Police Union

The Baltimore Police Department has suspended a statistics-based management tool that has been a hallmark of the department for more than a decade, saying weekly information-sharing meetings had grown "stale" and "laborious." Using numbers and maps to spot problem areas, connect incidents and discuss tactics, police commanders and investigators had gathered in a room each Thursday for years as part of a process called Comstat. The concept has become a national law enforcement standard, and it was the inspiration for Gov. Martin O'Malley's acclaimed numbers-driven management programs.

A woman shot Saturday in Pikesville by a Baltimore County police officer - after the officer thought she had pulled a weapon - turned out to be holding a replica of a semi-automatic handgun, according to police. Police had responded to the 3100 block of Northbrook Road in Pikesville just before 2 a.m. for a call about a suspicious person. When the officer arrived, he saw a woman standing in front of the house and saw her throw a large rock at the house, which broke a window, police said.

A woman shot Saturday in Pikesville by a Baltimore County police officer - after the officer thought she had pulled a weapon - turned out to be holding a replica of a semi-automatic handgun, according to police. Police had responded to the 3100 block of Northbrook Road in Pikesville just before 2 a.m. for a call about a suspicious person. When the officer arrived, he saw a woman standing in front of the house and saw her throw a large rock at the house, which broke a window, police said.

The weekend tweets from the Baltimore Police Department featured a recruiting video, an appeal reminding domestic violence victims that officers can help, and a message honoring a colleague who died 40 years ago. But when a fatal stabbing at the Inner Harbor went unmentioned on Twitter by the city agency, police union president Robert F. Cherry decided police weren't making the most of their 140 characters. So the Fraternal Order of Police lodge used its own Twitter account to criticize the police tweets on Sunday night, calling them "public relations propaganda" and saying major crimes too often go unmentioned because "police don't want you to know everything.

The Baltimore police union voted overwhelmingly Thursday to reject a one-year contract that would have reduced wages by nearly 2 percent in exchange for five additional vacation days. Ninety-five percent of the members of the Fraternal Order of Police voted against the proposal; they were angered by pay cuts coming on the heels of an overhaul of the public safety pension system implemented by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, union president Robert F. Cherry said. "It's not just a rejection of the city's best offer," said Cherry.

After months of negotiations, city officials and the Baltimore police union have hammered out a deal that would cut $5 million from the police budget while bringing long-sought changes to shift schedules. Under the new agreement, which must be ratified by union members, officers would no longer be forced to work six-day weeks and would gain an average of seven days of vacation, though they would not be paid for five of those days, making them de facto furlough time. The plan would control the number of officers who could take off on a given day, limiting the amount of overtime needed to fill vacant shifts.

City police union officials said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake lacks faith in the Police Department as it investigates the fatal shooting of an officer and a 22-year-old man, and called her demand for an independent review an attempt to "utilize this tragic incident for political gain. " "We too want a thorough investigation of this incident to reveal all the facts of that night's events. However, at this point, this action seems premature," said union President Robert F. Cherry, a former homicide detective.

The police union and City Hall are preparing for arbitration after attempts to reach an agreement to trim $5.1 million from the police budget failed. "Despite our best efforts, we have not been able to reach a consensus," said Scott Peterson, a spokesman for Mayor Sheila Dixon. The Fraternal Order of Police submitted a final offer this week, which city officials say does not meet the targeted cuts. But union President Robert Cherry disagreed, saying, "We've given them a number of offers that would not only meet the $5.1 million goal but exceed it."

Baltimore's police union is calling for an overhaul of the department, describing the agency's management strategy as "outdated, ineffective and reactive" and proposing changes that it said would boost officer morale and reduce crime across the city. Though the study has been in the works for several months, it comes as the city seeks a replacement for Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, who oversaw steep declines in gun crime after taking over in mid-2007. Robert F. Cherry, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said the union wants the report to serve as a blueprint for improvements by the department's next management team.

The union representing Baltimore police officers has endorsed attorney Gregg Bernstein in his race against incumbent Patricia C. Jessamy for state's attorney, saying the labor organization believes he will work "to ensure no violent crime goes unpunished. " The endorsement from the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3, which represents 5,000 active-duty and retired city officers, is not surprising given complaints from the rank and file that Jessamy frequently blames police for bringing weak cases that force prosecutors to drop charges or agree to what some consider lenient sentences.

The Baltimore County police union says county officials have ignored a ruling by the state's highest court to reimburse some 400 retired Police Department employees for overpaid insurance premiums. A Maryland Court of Appeals decision in November required the county to reimburse the employees for wrongful deductions, but in a motion filed Friday in county Circuit Court, the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 4, says it hasn't happened. The union estimates the county owes retirees $572,887.10 through May 2011.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts replaced the head of the department's training academy Monday, as the agency seeks to address safety lapses and restore public confidence following the accidental shooting last week of a trainee. Batts returned former academy director Maj. Joseph Smith to the job. He replaces Maj. Eric Russell, who was suspended last week after the training accident. Police say an instructor mistakenly fired his service weapon and struck a University of Maryland police trainee in the head, critically wounding him. Smith, a 25-year veteran, had been working on an initiative to improve crime reporting.

A Baltimore County police union is suing the county retirement system's board of trustees over a $25 million loan the county took from the pension fund to update recycling facilities in Cockeysville. In a lawsuit filed last week in Circuit Court, the Baltimore County Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 4 claims the deal reflects a breach of duty, and the board did not get enough advice on the consequences of the loan or obtain adequate security. "We have a responsibility to the people we represent, and quite frankly, all county employees should be concerned about this," said union President Cole Weston.

The Baltimore Police Department is planning to hire an outside consultant to develop a "three- to five-year strategic plan" to help streamline the agency and improve crime fighting, city documents show. The consultant group that is awarded the contract will have 90 days to forward a report assessing organizational structure and various challenges facing the department. It will be asked to recommend staffing revisions, new tactics for investigations, and improved working conditions to aid in recruitment and morale, among other things, according to a request for proposals.

Three police officers suffered minor injuries in a police chase that started in Northeast Baltimore and ended with a collision in the Carney area of Baltimore County. A police spokesman said the pursuit began after two officers moved to interrupt a "possible drug transaction" in the 5200 block of Belair Road. Two officers suffered "scratches and abrasions" in a collision with the suspect vehicle, and were taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center as a precaution. The gray Chevrolet Cobalt fled, leading officers through Northeast and Northern Baltimore, with the passenger-side door of the vehicle bent backward at one point.

Anne Arundel County councilmen approved on Monday the first raise for county workers in more than four years. The council unanimously granted a 3 percent pay increase for more than 550 officers who belong to the Fraternal Order of Police, as well as for an additional 1,000 employees in another union whose contract included a "me, too" clause entitling its members to raises if another bargaining unit received them. The county was forced to give the $1.6 million worth of raises, retroactive to July 1, after the Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the police union in a labor dispute.

The head of the Baltimore County police union has had his police powers restored after he received probation before judgment on misdemeanor assault charges in Circuit Court this week. Sgt. Cole B. Weston had his police powers suspended and was placed on administrative duties soon after he was charged in late March with second-degree assault and reckless endangerment in connection with an altercation with another man in Parkville. Police spokeswoman Detective Cathy Batton said that after an administrative hearing at the Police Department this week, Weston's police powers were restored.

The president of the Baltimore County police union has been suspended with pay and stripped of his police powers after an internal department investigation, months after he received probation before judgment on misdemeanor assault charges, a department spokeswoman said. Sgt. Cole B. Weston, who has led the Baltimore County Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 4 for 12 years, will be suspended pending an administrative hearing that has not yet been scheduled, said Elise Armacost, a department spokeswoman.

The Baltimore County police officer injured when a 16-year-old allegedly attempted to flee in a stolen minivan in Towson over the weekend is an 18-year veteran assigned to the Towson Precinct Patrol Division, a department spokeswoman said. An Officer Worden attempted to pull over a white Dodge Caravan driven by Antonio Rashad Green on Bristol Road, near Stoneleigh Road, early Saturday morning, but the routine traffic stop ended with Worden's firing several rounds after Green attempted to back over him, police said.

A court ruling that struck down a key provision of Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's overhaul of the fire and police pension system will not dismantle the entire law, a federal judge ruled Friday. "The Ordinance will not 'fall as a whole,' " wrote U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis. In September, Garbis held that the city's decision to change the method for determining annual increases for retirees - resulting in less money for many - was unconstitutional and not "reasonable and necessary to serve an important public purpose.