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Friday, May 08, 2020

City Announces Comprehensive Plan to Ensure Trust and Transparency in Policing, Provides Status Updates in Ongoing Investigations

Salisbury – Chief Barbara Duncan and Mayor Jake Day announced today a multi-faceted plan aimed at bolstering public confidence in the Salisbury Police Department. The Salisbury Police Department Comprehensive Trust Rebuilding Initiative was drafted in response to officer-related incidents of misconduct which came to light in February of this year.

“We had to take a look in the mirror,” said Chief Duncan. “We found an overwhelming amount of positive work happening, but, unfortunately, we also saw some things that don’t reflect where we want to be as an agency. This plan is our roadmap to fixing those things and being a better department every day we’re out there.”

The Trust Rebuilding Initiative is written to reflect the core values of the agency: Partnership, Respect, Integrity, Dedication and Empowerment. By focusing on these ideals, the plan establishes this clear and concise set of guidelines for the agency, all aimed at restoring public confidence:


  • 100% Inventory of Property Room under supervision of independent forensic auditor in partnership with Maryland State Police, Wicomico County State's Attorney's Office and Office of the Public Defender
  • Revive the Citizen Police Academy 
  • Stand up a Criminal Justice Task Force to propose City, County and State institutional changes to law, policy and procedure
  • Update Property Room Staff Structure & Authorities
  • Update Property/Evidence Policies & Procedures 
  • Subsequently Reduce/Destroy Non-Essential Property
  • Launch Police Complaint Mediation Program
  • Launch New Pathways for Citizen Complaints
  • Launch Citizen Review of Police Department Policies 
  • Continue/Expand Community Relationship Building
  • Continue Youth Engagement
  • Explore and Launch New Deployment Tactics 
  • Field a Community Policing Team
  • Maintain Focus on and Successes in Crime Reduction
  • Expand Upstream policing with Data-driven decision making
  • Improve Recruiting/Retention with Public Safety tax incentives, expanded benefits package


Mayor Day said, “I have been impressed at every step by the actions of Chief Duncan and the command staff at SPD. They have proven their integrity, and their dedication to this City by holding every officer in these investigations accountable for their actions, and they moved swiftly and decisively to lay out a plan of action which I know will restore public trust in the agency.

“The Salisbury Police Department is made up of human beings, and human beings make mistakes. That said, when those mistakes cross a legal or ethical line, no title, no badge, no employment or allegiance will prevent justice from prevailing in this city, in this department. Not while I’m at the helm.”

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

how many times do we have to re-set the re-set??? i pray we truly get transparency and truth from these people, but it's still doubtful in my mind.

Anonymous said...

Hey Jake, you WERE at the helm when this happened - as for the rest of what you are shoveling, nobody in their right mind buys it. You are just putting on a nice little show. The skeletons in your closet are real - it’s about time they came out.

Anonymous said...

Anybody interested in some waterfront property in the Everglades?

Anonymous said...

Wherever there's a loose thread, somebody will pull at it.

Anonymous said...

Complete BS, words, words and more words.

Anonymous said...

What's the big deal Jake and Duncan. All of what I read should have been standard procedure in the first place.
Now these two clowns want to make look like something big. Little boy Mayor has a lot of growing up to do. He needs time and he still has Daddy Day to hold his hand.9

Anonymous said...

All this amounts to complete bullshit. Its politicians being politicians. Nothing in this list of nonsense supports any overwatch of the police department or its personnel. All this is is lipservice from two politicians trying to save their jobs, running a completely corrupt police department with corrupt officers.

Anonymous said...

I almost fell out of my chair when I read Jake Day’s quote “this is to prove no one is above the law’. I guess no one but him, right? What an ignorant piece of spoiled sh** he is. Hey Jake, go look in the mirror at your teeth, how do you smile with those things?

Anonymous said...

100% Inventory of Property Room under supervision of independent forensic auditor in partnership with Maryland State Police, Wicomico County State's Attorney's Office and Office of the Public Defender - This should have been happening anyway. What type of police chief comes to a new job and doesn't do an audit of the property room?

Revive the Citizen Police Academy - Just what we need, old people in police uniforms directing traffic. No one cares about this.

Stand up a Criminal Justice Task Force to propose City, County and State institutional changes to law, policy and procedure - Ok, what does this mean? Do you mean "Set up"? And if so, how is a citizen "criminal justice" task force going to change laws? It has to be done in the Maryland Senate. Useless.

Update Property Room Staff Structure & Authorities - Obviously?

Update Property/Evidence Policies & Procedures - Whoh! What an idea!

Subsequently Reduce/Destroy Non-Essential Property - Should have been happening all along. Why in the hell would you have 10 years of property laying around?

Launch Police Complaint Mediation Program - The hell does this mean?

Launch New Pathways for Citizen Complaints - Thats wonderful.. Again, there is a complaint form, why do citizens need a new pathway?

Launch Citizen Review of Police Department Policies - This is stupid. Citizens have no idea of how a police department is supposed to work.

Continue/Expand Community Relationship Building - Ah, great.

Continue Youth Engagement - Most "youths" around here are criminals.

Explore and Launch New Deployment Tactics - Whatever this means.

Field a Community Policing Team - Lovely. What we need. Go catch criminals. Stop trying to kiss our asses.

Maintain Focus on and Successes in Crime Reduction - Oh, you mean, policing?

Expand Upstream policing with Data-driven decision making - Again, nonsense talk. This literally means nothing. Try forgetting about stats and do police work.

Improve Recruiting/Retention with Public Safety tax incentives, expanded benefits package - No one wants to come work for the corrupt, underpaid, unprofessional Salisbury police department. It's a laughing stock.

Anonymous said...

Doesn’t look bad on paper. Hope staff is competent to see it through in real time. Even though it should had been in place and practiced long before this administration.

Anonymous said...

MORE B.S. from the Mayor and Police Chief of SLUMSBURY. BS & MORE BS

Anonymous said...

What a JOKE! This Clown, mare Gay Day, is praising Barbara Duncan and her staff with F***ing Up the police department and the Inventory of Property Room!! WTH!!

Anonymous said...

Joe, you really should have a better Editor introduction to this so that people can read the whole document and see what kind of Screw-Ups the Mare and Police Chief are. This is nothing but a whitewashing cover-up.

Barbara Duncan and her "Command Staff" should have been fired.

Ret'd Detective Sgt. said...

If no one is above the law then WHY has there been no disclosure of charges filed on the custodians of the evidence room and an explanation of how and where the missing property?
There was talk of an independent investigation that probably never happened.

Could there have been abatement of charges due to race and gender? Why was a civilian in charge of evidentiary material which is bound by the law to be presented in Court not maintained as a chain of custody by a sworn police officer?

It takes more than an off the wall story of re-alignment to wash this one. Who took the fall for this? No names? WTH is going on with the states attorney's office, its their job to expose and charge these blockheads. Shouldn't be any influence by Day, Hogan, or anyone else. The attorney general's office should be involved and probably wasn't.

Cover up!, cover up!, cover up! Election time's a comin'.

Anonymous said...

This goes back over 20 years. Who are the police officers involved. Surely someone knows.

Anonymous said...

Jake Day, why don’t you just resign already!!!

Anonymous said...

Just trying to avoid that DOJ Consent Decree that other police departments have or are still operating under for constitutional violations and crimes within the department.

Anonymous said...

A novel idea would be to replace the Police Chief who is in charge of all of these problems.

TheRealRay said...

Hey da'bury. Your armpit is showing...

Anonymous said...

Is Liz Day above the law?
How about Kirkland Hall?

Anonymous said...

This will destroy Jakes political career

Anonymous said...


Thought I heard a news snippet that someone involved was permitted to retire rather than being disciplined/fired. Correct?

These two idiots cut and pasted some verbiage from something like BS Policing Journal; they're kicking the can down the road confident the public will go back to sleep.

A rubber crutch inspires more confidence than these two jerks and their lackeys.

Anonymous said...

Pathetic

Anonymous said...

Who was the officer that was arrested May 5th and why? Why isn't this information public? It's a public record of an arrest?

The officer that is "retiring" during the investigation is Rick Engle. He is being forced to retire or face being fired. Again, this information should have been public.

The evidence investigation room termination was "Dee Dee". She worked there for years.

I don't know why the media is afraid to ask the Chief direct questions?

This information is withheld because they DO NOT want the public to know what is going on behind closed doors. If the public really knew all the dumb stuff that was going on the entire department would be shut down. Certainly the chief should be fired. All this talk about taking action to restore the confidence of the Salisbury Police is complete nonsense. It's nothing but lip service. They aren't telling you about the demotions.

There have been 5 transfers and demotions recently due to officers screwing other officers and other officer's wives and their subordinates, including Chad Crockett.

The main issue for all of these investigations, with the exception of the property room, is that supervisors and officers can't keep it in their pants. They end up screwing each other, each other's wives, their subordinates, and informants.

Its a sad time for the department.