AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: JUNE 2017 29 Last March, Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis disbanded the plain- clothes teams that had be- come such a fixture of local law enforcement. The plain-clothes units, known locally as “knockers” or “jump-out boys” were disbanded after seven mem- bers of a gun task force were indicted on federal charges of stealing drugs, guns and money. “I don’t want the jeans, I don’t want the T-shirts,” Commissioner Davis said in a recent interview. He was still furious about the federal indictments. “I want your brass badge attached to your chest. I want the patches on your shoulder. I want you to look like a cop, because I can’t ask you to act like a cop unless you look like one.” While the situation in Baltimore is extreme, many law enforcement leaders are struggling to find the right balance between aggressive policing and maintaining integrity and community trust. While change is generally slow in the world of law enforcement, there’s been a massive shift away from traditional uniforms to plain clothes in recent years. Maria Haberfeld, an ex- pert in police training at John Jay College of Crimi- nal Justice in Manhattan, says that getting “out of the bag,” as officers say when they make the switch to plain clothes, has become a status symbol of sorts for cops. In most places, detectives, who investigate crimes and are not typically involved in patrol, wear suits. Undercover and sting offi- cers dress in plain clothes to blend in with the criminals they’re trying to bust. But starting back in the 1980s, many agencies be- gan creating special units that would handle high- crime neighborhoods with the intention of ridding the streets of guns, drugs and gangs. Commissioner Davis says officers drawn to this brand of aggressive policing are generally go-getters. “These are your A-plus cops, the hunter-gatherers of our profession.” They get more leeway as far as how they work and what they wear. “It’s a subculture within a subculture,” Professor Haberfeld said. “They de- velop this mentality of: ‘We are dealing with the worst of the worst, we are dealing with the scum of the earth, so you don’t tell us how to do our job.’” “They’re given all the toys: the comput- ers, the money, the guns and dress how you feel, do what you want to do,” Sgt. Louis Hopson, a 36-year veteran of the Bal- timore Police Department told the New York Times. He’s also the board chair- man of a group that repre- sents black officers. “Come to work when you want to come to work, treat people however you want to treat them. It’s very se- ductive to a young mind.” In Washington D.C., then- Chief Cathy L. Lanier elimi- nated plainclothes vice units in 2015, saying she wanted the police to be identifiable when they made arrests. Chief Lanier insisted then that the city had no “jump- out squads,” but black resi- dents had complained bit- terly about them for years, especially after a 2013 report by a lawyers’ group found that African-Americans ac- counted for more than eight of every 10 arrests. And this isn’t the first time that plain-clothes squads have had trouble in Balti- more. An earlier incarnation of the jump-out unit was bro- ken up in 2010 as the result of a large amount of money paid out in lawsuits. A Baltimore Sun investiga- tion later documented $5.7 million in payouts from 2011 to 2014 to people who said they had been beaten or otherwise mis- treated. As for Commis- sioner Davis’s latest move, he said he was faced with little choice after some of his officers were found to be engaged in organized crime. “Sometimes you have to throw the baby out with the bathwater,” the com- missioner said. “I was con- cerned enough about the culture of discretionary po- licing that I felt we needed to abolish it and start from scratch in a different way.” Commish says no more jeans, ball caps and t-shirts “They’re given all the toys, the computers, the money, the guns and told dress how you feel, do what you want to do.” The “Jump out Squad” was a feature of the critically acclaimed HBO series “The Wire.” “I was concerned enough about the culture of discretionary policing that I felt we needed to abolish it and start from scratch in a different way.” – Kevin Davis, Commissioner Baltimore Police Dept. We’ve Got Your Back. Rains Lucia Stern St. Phalle & Silver thanks each and every one of you for your commitment to keeping us safe and your dedication to service. Be careful out there. Representing over 350 associations Trusted by more than 25,000 public employees in California Collective Bargaining, Internal Affairs, Criminal Defense, Critical Incidents, Personal Injury, and Civil Litigation Serving all of California 24/7 | 866.964.4513 | www.RLSlawyers.com