BALTIMORE (AP) - The monitor observing reforms to the Baltimore Police Department has told a legislative committee that dysfunction in the department is so deep and widespread that it will take longer to fix than anticipated.
The Baltimore Sun reports attorney Kenneth Thompson spoke Thursday to the House of Delegates' Judiciary Committee in Annapolis and called the department "a highly dysfunctional organization." He said he believed it would take longer to reform the department than acting Police Commissioner Gary Tuggle's prediction of five to seven years.
Thompson is the monitor of a consent decree mandating reforms within the police department.
Mike Mancuso, president of the Lodge 3 union of the Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police, criticized Thompson's description, saying "to insinuate that there is an ongoing culture of corruption is irresponsible."
