JGL Senior Counsel, The Baltimore Sun recently asked Michal Shinnar to comment on recent developments in the Internal Affairs Division:
The Maryland State Police is moving the unit’s sworn investigators to barracks across the state and bringing in new commanders, the agency confirmed Monday. Police spokeswoman Elena Russo said in a Monday statement that the moves are a part of “plans to rebuild and strengthen our IAD to provide quality and timely services to our personnel and to the communities we serve.” She cast the move as part of a broader effort by the superintendent to improve the statewide law enforcement agency alongside his “commitment to ensuring excellence.”
While sworn investigators are being rotated back out to the Field Operations Bureau, the Internal Affairs Division’s civilian personnel will “remain consistent,” Russo’s statement said. The steps by the superintendent, Colonel Roland L. Butler Jr., follow recent news of a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice to remedy what the proposed consent decree calls “unintentional discrimination against African American and female applicants” through the state police testing process. It also comes amid ongoing litigation alleging racial discrimination against troopers of color, which a federal judge allowed to move forward last month.
The department did not directly answer questions about what spurred the moves but said Monday it was unrelated to the DOJ consent decree and the lawsuit. An agency-wide personnel order sent Friday listed the following transfers out of the Internal Affairs Division: two corporals, one detective sergeant, six sergeants, one lieutenant and one captain. The only sworn members being transferred into Internal Affairs on that personnel order were a captain and a lieutenant. The moves go into effect Wednesday, according to the order. The agency said Monday evening that administrative investigations would be conducted by state police personnel, and that “serious cases” would be “temporarily assigned to our seasoned investigators.”
Russo said administrative investigations will continue to be overseen by the Internal Affairs Division command staff. A website for the Internal Affairs Division lists nine full-time investigators who “are geographically assigned to local barracks statewide.” If that holds true, it’s possible those nine were the two corporals and seven detective sergeants transferred out. The website does not list civilian roles in the division. In a Friday email to the agency’s staff, Butler addressed the changes with similar wording to Russo’s statement. He said the agency was “currently implementing plans to rebuild and strengthen our IAD to provide quality and timely services to all,” calling it “another step taken in our commitment to ensuring excellence.
“Best practices, along with the feedback we receive, will remain instrumental in improving our processes moving forward,” Butler wrote. “Thank you for your trust and patience as we preserve our legacy as ‘Maryland’s Finest.’ “A state government website shows Internal Affairs falling under Butler’s purview, in the Office of Secretary, or the Office of the Superintendent, as itis referred to in budget documents. That part of the budget, which also include diversity initiatives, legal counsel, the media team and others, made up roughly 7.6% of the agency’s overall $615.3 million budget in the current fiscal year, according to a state analysis of the agency’s budget. The department’s recently announced proposal to resolve the Justice Department investigation includes $2.75 million being set aside for prospective troopers who were discriminated against, as well as improvements to physical and written hiring tests.
The consent decree, which lays out those terms, is subject to approval in federal court. According to that document, filed in U.S. District Court, 19 Black applicants and 29 female applicants would have been hired if not for the discrimination tests. At the time the Justice Department announced the investigation, the U.S. Attorney for Maryland, Erek L. Barron, told The Baltimore Sun that the probe would examine how the agency hires, promotes, trains, disciplines, and makes special opportunities available to employees.
Micha Shinnar, an attorney representing troopers of color in the lawsuit seeking class-action status, noted that their complaint alleges “the numerous and serious ways that Internal Affairs was engaged in discrimination against officers of color at Maryland State Police.” Her clients, three current and former troopers, alleged a longstanding pattern of discrimination through discipline, retaliation, and the denial of promotions. They are seeking policy changes, a monitor to oversee the agency and individual relief.
Among other things, the complaint argued troopers of color were disciplined for minor or nonexistent policy violations, with punishments that exceeded recommendations and investigations that took long periods of time. One plaintiff in the complaint, for example, was suspended for 301 days during an investigation into an alleged one-hour error in his timecard, according to the complaint. “We hope Maryland State Police will take all steps to ensure this discrimination stops,” Shinnar said.
