Police chief vows to keep his guard up Past racial tensions lead him to urge some older officers to quit

Bias complaints are down

Many of the blacks on Annapolis force say harmony grows

As the Annapolis Police Department tries to move beyond its history of racial tension, its new chief is trying not to forget its past.

"You can't let your guard down," said Chief Joseph S. Johnson, who has been in the office for nearly a year.

"You have to be vigilant, and I am. Being black myself, I can't be hoodwinked. If there's racism, I'm going to see it."

Chief Johnson, the city's first black chief, is urging a handful of veterans to resign because he believes their opinions, while perhaps not racist, are outmoded.

He has already held one round of conversations with the older officers and plans to sit down with them a second time after the holidays.

"It's just a question of getting people with the fortitude to stand up and do what's right," he said.

"I never thought we had a lot of racist people around here -- just weak supervisors."

Many of the 29 black officers on the 115-member force agree that Chief Johnson has brought harmony to a department once prone to racial flare-ups.

"There was so little trust between blacks and whites before Chief Johnson took over," said Sgt. Robert E. Beans, a black officer who was involved in a race-related controversy five years ago. "Now the people are the same, but the attitudes have changed."

Officer Duane Daniels, 34, who joined the force six years ago and who also is black, said: "There's been intimidation -- and some of it had to do with race -- but a lot of that is changing now. It's not the way it used to be."

A cadre of younger officers, many with college diplomas, are taking the place of the 30-year veterans who joined the force right out of high school.

"It's not that we're better police officers because we've been to college, but the thinking is more progressive," said Sgt. Gregory Imhof, a 14-year veteran who handles internal affairs.

The number of internal complaints of racism started to drop when Chief Johnson became acting chief in 1991, said Sergeant Imhof, adding that he received only one complaint last year.

The department's efforts to change have not come without lawsuits, discord and charges of reverse dis crimination.

Chief Johnson's predecessor, Chief Harold M. Robbins, created five corporal positions and filled them with minorities because, at the time, all 10 of the department's corporals were white men.

Those corporals were demoted after 13 officers, including Mayor Alfred A. Hopkins' son-in-law, sued the city.

The officers, who had placed higher on an expired corporal eligibility list than some or all of the new corporals, successfully argued that the move violated the city code, which provides for merit-based promotions.

In 1984, the city agreed to increase minority hiring and promotions to settle a discrimination suit brought by the Black Officers Association.

In 1990, the department was again beset by racial allegations and distrust.

Black officers complained that they did not get speedy backup from white officers. That same year, the department and its practices were the subject of a state investigation after Sergeant Beans alleged that white officers sabotaged a drug bust.

But Sergeant Beans says the white officers who left trash on his car, knocked over plants on his desk and refused even to say "good morning" during the 1990 controversy now throw an arm around his shoulder or strike up a friendly conversation.

"I refused to say they were my enemies even during the worst of it," he said.

"And since then, several have told me, 'We definitely treated you wrong.' "