Baltimore Police has created an internal channel for officers to flag suspected undue influence in disciplinary cases. The process uses a short form directed to the department’s Public Integrity Division.
The form allows up to 500 characters for officers to describe evidence supporting a concern. The Baltimore Banner reported that Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 3 President Elliot Cohen told union members by email Monday that the department had agreed to create the process; the form is titled “Undue Influence from PID,” according to The Baltimore Banner.
Cohen, who represents rank-and-file officers, praised Police Commissioner Richard Worley for hearing officers’ concerns and working with the union on fair discipline. He said the channel is intended to cover suspected influence by anyone, and that discussions about it began before former Deputy Commissioner Brian Nadeau resigned and were unrelated to his departure, the Banner reported.
Nadeau’s Departure and Pending Investigation
The new channel was announced roughly a month after Nadeau, who oversaw Baltimore Police internal affairs, resigned on Sept. 28 while under investigation for misconduct. The Maryland State Police was handling the investigation and said it would return the case to Baltimore Police when its work was complete, according to the Banner. At the time of his resignation, the department said it was a personnel matter and declined further comment, as Baltimore Brew reported.
Nadeau has since faced lawsuits accusing him of bending officer discipline to his will. Baltimore Police now faces lawsuits from at least six current and former officers alleging wrongful firing or unfair discipline under his oversight, the Banner's reporting indicates. Those suits, along with federal and state complaints, accuse Nadeau's unit of retaliating against officers who complained and of doling out disparate punishments. Some of the filings go further, alleging Nadeau told administrative hearing officers their role was merely to rubber-stamp his recommendations.
An attorney representing current and former BPD employees who filed suits alleging undue influence and retaliation has said concerns about the issue date back to at least 2022, per the Banner's account. Under department policy, whoever holds Nadeau's former position is responsible for signing off on all findings from internal affairs detectives and recommending discipline based on those findings — a structural detail that lawsuits have pointed to as the mechanism for alleged interference.
Department Says It Doesn't Believe Influence Tainted Cases
Baltimore Police has pushed back on the broader allegations even as it rolls out the new review option. Lindsey Eldridge, the department's chief spokesperson, confirmed the new process but said the department does not believe undue influence has affected its disciplinary proceedings, according to the Banner. The department has framed the move instead as part of its stated commitment to transparency, accountability and confidence in the integrity of its disciplinary process.
That framing echoes language the department has used elsewhere. Baltimore Police says its broader accountability reforms include updated procedures for complaint intake, classification and communication, along with Public Integrity Bureau misconduct investigations, referrals to outside entities, mediation and transparency measures. The department also says a PIB supervisor reviews each case for thoroughness, completeness, timeliness and whether the required standard of proof has been met.
A System Already Under Strain
The new review option lands on a disciplinary system that was already stretched thin before Nadeau's resignation. The department had a backlog of more than 900 internal misconduct cases awaiting trial boards, according to separate Banner reporting, and Chief Olufemi Akanni has said internal affairs detectives were completing investigations in an average of 214 days. Baltimore was on pace to hold more than 100 trial boards in 2026, five times as many as in 2025, Deputy City Solicitor Stephen Salsbury has said.
The volume of complaints feeding that backlog is substantial. Baltimore police received 2,269 misconduct complaints in 2024, more than 770 of them for serious misconduct, and 30% remained open, according to CBS News Baltimore. The police accountability board chair told the outlet the most frequent allegations involved neglect of duty, body-worn camera failures and use of force out of policy.
Timeliness and Outside Oversight
A historical benchmark from the consent-decree monitoring team’s review of misconduct cases closed or suspended in 2022 shows that 32% were completed within 90 days, while the average Public Integrity Bureau investigation took nearly 180 days, according to The Baltimore Sun, in a report republished by Police1. For complaints involving the public, the Police Accountability Board receives misconduct complaints and refers them to the appropriate law enforcement agency; it does not assign independent investigators, according to Baltimore City.
Allegations Reach Beyond One Case
Nadeau's name has surfaced in more than one legal filing accusing BPD leadership of misusing disciplinary power. A lawsuit filed in January 2025 on behalf of one former and one current officer alleged widespread corruption and misconduct within the department's internal affairs unit, FOX45 News reported. That 24-page complaint alleged senior BPD command staff weaponized investigative and disciplinary powers against officers Jeffrey and Raquel Lilly.
Separately, former acting Chief of Police Accountability Aeiramique “Meeka” Glass alleged in an amended federal complaint that Nadeau pressured her to instruct the Administrative Charging Committee to retract disciplinary charges against high-ranking officers, according to Baltimore Brew. Glass said she reviewed the case files herself, refused to go along with the request and affirmatively supported the committee's decision to keep the charges in place.
None of those allegations have been resolved in court, and the department has not addressed each lawsuit individually. For now, the new 500-character form offers officers a formal channel to flag concerns — even as Baltimore Police maintains publicly that it has seen no evidence undue influence shaped how discipline was actually decided.
