Here's the scene across the street from the Mad River Bar & Grille on Baltimore's South Charles Street:
One young guy stomping after another young guy, arms flailing, challenging a fight, his friends trying to hold him back, the girls shouting.
"That guy just came up and threw a punch at them," one says.
"He hit that girl," says another.
Officer Matt J. Dzambo breaks up the fracas, stopping one group while letting the other walk up the street.
"Don't let it ruin your night," the officer says.
"If I find him later, I'm going to ruin his night," one man shouts.
"You don't want to get locked up for him," Dzambo replies.
The anger quickly subsides as the crowd on Charles Street swells - the smokers mixing with the young partyers lined up in front of the burly bouncers at Mother's and Mad River in a warm, drizzly rain. "They could've easily come to blows," Dzambo says. "When he saw me, his whole demeanor changed."
It's approaching midnight on Friday, and it's the next-to-last time Dzambo will be able to stand in front of Mad River in Federal Hill as part of an overtime stint that helps the bars maintain order and puts extra cops on the street at the business owners' expense. Come tomorrow, Baltimore police will no longer be able to work off-duty jobs outside bars.
Last year, off-duty officers shot and killed two armed men in a garage and outside a South Baltimore nightclub, and last week the city shelled out $50,000 to an Edgewater man who accused six off-duty officers of beating him outside Power Plant Live. In September, a Towson University student was beaten into a coma at Iguana Cantina, which hires between 12 and 15 off-duty cops to provide security outside the rowdy club.
Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III told the City Council that he doesn't want his cops throwing drunks into the street just so they can get into more trouble later. He worried that clubs "have transferred their responsibility onto the Police Department" that is liable for the officers' actions regardless of whether they're on duty or off.
The move has puzzled bar managers such as Mad River's Eric Leatherman. Starting this week, he says more of his bouncers will have to stay outside, and Iguana Cantina is considering hiring off-duty officers from Prince George's County.
"My doorman doesn't have to pull people or push or grab people or throw them outside," Leatherman says of the arrangement. "He says 'Here's a police officer,' and that usually ends it."
