Maryland Agency Accused of Expunging OIS Investigation Records

The Baltimore Police Department is being accused of having a widespread practice of wrongly expunging internal affairs files of officers accused of misconduct, according to the Baltimore Sun .

A public defender wrote in a letter to the team monitoring the agency's consent decree, "This widespread practice of expunging [Internal Affairs Division] files that are ripe for impeachment makes us question the extent to which the BPD is willing to promote transparency, as required by the Consent Decree."

The Police Department's practices "are in direct contravention to state law and undercut the integrity of the entire system and the transparency and accountability tenets of the Consent Decree," the letter said.

The accusations of expunging the records come at a time when citizens of the city are asking the agency to increase transparency of the goings on at the department.