On the heels of the suspension of six Baltimore City Police officers amid allegations of overtime fraud, Frances Hamilton, 44, a five-year veteran, says she was fired in retaliation for reporting similar abuses in her unit.
On Jan. 26, a police trial boardruled Hamilton, a former member of the Accident Investigation Unit, had falsified eight resident contact forms ? paper receipts that officers are required to give civilians after a traffic stop or arrest. The board terminated her.
But Hamilton said she was ordered to fill out the forms for tickets that have already been written. She said the real reason for her firing was an internal affairs complaint she filed alleging overtime fraud in her unit.
“People were putting in for overtime when they should have been on regular time,” she said. “They were falsifying their hours.”
“I reported it, and they came after me,” she said. “They started investigating me days after I filed the complaint.”
Hamilton admitted said she benefited from the city?s generous overtime policies, receiving overtime for writing tickets.
“During Click It or Ticket Week last year, I got four hours of overtime for writing 10 traffic tickets, and eight hours of overtime for writing 20 tickets,” she said. “I can write 10 tickets in 20 minutes.”
Hamilton?s attorney, Robert Smith, said he was told by police officials the investigation of overtime abuse was closed.
“I was told one complaint was administratively closed, and one was deemed to be unfounded,” he said.
Police spokesman Matt Jablow said that he could not comment on personnel matters, but that Hamilton?s dismissal was not retaliatory.
Hamilton said police made other allegations against her that she said are untrue ? that she went AWOL after an injury sustained during the rescue, and that one of her friends physically threatened Hamilton?s ex-boyfriend.
Both allegations, she said, were meant to intimidate her to leave the department.
“They just wanted to get rid of me, period,” she said.
Smith, a former city homicide detective, said he would be asking the Circuit Court to review Hamilton?s case.
“I?ve never seen anyone dismissed for falsifying citizen complaint forms,” he said.
After her heroic early morning rescue of a drowning women on May 1 at the Inner Harbor, Hamilton said it was ironic that she is now without a job.
“I was a good police officer.”
