'Problem employees' who carry guns?

Someone please tell Anthony Guglielmi, the Baltimore Police Department's chief spokesman, to use a bit of common sense when making pronouncements ("Council wants data on girl's killing, March 9). In addressing what seems like a city police officer's involvement in the aftermath of the shooting death of a 13-year-old girl, Mr. Guglielmi says "every organization — whether a police department, a doctor's office or an airline — has problem employees."

I don't believe the latter two places of employment are legally empowered to let their employees carry capital punishment on their hips, by that I mean a firearm. A police officer is given extraordinary powers and commensurate responsibility to exercise those powers in the interests of the people they are sworn to serve and protect, sometimes through the use of lethal force.

In the future maybe Mr. Guglielmi can forgo the extemporaneous defense of his agency and focus on the matter at hand, and not compare being a police officer to other types of employment as a rationale for alleged employee misconduct. It sounds desperate and makes the department look bad.

Jim Giza, Baltimore