Suspicious 'Gap' Found In Baltimore Police Body Camera Footage

BALTIMORE, MD - The Baltimore Police Department is under scrutiny after its officers are accused of planting drugs before making an arrest. It is the second time in two weeks that such an allegation has been waged due to police body camera footage.

Now. internal investigations are underway and the police commissioner has reportedly issued a memo reminding police of proper protocol and "not to recreate the recovery of evidence."

State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby said that her office was in the process of reviewing more than 500 videos associated with a January incident in which police were accused of planting drugs in an east Baltimore yard when one prosecutor came across a second "questionable" situation from November 2016. Mosby said she referred the matter to the Baltimore Police Department's internal affairs division.

The November 2016 traffic stop resulted in two arrests and drugs recovered from a car, police said.

In the case, a 35-year-old woman was pulled over after her passenger was suspected of conducting a drug deal, according to The Baltimore Sun, which said officers reported smelling marijuana and searched the car.

Seven Baltimore police officers were involved in the traffic stop, where one officer searched the vehicle and found nothing, then another located suspected heroin and marijuana in the same spot after the body cameras were turned off for a period of time and then switched back on.

Two officers were being investigated by internal affairs related to the traffic stop, according to WJZ.

Police acknowledged there was a manipulation at the scene.

"There is a gap in the body-worn camera video that occurs after the recorded recovery of drugs and before the final recovery of additional drugs," Baltimore Police Chief of Media Relations T.J. Smith said in a statement. "We are investigating the incident."

• Baltimore Cop Suspended After Drug Video Released: Commissioner

The traffic stop is not an isolated case for police, who have now been accused twice in two weeks of evidence manipulation.

Multiple officers were part of the January narcotics investigation that prompted the review of body camera footage by the state's attorney, which had to gauge whether dozens of other cases involving those officers could proceed.

In the original case, a policeman appeared to put drugs in a can and act minutes later to discover them for the first time. One was suspended and two were put on administrative duty after the video from the Jan. 24 case went public.

Of the more than 120 cases in which the officers from the January incident were involved, the state plans to dismiss 34 cases that hinged on the officers' testimony, according to the state's attorney.

"The credibility of those officers has now been called directly into question," Mosby said this week at a press conference.

There have been more than 110,000 hours of police activity recorded on body-worn cameras, according to the Baltimore Police Department, which regularly reviews footage but does not monitor all of it.

Police Commissioner Kevin Davis reportedly issued a memo due to the two cases of alleged evidence manipulation, instructing officers that they are not to turn off their cameras during a call.

"In light of recent events, you are reminded...if you are on-scene where a search for evidence or property inventory is being conducted, your body-worn camera shall remain activated until you leave the scene so as to capture all of the circumstances surrounding the recovery of evidence," Davis wrote in an internal memo obtained by The Baltimore Sun. "In the event your body-worn camera is not activated during the recovery of evidence, under no circumstances shall you attempt to recreate the recovery of evidence after reactivating your body-worn camera."

Police previously said that it was possible the January video showed an officer attempting to recreate the finding of drugs in a yard in east Baltimore, rather than planting them there.

"Anytime an allegation of misconduct is made, we take it seriously and investigate it fully," Baltimore Police Chief of Media T.J. Smith said in a statement this week.

"We have disciplined our police officers, counseled them and trained them in accordance with best practices associated with this technology," Smith said. "We remain committed to getting it right. Our relationship with the community depends on it."