a three-year rotation policy for officers in special units.
“What happened in the Southwestern District is an embarrassment to us all,” Hamm said at a news conference with Mayor Martin O’Malley. “We need to go back again to best practices. And that’s what we’re going to do to see that this thing doesn’t happen again.”
Hamm said later, “Our job now is to be sure that we clean our house, and that’s what we’re going to do. That’s what we’re focusing on; that’s what we’re concentrating on.”
Three officers from the district’s flex squad were indicted Jan. 6 on charges that one forced a woman to have sex with him in a station house office while the others did nothing to stop it. Officers Jemini Jones, Brian J. Shaffer and Steven P. Hatley were charged with first- and second-degree rape, conspiracy to commit rape, sex offenses, assault and violation of official duties.
Three other officers, including Sgt. Robert Smith, the supervisor of the squad that targets mostly drug and violent crimes, have been implicated in wrongdoing in other incidents and were suspended. A seventh officer was already suspended on gambling charges.
“When officers are accused – as these officers are in this indictment – it is something that really cuts at the core of the most important protection that our officers have, which is not necessarily their gun or their badge or their uniform or their vest,” O’Malley said, “but a citizenry that is as committed as they are to upholding the law and looking out for them when they are out there doing their job.”
The mayor offered assurances that all citizen complaints about police will be investigated.
“We will not allow – we will not allow,” he repeated, “any people within this force to sully the reputation or the integrity of the brave men and women who go out courageously every single day and put their lives on the line.”
Hamm said an investigation is continuing into misconduct by the flex squad – a team of officers who worked flexible hours and were freed from routine duties in order to target criminals involved in violence and drugs.
He said the department’s internal affairs unit is looking into sexual misconduct allegations from a second woman against the indicted officers. He said the investigation is focusing on the Southwestern District’s flex squad and not city flex squads in general.
Asked about involuntary searches of officers’ personal belongings being conducted yesterday and today in the Southwestern District station house, Hamm said: “That’s part of the investigation that we’re taking a look at. It’s ongoing, and I really can’t speak to that.”
Detectives who searched the Southwestern District station house shortly after a woman complained of sexual misconduct by officers last month reported finding a variety of what appear to be illegal drugs and other prohibited items, according to a search warrant affidavit.
The document states that items seized included dice, a Texas Hold-em poker set, pornographic magazines, counterfeit DVDs and suspected heroin, marijuana and cocaine – some in a duffel bag and some in a pocket of an officer’s uniform. Drugs must be immediately inventoried in the department’s evidence control, according to police protocol.
The rape charges stem from an incident Dec. 27 in which a 22-year-old woman in custody accused Jones of coercing her to have sex in exchange for her freedom while two officers stood by.
Since the investigation was made public, defense attorneys, prosecutors and community members have said that they have heard for years about officers on the district’s flex squad planting drugs, stealing cell phones and other troublesome practices in the treatment and charging of suspects.
The commissioner acknowledged that such allegations have been raised since 2002. “All of those complaints were investigated. We looked into everything,” he said.
Hamm said he spoke last week to his deputy commissioner about resuming screening measures that he used with his flex squad and plainclothes unit when he was Central District commander.
Officers seeking to join special units in the city’s nine police districts are again subject to polygraph tests, drug testing and a thorough review of their work, Hamm said. Officers’ work will be “periodically monitored” once they have been assigned to a special unit, and they will be rotated off those squads after three years.
“We found out that three years is probably a good enough amount of time for you to make cases, hone your skills, learn how to do things,” the commissioner said. “We also … found out that three years is probably that amount of time that helps stop corruption from creeping in.”
The department is also reviewing which officers are assigned to flex squads, how long they’ve been in those jobs and what their performance has been, Hamm said, adding: “Each one of those officers will be looked at individually.”
Police safeguards
Baltimore police announced protections yesterday to avoid misconduct issues such as those alleged in the Southwestern District’s “flex squad”:
<!– CUTLINE TEXTMayor Martin O'Malley (right) and police Commissioner Leon ard D. Hamm address allegations of officer misconduct.
CUTLINE TEXT–> <!– ART CREDITKenneth K. Lam [Sun photo]
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