Ordered by a court, the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office released a list of 305 Baltimore City police officers it deemed to be unreliable witnesses because of previous incidents of lying or obfuscating during trials, even though the prosecutors continued to use their testimony in criminal trials, the Baltimore Sun reports.
The list, representing more than 10% of the 2,900 sworn officers and civilian employees of the department, tripled the number that were on a list called the “Do Not Call” list when it was first disclosed in October 2021. On the new version of the list, the vast majority of officers listed were still on active duty.
The Baltimore Police Department has suffered from pervasive internal corruption for decades, leading to a tense relationship with the residents of the city, particularly the Black community who has been the target of many of the corrupt officers. The current HBO series “We Own This City” dramatizes the corruption of the notorious Gun Trace Task Force, which had a years-long campaign of corruption, drug dealing and death, which likely played a direct role in the city’s response to the murder of Freddie Gray in 2015.