Internal GTTF Task Force Investigation Could Be 'Ugly, Hurtful' As BPD Addresses Staffing, Integrity
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Baltimore Police Department leaders Wednesday briefed court officials about improvements in its Public Integrity Bureau and staffing shortages.
At the quarterly hearing at federal court, unearthing the roots of the corruption took on much of the court's attention.
The department introduced Michael Bromwich, the D.C. attorney now tasked with investigating the causes and scope of the Gun Trace Task Force.
Judge Bredar laid out how difficult Bromwich's job would be, to which Bromwich replied he would do his best to untangle a complicated web.
Commissioner Michael Harrison this week ordered the department to cooperate with the investigation, but Bromwich's team does not have subpoena power.
"We are hoping everyone is going to talk to them. If we have any issues down the road of people that they like to talk to who don't want to, we will have to deal with it at that point," Harrison said.
City Solicitor Andre Davis told the court the results of the investigation will be ugly, hurtful and costly.
"Stuff happens. And, this is imperative. We have to pay for this. Full stop," Davis said.
BPD submitted a draft last week of a community policing strategy. Judge Bredar's most significant issue Thursday is getting rank and file officers to buy in to the department's community policing initiatives.
"That's what community policing is. It's not any particular unit. It's the entire department," Harrison said.
The judge and department agreed recruitment and retention remains a problem.
Commissioner Harrison was not in Thursday's hearing because he was out-of-state teaching at a police course.
