Annapolis PD suspends officers who reported ‘waste,’ union claims

A police union is calling for Annapolis’ police chief to be fired after it claims two officers were suspended last week for bringing allegations of waste and mismanagement to high-ranking city officials.

United Food & Commercial Workers Local 400, which represents Annapolis Police officers, accused Chief Edward Jackson of unlawfully retaliating against two officers it described as “whistleblowers.”

“The suspensions of these lawful whistleblowers are punitive and retaliatory in nature and blatantly illegal,” the union said in a news release. “We demand that these officers be immediately returned to service. We call for the immediate removal of Chief Jackson and his Baltimore-based command staff.”

The union also said Jackson’s team “has proven unfit to lead the fine men and women of the Annapolis police department” and should not be handling the internal review of the matter

Jackson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to the UFCW, Annapolis Police officers and union representatives met on March 13 with City Manager Mike Malinoff and Tricia Hopkins, the city’s human resources manager.

“Not reporting waste and mismanagement was not an option,” the union stated.

The news release says Malinoff arranged a May 3 follow-up meeting for the group with Mayor Gavin Buckley, where they shared their concerns.

This past Thursday, the UFCW claims, the police chief suspended two of the officers who had met with the mayor.

The news release says the officers were advised: “It is alleged that during a meeting on May 3, 2024 with Mayor Gavin Buckley, you brought discredit upon the Annapolis Police Department, Chief Jackson, Major Branford and other members of the agency with your comments for specific complaints.”

The union said the officers “did the right thing and retaliating against union members for speaking out about their working conditions is brazenly unlawful.”

It cited a section of the Maryland code that says a police officer “may not be discharged, disciplined, demoted, or denied promotion, transfer, or reassignment, or otherwise discriminated against or threatened in regard to the police officer’s employment” for disclosing information that shows mismanagement and government waste.

“As a result,” the union stated, “two officers are off the street indefinitely and are unable to work while an outside agency investigates the allegations. But in a clear conflict of interest, the investigation is to be conducted by the Baltimore Police Department, the same department that virtually the entire command staff is from. We call for another agency without a clear conflict of interest to complete the investigation.”

The union said the officers should be returned to service, and that Jackson and his “Baltimore-based command staff” should be immediately removed.

“There are ample homegrown, highly-capable officers that could run the Annapolis Police Department with professionalism and integrity,” the news release stated.

Mayor Buckley said in a statement that “Integrity in policing is critically important to maintaining trust. I have spoken with Chief Jackson and I understand an independent process has been initiated into potential internal policy violations. I look forward to seeing the report.”

A city spokesperson added, “As for any other inquiries, I’m afraid these are personnel issues and it would be inappropriate to comment.”

The union’s move comes two weeks after the Caucus of African American Leaders gave a vote of confidence to the Annapolis Police Department.

While the group had previously given no-confidence votes to the department under previous chiefs in 2016 and 2019, it praised the city for hiring a Black police chief. It also lauded the department’s efforts to hire more Black and female officers and the launch of a Returning Citizens Program.