Financial disclosures run counter to law, union says
By Doug Donovan, The Baltimore Sun
Baltimore, Mary. -- A new Police Department policy that applies stricter professional standards to the transfer of officers has run afoul of a union critical of its financial disclosure requirements.
Commissioner Kevin P. Clark implemented the policy last month to establish performance evaluation standards intent on rewarding officers with their requested assignments based on objective, rather than subjective, measures.
“We’re getting rid of the old boy’s network,” said Sean Malone, the department’s chief of special projects.
Previous policy required only a request for transfer. The May 28 general order, called Career Program, establishes a system of points needed to obtain new assignments and allows officers to record their long-term career goals.
Points are awarded for various assignments, requiring a minimum of two to four years of patrol work before transfers into specialized units such as homicide, organized crime or intelligence can be considered, Malone said. The policy also includes an application process requiring detailed financial disclosures to determine if an officer would be susceptible to corruption in such units.
“The financial disclosure is an added protection to citizens that officers in the most sensitive positions are not vulnerable to bribes based on their financial situations,” Malone said.
Daniel Fickus, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3, said Clark’s order violates a state law that prohibits such disclosure requirements except for investigations into potential conflicts of interest of officers.
“As far as I’m concerned, they’re on a fishing expedition,” Fickus said. “They’re looking for information that ordinarily they wouldn’t be able to obtain unless an officer was under investigation.”
The application requests the following:
* List all real estate owned by you and/or your spouse.
* List all vehicles owned by you and your spouse.
* List all other income over $5,000 that you or other members of your immediate family have made over the past two years.
* List all outstanding debts and loans, including the loan’s purpose and the lender.
Fickus said Clark’s policy violates the state Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights, established in 1974 to protect police officers. The law states that police officers “may not be required or requested to disclose any item of his property, income” or other assets.