May 24, 2009|By Justin Fenton | Justin Fenton,justin.fenton@baltsun.com
It seemed like a slam-dunk case. Within hours of a car break-in downtown in February, a city police officer was shown a surveillance tape and recognized the suspect. Alexander Lawrence, who had seven previous theft convictions, was arrested with stolen jewelry and broken glass from the car window in his jacket pocket, according to the police report filed that night.
The two University of Virginia students whose Toyota was the target of the theft drove up the day before the case went to trial to observe justice firsthand. But the police officer failed to show, and prosecutors were forced to drop the case - one of 2,800 dismissed last year when officers didn't appear in court.
"We were pretty upset to know that nothing had happened to the guy," said one of the students, Giselle de Guzman, 19.
Law enforcement officials say the number of officer no-shows is too high, and data suggest an uptick to start the year. Although officials point to a recent 75 percent reduction of no-shows in serious gun cases thanks to increased scrutiny, officers' failure to appear remains the most common reason thousands of charges are dropped in District Court each year, the majority involving drugs.
"It's an area we've been trying to fix for a very long time," said Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III. "At least as it relates to guns, we're doing a pretty good job. We've ramped up the level of scrutiny on those cases."
Authorities point to a host of reasons officers cannot always make court appearances, from child care problems and approved vacation to a reluctance after working a regular shift to sit through cases that they believe are likely to be delayed or thrown out. Union officials say that's not a justification - just a reality of police work.
If such explanations exist, they often do not filter up to the prosecutors forced to drop the cases. The Baltimore state's attorney's office compiles monthly reports that note "no reason" given for officer absences in 90 percent of the cases that are dropped.
Some examples from the report:
* A traffic case involving a man with eight prior offenses and who was facing 45 to 60 days of jail time was dropped after the officer failed to appear.
* Charges of assaulting a police officer dismissed against a 23-year-old woman when the officer failed to appear.
* A 27-year-old man was acquitted of armed robbery, possessing a dangerous weapon with intent to injure, attempted theft over $500 and first-degree assault because the arresting officer failed to appear.
"You can't go forward if police don't come to court for cases that are dependent on them," said Page Croyder, a former deputy prosecutor who now blogs about criminal justice issues. "It's not always [the officers'] fault, but the bottom line is that if you're going to arrest someone, you need to be able to testify."
The city police union says the total is not that high given the tens of thousands of cases that flood the beleaguered court system. Fraternal Order of Police President Robert F. Cherry said officers spend hours each week in court outside of their normal work schedules, while trying to balance personal responsibilities.
"We expect and ask our citizens to come forward and testify, and we need to do the same thing," Cherry said. "But these officers have family lives and a lot of things going on. It's not that they don't want to go forward, but [those issues] catch up."
Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy said FTAs - failures to appear - had reached a "critical point" in 2001 with no-shows doubling to 2,182 over the previous year. Police sharply criticized that figure, skeptical of its accuracy and saying it lacked context.
Over the next several months, criminal justice leaders worked to come up with a solution, including exploring an automated phone service that would allow officers to call in and find out when and where they were needed.
A current proposal seeks funding for software that, among other things, would send court notifications to officers' BlackBerrys. About 70 officers are piloting the technology in the Western District.
Data show that instances of officers failing to appear have dropped in recent years, though so have the total number of cases dropped for any reason, as well as the number of total cases charged. A statistical gap makes it hard to discern long-term trends.
But all officials agree that City Hall's GunStat program has had a major impact on making sure officers are present for the most serious cases.
"There is no doubt that GunStat has helped in violence cases," said Margaret T. Burns, a spokeswoman for Jessamy's office.
Cherry, the union president, said too much of the blame falls on officers for the cases that are dropped. He said that if prosecutors feel strongly about a case, they should work harder to lobby judges for postponements. Defendants sometimes request multiple postponements but ask that a case be dropped the first time an officer is unavailable to testify, he said.
