Thread by @ciccolinijulie

🧵5 things we know about police misconduct only because @MarylandOPD was bold enough to start tracking it. A THREAD ⬇️

1/ There are special teams made up of 79 officers in the Baltimore police dept. that have collectively been investigated over 700x. The 15 supervisors have 260 investigations, an average of 17 per officer. This is supposedly a “reformed” unit after a huge corruption scandal.

2.1/ Police disciplinary systems are very ineffective. E.x. Joseph Donato allegedly had at least 66 complaints & dozens of investigations while at BPD. He was accused multiple times of beating ppl in the head w/ a radio. He's also allegedly shot 6 dogs while on duty.

2.2/ In multiple cases, internal affairs sustained allegations against him, but a police trial board held him not responsible. Lt. Donato now polices students at Anne Arundel community college. Luckily, bc of the database, his history isn’t wiped clean

3/ Problem officers still make arrests & testify all the time. One Baltimore officer was reported by 3 separate officers for integrity issues & profiling. Despite having 42 use of force allegations & 34 internal affairs allegations, he's the arresting officer on 25 active cases

4/ Prosecutors still do not track police misconduct like they should & they certainly don’t disclose it as required. In one case, MOPD only knew an officer had a sustained PERJURY charge bc of a poorly redacted memo. Here are three other examples:

5/ Defender databases help clients get better outcomes at every stage of a case, expose problematic officers, prevent wrongful convictions, and fuel a cycle of accountability into the legal system. Every defender needs to start one. You can read more here: bit.ly/3LvHI7n

I've now spent 10 years setting up database to track police misconduct across 9 states. I know they are a powerful tool to change the system and I firmly believe every defender should have one. The software is already built, you just need to get in touch @ techtivist.com

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