#bmoredoj

[kennethburns]

No one was fired because of DOJ report

There are a couple of reports that suggest Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis fired six people in light of the findings in the Justice Department “pattern or practice” investigation into the police department.  This is not the case.

My colleague, Mary Rose Madden, asked the commissioner if city residents can expect a house cleaning of Baltimore Police Department because of the findings.

What Davis said was:

“I’ve fired six police officers in 2016 alone.  That’s a small number.  But those who have left this agency deserve to leave this agency.  So I’ll continue to hold police officers accountable.  And I do that as much to remove them from our communities as to ensure that the good police officers know that their leadership is paying attention to good policing.”

A year does not begin in August; the report was released publicly Wednesday. Commissioner Davis received the full report less than a day before its public release.

In other words, between January 1 and August 10 six officers were released from employment at the Baltimore Police Department; nothing to do with the report.

It should also be noted here that the civil rights investigation into BPD actually evolved from a collaborative review after six officers were charged in May 2015.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who requested the collaborative review in 2014, initially pushed back on a full scale civil rights investigation until a week later when she called asked for one.