Gun Trace Task Force Report Released After 2-Year Investigation

BALTIMORE, MD — After a two-year investigation, a D.C. law firm has released the findings from its probe into the Gun Trace Task Force. Issues brought to light by the scandal reflected problems within the Baltimore Police Department that left it vulnerable to corruption, such as not properly vetting candidates for jobs and lacking accountability and supervision.

In 2019, Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison and then-City Solicitor Andre Davis commissioned the independent investigation into the systemic and structural issues that contributed to the Gun Trace Task Force scandal, after several members were indicted on charges such as racketeering.

To date, 12 officers have been convicted in connection with the Gun Trace Task Force, the attorneys at Steptoe & Johnson reported.

The officers were involved in corrupt behaviors before being on the squad, the report said, and the culture within the department did not expose them.

"Over time, BPD developed and perpetuated a culture in which productivity—as measured at various times by some combination of the number of arrests, volume of narcotics seizures, and number of gun seizures—was enshrined as the most important yardstick for measuring success and failure, for the Department as a whole, for its police commissioners, and for individual
squads and members," according to the executive summary of the report. "As a result, other important institutional needs and imperatives—such as training, supervision, and accountability—were never given adequate attention or supplied with adequate resources."

The firm's analysis of the Gun Trace Task Force was led by former Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Bromwich and included recommendations for moving forward. Among them were improving the vetting of candidates during the hiring process.

"Several of the former officers [involved in the task force] had been rejected by either BPD or other law enforcement agencies, some of them on multiple occasions, for reasons ranging from failing written tests to making false statements in a background investigation," the report stated.

One former officer — Detective Momodu Bondeva Kenton Gondo — did not disclose during the hiring process that he had a good friend "who was substantially involved in drug dealing, which the BPD background investigation failed to discover," according to the report.

Gondo's dealings with a northeast Baltimore drug crew led investigators to probe the gun trace task force in 2015, and following a slew of indictments that came out of the probe in 2017, the task force was promptly disbanded. He admitted to restraining people and robbing them; tipping off his associates who sold heroin at Alameda Shopping Center to help them avoid arrest; placing a tracking device on a drug dealer, so he and another officer could rob the man when he was out of his apartment; and selling a gun and pound of marijuana to a known drug dealer, according to federal filings.

"Some of the officers had financial issues, both before and after they joined BPD, that were inadequately explored when they were hired and not monitored while they were in BPD," the report stated. "And several defendants reported that they developed alcohol and substance abuse issues, as well as serious mental health issues as a result of their work as BPD officers that went unaddressed."

One of the five areas of recommendations to reform the police department involves hiring.

"We are aware that recruitment and hiring are currently pressing issues for BPD and for most other major-city police departments around the country," the report states. "Despite this urgency, BPD should not for any reason lower its standards or weaken its processes to achieve short-term hiring goals."

Other areas to work on include training, supervision, oversight and accountability. Another recommendation was keeping elected officials out of the operation of the police department.

"BPD commissioners should be provided with the latitude to run the Police Department with minimal operational interference from elected officials," the report stated. " Under no circumstances should elected officials become involved in investigative and personnel matters."

Read the full 660-page report on the Gun Trace Task Force here.