The Sun's editorial board must not have read Mark Puente's front page article regarding efforts to address police brutality that appeared one week earlier ("Weeding out 'bad cops,'" Jan. 11). As Mr. Punete notes correctly, Baltimore's police commissioners have had the legal authority to fire whomever they want after the lawful procedures of the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights (LEOBR) are followed.
The commissioner does not have to abide a recommendation of punishment for an infraction that is less than termination or even abide by a trial board's recommendation of termination. The example given in Mr. Puente's piece is the a definitive definition of the commissioner's legal authority to rid the agency of officers deemed unfit to wield police powers. Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III fired an officer who received a trial board's punishment recommendation of a loss of six days leave. By law, the officer could appeal such a decision to the Circuit Court for review.
If the Fraternal Order of Police wants to pick up the tab for the appeal, good for the officer. If not, the officer can go it alone. That's the law. If those who run the police department don't have the intestinal fortitude to protect the image of the agency, don't blame LEOBR, blame the lack of command integrity.
Jim Giza, Baltimore