It was a day in late spring 2005 when I first met George Tarburton.
The Maryland Transportation Authority police officer showed up without notice in the lobby of The Baltimore Sun. An editor asked me to go downstairs and talk with him. He was a thin, intense man with a lot on his mind.
Tarburton, who was assigned to the detail that protects the port of Baltimore, was worried that the security at the marine terminals was riddled with holes that made it vulnerable to attack. He wanted to talk with somebody, anybody who could bring the problem to the attention of the public and the people who make decisions in this state. He didn't think he could do that by going through channels because he had come to distrust the top management of a police force headed by a chief whose primary qualification was his delivery of a union endorsement to the governor at the time.
As I listened to Tarburton, I came to sense that this was a man who was not settling scores or seeking publicity. He was genuinely concerned, and he was willing to do what it took to prove his case - showing me the security gaps, the faulty equipment, the gaping vulnerabilities in port security. He introduced me to fellow officers who confirmed his accounts. I never heard him utter a word that was untrue.
One of the things he pointed out was the wooden dummy security camera that was posted along the fence of the Dundalk Marine Terminal. A photo of that camera became the visual symbol of the laxity of the port's defenses. I'm sure that picture is much better remembered than the July 2005 article by Greg Barrett and me that exposed the multiple failings in port security.
That article could not have been written without George Tarburton, but his name appeared nowhere in it. I agreed to protect his confidentiality and those of several other officers as my sources.
The article sent shock waves through the port, state government and, most of all, the Maryland Transportation Authority police. It was a public embarrassment for its chief, a former city police union official named Gary McLhinney. He vowed to do whatever it took to root out the people who blew the whistle on his department.
McLhinney, who has since moved on, won. Tarburton lost. Somebody Tarburton unwisely took into his confidence fingered him, and his 16-year career with the transportation police was effectively over. He would eventually resign to avoid being fired. He never gave up the names of the other officers who talked.
