Cost grows for federal investigation into Baltimore police

BALTIMORE —Baltimore City officials voted Wednesday to give the Police Department millions in extra money to cover the civil settlement in the Freddie Gray case and to pay for outside lawyers to handle the federal civil rights investigation underway.

The Baltimore Police Department is already one of the top five cities in the country in terms of per-capita spending on police. The WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team has learned that overtime spending by the department this fiscal year is steep, and the cost of the federal investigation could be just beginning.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced in May the federal civil rights investigation of the Baltimore Police Department to examine its long-time practices. Since then, the department has turned over thousands of documents. More than of a dozen of its commanders and officers have been interviewed. Commissioner Kevin Davis was the latest to be interviewed Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the city's Board of Estimates approved spending $2 million to a Washington, D.C., law firm to help the department handle the federal investigation. The City Council must next approve spending the $2 million.

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