No-Confidence Vote: Baltimore County FOP Wants Police Chief Removed

BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD — Baltimore County Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 4 issued a vote of no confidence in Baltimore County Police Chief Melissa Hyatt at its meeting Monday night.

In a letter addressed to County Executive Johnny Olszewski, FOP Lodge 4 cited the reasons its members were requesting her removal from office, including the “recent increase in violent crime at Towson Town Center.”

Three youths carjacked someone in the garage at the mall on May 3, according to police, who also arrested a number of juveniles there in February following a disturbance.

“I remain fully confident in Chief Hyatt and her ability to lead the Baltimore County Police Department,” Olszewski said in a statement to Patch on Tuesday morning. “Under her leadership, the department has shifted to a more data-driven, community focused model of policing. Violent crime declined by 16 percent last year and homicides are down more than 50 percent so far this year.”

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In an eight-point grievance letter, the FOP said the call for Hyatt's removal “was a very difficult decision for the membership, but the motion was unanimous."

Among the issues the FOP cited for wanting the chief removed included installation of a camera and lock outside Hyatt’s office, her refusal to take questions at in-service training, her hiring of leaders outside the county, and her handling of five sexual harassment and/or hostile work environment complaints in which the accused remained in their jobs without any disruption.

Hyatt said she has offered focus groups and forums for officers as well as a police union liaison and an email address for “direct communication between any member of the agency and myself," in a response to the no-confidence vote.

"Unfortunately, a small group of my critics from within the current police union leadership have encouraged its members to request my removal from office," Hyatt said in the statement issued Monday night. "While I am disappointed to learn about this effort, I will not be discouraged."

Officers in the department said they were discouraged by a number of things, including something that occurred earlier this month.

Hyatt allowed the name “Tia Bynum” to be read at the Baltimore County Police Memorial Service on May 13, which was “the final blow to morale of the women and men that serve Baltimore County,” the FOP said in the letter, which included this as the final of eight grievances.

Said the FOP in a statement: “Morale has never been lower.”

Bynum was a police sergeant in Baltimore County who died in what was believed to be a murder-suicide in November, along with a former county officer and his two daughters, ages 6 and 7. While her name was not added to the Baltimore County Fallen Heroes Memorial, The Baltimore Sun reported it was read during a list of the county's fallen heroes from the past decade.

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