Police officers resist reform efforts

After the city’s top prosecutor charged six officers involved in Gray’s death, Baltimore appeared to be a beacon of hope for reform. New policies required officers to wear body cameras and follow several other Obama-era proposals. The department embraced the ideas behind community policing, and, as a result of a year-long Justice Department investigation that revealed racist practices in how laws were enforced, Baltimore was put under a consent decree, where the federal government assigned a monitor to insure reform. 

Members of the department undermined every new policy in an open revolt. Some cops decided that if the city didn’t have their back, they’d stop working hard and allow chaos to reign, showing how important they were. Others, particularly plainclothes officers, took the opposite approach: They doubled down on harassing citizens, violating their constitutional rights and even fabricating probable cause to maintain “law and order.” And some cops seized on the moment to rob and steal, creating more disorder