The Associated Press
BALTIMORE (AP) - Baltimore police officers commonly allow people they’ve arrested to avoid criminal charges by trading in a gun, according to interviews and court documents.
One police lieutenant recently said the practice, which usually involves minor drug cases, was a regular procedure within the department’s southern district. The (Baltimore) Sun reports that some officers have developed forms to complete when conducting such exchanges.
The trades have gone on for years, officials say, largely unchecked by police department leaders and not sanctioned by the rest of the criminal justice system.
Experts say the deals aren’t legal or enforceable. Residents say the practice promotes unwarranted arrests. Criminal defense attorneys say the deals are frequently broken, prompting distrust of police. Prosecutors say police are usurping the power of prosecutors and judges.
“How is that justice?” asks Cheryl Jacobs, the chief prosecutor of the city state’s attorney’s narcotic division. “That’s not the way our system of justice is set up to work. It’s laudable to get guns off the street, but this is not the way we go about it.”
Unofficially, officers and supervisors say it can be a good way to get a deadly weapon from someone arrested on a minor charge unlikely to yield punishment.
“If you lock up somebody for a joint or one pill, unless they’re on probation or parole, what do you think the court is going to do to that guy? They’re not going to do anything,” one officer, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution, told The Sun. “If you can get a handgun without a foot chase or a pursuit and nobody got hurt, what’s the problem?”
Police say they have recently begun drafting a policy to ban such deals. But some high-ranking commanders defend the intent.
“It was a worthwhile and beneficial effort to take crime guns off the street,” says Maj. Frederick Bealefeld III, the southern district commander. “I can’t apologize for our intentions. Our intention was 100 percent public safety.”
Officers using the practice will either order a suspect to lead them to a gun or allow the suspect a phone call to arrange the delivery of a gun, according to officers and court documents.
“If it’s an ends-justifies-a-means thing, that’s problematic,” says Eugene O’Donnell, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a former New York police officer and prosecutor. “That’s not our legal system. The means matter in our legal system.”
Lt. Jerry Vandermeulen told residents at a south Baltimore public safety meeting in August that it was a common tactic, according to people who attended the meeting. A suspect arrested on minor charges has an hour to find a gun, hand it over and walk away uncharged.
Police say the process almost entirely ceased last month. James Green, the department’s director of special projects, says the department will soon implement a policy against “gun flipping.”
In one case, Cantie Evans was handcuffed March 10, 2002, after officers found six vials of crack cocaine inside his Lexus, according to testimony by Evans and a police sergeant.
Following instructions from officers, Evans called a friend, who delivered a gun in a brown paper bag to a nearby trash canister, according to testimony. The detectives checked to make sure the pistol worked, set Evans free and never charged him.
But days later, Evans was arrested for alleged drug dealing caught on tape. His attorney argued that those charges should also be dropped based on the gun trade.
Circuit Judge John Prevas denied the request but chastised the police, saying that officers who aren’t trained in the law shouldn’t be negotiating with suspects who know just as little.