By Luke Parker, Chevall Pryce
Baltimore Sun
BALTIMORE, Md. — A Baltimore Police officer was indicted Friday on misconduct charges after allegedly fabricating traffic stops for months to avoid responding to other calls.
A grand jury charged Dequwan Houchins, 30, with five counts of misconduct in office and four counts of falsifying public records, court records show.
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Baltimore Police received a complaint in December that Houchins had been filing false traffic stop reports for months in the department’s electronic reporting system, according to the five-page indictment.
Because Houchins claimed he was busy, other officers had to pick up calls that would have been assigned to him, the indictment states. The filing, submitted by Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates , does not give examples of the missed calls.
After investigating the complaint, detectives conducted an undercover operation during four of Houchins’ traffic patrol shifts, following him for about two hours each time, authorities said.
Houchins, who has been with the Baltimore Police Department for five years and was assigned to the Northeast District , allegedly reported nine legitimate traffic stops and eight illegitimate stops during the four-day operation, according to the indictment.
At times when he told colleagues he was unavailable, he was seen “sitting idle in his car,” Bates wrote. On another occasion, he was allegedly ordering a smoothie, authorities said.
‘This is bigger than one officer’
At a news conference Monday, Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said the alleged misconduct affected more than Houchins’ performance numbers because other officers were left handling calls he claimed he could not take.
“In this incident, it also burdens other officers with more calls for service. This is bigger than one officer trying to make his numbers look good,” Worley said. “And even with the numbers that he falsified, he wasn’t a ball of fire, so he wasn’t really out there doing a whole lot of work, even with falsifying numbers.”
Bates said the investigation began after a random department audit on Dec. 2, 2025 , when officials found that Houchins had made numerous false reports of traffic stops in the department’s electronic reporting system for at least four months.
An anonymous complaint also helped prompt the investigation. Police officials said they believe it came from another officer.
Baltimore’s Fraternal Order of Police , the union representing city officers, did not immediately comment.
The department’s compliance bureau regularly reviews police activity, including computer-aided dispatch data and body-worn camera footage, Worley said. During one review, officials found traffic stops Houchins had entered into the system without corresponding body-worn camera footage or other required information.
“That immediately raised concerns, and the information was immediately reported to our public integrity division for further investigation,” Worley said.
Investigators then monitored Houchins during four patrol shifts — April 8 , April 15 , April 21 and May 13 — for about two hours each day, Bates said.
Worley said Houchins’ use of the electronic system rather than the radio initially helped him evade detection, but it ultimately helped investigators identify the alleged misconduct.
“It’s kind of ironic that in this case, the electronic system probably hurt us [initially], because he was putting the tag in his computer. He wasn’t calling him on the radio,” Worley said. “Had he called it on the radio, what usually happens, another cop will go by to check to see if he needs help on the car stop. So he knew that that would happen. So he put it on the computer.”
The reported stops remained in the department’s computer-aided dispatch system but will be removed from official police activity records, officials said.
Placed on administrative duty
Houchins’ police powers were suspended, and he was placed on administrative duty after the investigation, officials said.
Worley said the alleged falsification was particularly troubling because Houchins may have been unavailable when other officers needed assistance.
“The worst part about all this is, he falsifies records. The good thing is, he never put anybody’s tag numbers or anything in the system. The bad thing is, he was probably sitting doing something else when another officer needed help,” Worley said.
Worley defended the department’s internal auditing system, saying the case showed the importance of comparing police activity with other records. He added that the department will not tolerate fabrication of police activity, falsification of police records or manipulation of data to make officers look better to supervisors.
“This is exactly how accountability systems are supposed to work. We provide police activity data to the public daily because the people of Baltimore deserve accurate, transparent information about what’s happening in their city,” he said. “We trust our data. We’re willing to review, collaborate, and make corrections.”
Worley also credited the anonymous complaint with helping bring the alleged misconduct to light.
“So, we reported on ourselves, because what happens, good cops don’t want bad cops, so we get rid of them whenever we can,” Worley said.
Houchins faces up to 12 years in prison and a $4,000 fine if convicted, Bates said. Court records did not list an attorney for him as of Monday morning.
City employment data published by The Baltimore Sun last year showed that Houchins was hired in March 2021 and made $66,175 in fiscal 2024.
Have a news tip? Contact Luke Parker at lparker@baltsun.com, 410-725-6214, or on X as @lparkernews. Contact Chevall Pryce at cpryce@baltsun.com.
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