Former BPD forensic scientist files lawsuit alleging retaliation for reporting lab misconduct
A former Baltimore City Police Department (BPD) forensic science supervisor has filed a federal lawsuit against the department, claiming he was fired in retaliation for reporting serious problems within its crime lab.
Kenneth Phillips, who worked in BPD's Latent Print Unit for nearly five years, alleges he was terminated after reporting mismanagement and a massive backlog of unprocessed fingerprint evidence.
What does the lawsuit allege?
Phillips claims he reported multiple concerns about the lab's operations, including violations of state regulations, discriminatory practices, and a growing backlog of unprocessed evidence.
The lawsuit alleges that BPD "retaliated against [Phillips] for engaging in protected speech, namely, reporting matters of public concern to federal, state, and local regulatory and investigative bodies, and to the press."
In the lawsuit, Phillips also claimed that BPD's Forensic Science Division had accumulated a massive backlog of unprocessed latent print samples from crime scenes, totaling at least 26,000 unprocessed latent prints.
After filing complaints to the Maryland Department of Health, Baltimore's Office of Inspector General, and BPD's Public Integrity Bureau (PIB), Phillips alleges he faced escalating retaliation from his superiors.
"Beginning in December 2019, and continuing every six months thereafter, Mr. Phillips received substandard Civilian Employee Performance Evaluations. These evaluations were the only negative reviews Mr. Phillips received in his more than forty-year career in law enforcement and immediately followed his reporting of misconduct," the lawsuit states.
Philips makes series of accusations
According to the lawsuit, Phillips spoke to The Baltimore Sun in August 2021 about what he described as "theater" in the department's collection of fingerprint evidence, claiming BPD was misleading the public about its capacity to process evidence.
"The article further explained that the backlog of untested fingerprint evidence had exploded over the past decade and the Department was concealing the problem while failing to conduct any meaningful fingerprint analysis on non-violent felony investigations and property crimes," the lawsuit states.
In December 2021, Phillips also filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleging employee discrimination against employees assigned to the Forensic Science Division on the basis of race.
Phillips was terminated in April 2022.
According to the lawsuit, "On April 15, 2022, BPD terminated Mr. Phillips. The termination came at the recommendation of Deputy Commissioner Brian Nadeau and was approved by Commissioner Michael Harrison."
The lawsuit claims that his internal complaint to PIB was never properly investigated despite being filed nearly two years earlier, alleging, "On information and belief, the complaint that Mr. Phillips filed with PIB on June 16, 2020, was never investigated."
Lawsuit cites report on BPD police misconduct
Phillips alleges that his experience reflects a broader pattern at BPD where officers face retaliation for reporting misconduct, despite reforms mandated by the department's federal consent decree.
The lawsuit cites a 2020 report from the Commission to Restore Trust in Policing, which claims that BPD has a practice of retaliation.
"More than half of the officers who did report misconduct (about 56%) felt that they suffered negative consequences as a result," the lawsuit quotes from the Commission's report.
"The way in which the Defendants retaliated is consistent with a documented pattern and practice of retaliating against members of BPD that report misconduct and has a chilling effect on reporting similar violations," the lawsuit alleges.
BPD has not yet filed a response to the lawsuit.