Darryl De Sousa
Darryl D. De Sousa is an American former police officer who served as commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department from January to May 2018. Having served the BPD since 1988, he resigned as commissioner after he was indicted for three counts of tax evasion. After pleading guilty in December 2018, he was sentenced to 10 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution.
Born in New York City, De Sousa joined the Baltimore Police Department in 1988. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Morgan State University in 1997, having deferred completing his degree to join the BPD. In 1995, he was involved in two fatal shootings; while he was found not liable in both cases, they resurfaced once he became commissioner. He held many positions within the department, and was serving as deputy commissioner of the Patrol Bureau when he was appointed as acting commissioner in January 2018 to replace Kevin Davis amid rising crime rates. After his appointment, he vowed to reduce violence and re-introduced hot-spot policing. In February, he changed the management of the BPD, promoting the first African-American woman above major in over 30 years, and introducing several new units, including one to give polygraph tests to special units after the Gun Trace Task Force scandal. He was confirmed as commissioner by the Baltimore City Council on February 26, 2018, with only one member opposing, and he was sworn in two days later. As commissioner, homicides reduced under De Sousa, despite an upward trend towards the end of his tenure.
De Sousa was indicted on May 6, 2018, for three misdemeanor counts of failing to file a tax return, in 2013, 2014, and 2015. The indictment was unsealed on May 10, after which he admitted to the crimes in a Tweet, saying that he "failed to sufficiently prioritize personal affairs". While mayor Catherine Pugh initially supported De Sousa, the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police called for his resignation. Pugh placed De Sousa on paid suspension on May 11 while Gary Tuggle served as acting commissioner; De Sousa resigned on May 15. He was re-arraigned on December 18, where he pleaded guilty, also admitting to a series of tax infractions starting in 1999. Investigators discovered that the GTTF had given De Sousa tips on avoiding taxes, which his attorney countered by saying that he was unaware their tips were illegal. Despite petitions from his friends and family, he was sentenced to 10 months in prison, one year of supervised release, 100 hours of community service, and ordered to pay restitution on March 29, 2019. He was held in the Federal Correctional Institution, Fairton, New Jersey, from May 13 to February 14, 2020, when he was moved to a halfway house; he was planned to be released on March 11, but said he was released on November 11.
Biography
Darryl D. De Sousa was born in 1964 or 1965 in New York City. He had a twin brother. He moved from Jamaica, Queens, to Baltimore in 1983. Initially attending Virginia State University, he transferred to Morgan State University but deferred completing his degree to join the BPD; he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1997., De Sousa lived in downtown Baltimore and had two children.Career
Early career (1988–2018)
De Sousa joined the BPD in 1988. He said he was drawn to law enforcement after attending school in a racist area of Jamaica and only seeing white New York Police Department officers. His twin brother was supportive of him becoming a police officer. According to De Sousa, he wanted to achieve the rank of lieutenant when he first joined the department, inspired by Owen E. Sweeney, a lieutenant he knew that was killed on duty on May 8, 1997. Once he reached lieutenant, he vowed to "keep going". He served as deputy commissioner of the Patrol Bureau when he was appointed commissioner, previously holding positions including deputy commissioner of the Administrative Bureau, chief of patrol, an area commander, a district commander, and a district executive officer. As commander of the Northeast District, De Sousa claimed "we drove violence down to a point where it was probably the highest reduction in over a decade". Outside the BPD, he was a trustee of the Baltimore Fire and Police Employee's Retirement System, a board member of the F.L. Templeton Preparatory Academy, a ranking member of the Fraternal Order of Police, and a member of the National Organization for Black Law Enforcement Professionals.In 1995, De Sousa was involved in two fatal shootings: one killing Garrett "Scooter" Jackson, a 26-year-old, in February; and the other, in December, killing George Thomas Jr., a 38-year-old fugitive; and Melvin James, an 18-year-old bystander. Before Jackson's killing, De Sousa said that while he was investigating Jackson "acting in a suspicious manner", Jackson pointed a pistol at De Sousa, and De Sousa shot Jackson in self-defense. Witnesses of the shooting said that Jackson did not pull out a gun. After Jackson's death, a vigil was held, protests formed at BPD headquarters, and an open letter accused the BPD of "running wild, accountable to no one". Jackson's brother Reginald sued De Sousa for , claiming that De Sousa firing 18 rounds at Garrett, continuing after he collapsed, was beyond reasonable self-defense and violated BPD policies on the use of force. Robert C. Verderaime, De Sousa's lawyer, said that the shooting "was based solely on protection of himself and others from imminent serious injury or death". A jury cleared De Sousa of wrongdoing.
In the killing of Thomas and James, De Sousa claimed Thomas ran at De Sousa and two of his colleagues, Willis Richardson and Kevin Ruth, and began firing a pistol at them. The officers took cover and returned fire, killing Thomas, and a bullet ricocheted off a building, killing James. A bystander said that De Sousa endangered many people on the street. James's mother Doris and Tracey Day sued De Sousa, Richardson, and Ruth for million, accusing them of firing shots "in a wild and uncontrolled manner; without stopping", and saying that only one of 30 shots hit Thomas, while one hit James, who was half a block away. Verderaime said that Thomas shouted profanities at the officers and opened fire, causing the officers to return fire in good faith. The case was dismissed.
Acting commissioner (January–February 2018)
On January 19, 2018, mayor Catherine Pugh announced the firing of commissioner Kevin Davis and the appointment of De Sousa as acting commissioner, saying that "we are not achieving the pace of progress that our residents have every right to expect in the weeks since we ended what was nearly a record year for homicides in the City of Baltimore", citing a record 343 homicides in 2017. City councilman Brandon Scott, city council president Jack Young, and state's attorney Marilyn Mosby endorsed Davis's replacement. Richard Hite, a chief of the Indianapolis Police Department who earlier served the BPD, described De Sousa as having "boundless energy". City councilman Kristerfer Burnett believed that De Sousa being African American would improve the morale of African American officers. Tyrone Powers, director of the Homeland Security and Criminal Justice Institute of Anne Arundel Community College, said that while De Sousa "has the talent and the integrity", he would have to manage a damaged department in the aftermath of the Gun Trace Task Force scandal. In an article on the Baltimore Fishbowla news websiteEthan McLeod compared Davis's replacement with the firing of Anthony Batts by Stephanie Rawlings-Blake in 2012, as both happened amid increasing crime and unrest.After being appointed commissioner, De Sousa said that his "priority as of this moment right now is really simpleit's a really simple priority, and that's violence reduction. Second priority is violence reduction, and third priority is violence reduction at an accelerated pace. That's the bottom line." He also planned to send more officers to the streets during the day and increase patrolling of communities. Maryland state delegate Nick Mosby criticized De Sousa's plan, saying that while De Sousa being from Baltimore may help improve relations between the police and the community, major change was impossible without economic opportunities for city residents and more officers would not improve crime. Police union president Gene Ryan supported De Sousa's plan, stating "If you're not familiar with what's going on there, how can you solve the problems? We need boots on the ground. We've got to regain their trust. We need to get back to a relationship where we are all family again."
De Sousa also said he would re-introduce hot-spot policing, targeting high-crime neighborhoods with specialized officers. While hot-spot policing was previously successful in Baltimore, it forced the city to pay settlements with people who claimed the BPD violated their civil rights. After consulting with the United States Department of Justice, who had been monitoring the BPD since 2015, Pugh hired Sean Malinowski, a Los Angeles Police Department commander who develops predictive policing programs, to advise the department. De Sousa said "I have a real strong message for the trigger pullers: it's that we're coming after them", while vowing to target them "in a constitutional manner". After De Sousa was appointed commissioner, the killings of Jackson, Thomas, and James resurfaced. Pugh said that she "completely vetted" them and they did not affect her decision, while Scott said he had no concerns about the incidents, claiming De Sousa was unfairly criticized relative to Davis because he was African American. Young called the killings "justifiable shootings in the line of duty".
On February 9, 2018, De Sousa announced changes to the management of the BPD. He promoted LaTonya Lewis to a lieutenant colonel managing the homeland security division, making her the first African American woman to serve above the rank of major in over 30 years. He also created an inspectional services and integrity division, led by Osborne Robinson, to give random polygraph tests to special unit members in the aftermath of the GTTF scandal. An inspector general position and an anti-corruption unit, which was led by future commissioner Richard Worley, were also introduced. A fiscal manager position was created to prevent inappropriate overtime. While he appointed Thomas Casella as a deputy commissioner, his appointment was suspended when documents showing two complaints against Casella were leaked. De Sousa denied claims that Alicia White, who was acquitted in the killing of Freddie Gray, was promoted to the internal affairs division. De Sousa later said the complaints against Casella were invalid:
Despite De Sousa declaring the complaints invalid, he said on February 13 that he and Casella agreed to not follow through with the promotion and that he would announce a new deputy commissioner soon. On March 2, he announced that he had picked former Drug Enforcement Administration agent and future acting commissioner of the BPD Gary Tuggle to serve as a deputy commissioner.
On February 13, 2018, the two GTTF members who did not plead guilty, Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor, were found guilty of racketeering. After the verdict, De Sousa said that "our job moving forward is to earn back the trust and respect of the community" and vowed to " out anyone who thinks they can tarnish the badge and violate our citizen's rights". Alongside the inspectional services and integrity division, De Sousa announced that he was considering moving the internal affairs department from the BPD to the mayor's office to improve public perception after the scandal.