Baltimore’s WBAL TV reports that some 2,000 red light camera citations were “verified” by a police officer who died months ago. Baltimore police say only external copies of citations bear the signature of the deceased officer, and that internal versions of the citations bear the signature of officers who were alive when they signed them. Still, it’s not clear how the deceased officer’s signature appeared on the copies of the citations that were sent out… and given some of the shenanigans that have surrounded the red light camera industry, I’m sure some will speculate that a conspiracy is afoot. Especially with camera proliferation on the march in Baltimore County. [WBAL won’t allow embedding of its videos, but you can find the report on Youtube]
Dig him up and you’ll find he has an Illinois voter registration card.
Voted straight Democratic tickets, I believe.
I just want to say that in all fairness that the actions of this one rogue officer who continues to issue citations from beyond the grave in no way reflects on the hard work and dedication of the majority of Baltimore’s police officers.
(I’m shamelessly stealing that line from a thread about this incident on a cop/ gun board I frequent.)
Acting police commissioner Rawls has no comment. Although I am assured that the forthcoming profanity to be heard during the next Comstat meeting will be truly awesome to behold.
At least he’s earning that pension that typically GREATLY exceeds the pensions, IF available, that the private-sector commoners obtain.
I had reservations to visit Baltimore harbor in a couple of months. After seeing this story, I am going to cancel them as soon as I get offline. Silly me, I thought the wire was just a portrayal on TV. Any city, or town that pulls crap like this is not going to get a nickel of my money. Are you listening Virginia?
I’m sure that they will “find” the “real” tickets signed by living, breathing officers within the ten days they have to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request. At least some officers will be getting overtime this week.
now THAT is a hard working officer
wish there were more like him
It’s just Robo-signature-Cop hard at work..
All this, and they’re no closer to finding Officer Dozerman’s missing service weapon.
Baltimore police say only external copies of citations bear the signature of the deceased officer, and that internal versions of the citations bear the signature of officers who were alive when they signed them.
So, are they saying that only internal copies of the citations are signed by cops who are alive, but the ones sent out are arbitrarily signed by a computer system? Sounds to me like a few defense lawyers will be having a field day with this bit of news, especially if the signatures aren’t matching and that the BPD is now on official record saying that there are signature differences in the tickets being issued. The second end of that part of the sentence is also odd as a statement from BPD: so, the officers who signed them are now deceased? Someone in the BPD PR department has their head up their ass and needs to put out an official statement before a whole bunch of tickets get thrown out for improper procedures of the ticketing system.