Traffic Advisory Sign Briefly Changed To Anti-Police Message

BALTIMORE (AP) -- Public works officials say someone changed a message on a contractor's portable traffic advisory sign in west Baltimore to a profane anti-police quote.

City Public Works Department spokesman Kurt Kocher says the sign displayed the three-word sentence for about an hour Wednesday morning near a worksite at U.S. 40 and Warwick Avenue.

It was in west Baltimore that Freddie Gray was arrested and sustained a fatal injury in April while in custody. The city broke out in riots and six officers were indicted in his death.

Kocher says someone apparently broke a plastic seal on the illuminated sign to change the message. Kocher says the department learned about it when a TV station called.

The contractor was told be more careful securing its equipment. Kocher declined to identify the company.

(Copyright 2015 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)