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'We Are Ready To Move Forward': Baltimore PD Announces Independent Review Of Gun Trace Task Force

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Baltimore police officials have announced an independent review of the Gun Trace Task Force.

Other than providing documents, interviews and information, the police will not have any involvement in the review.

Michael Bromwich of D.C. law firm Steptoe & Johnson will head the review. Bromwich is the former inspector general of the Department of Justice.

Police Commissioner Michael Harrison made the announcement on Wednesday morning in a press conference at police headquarters.

"In my opinion [Bromwich] is uniquely qualified to lead the review of the Gun Trace Task Force," Harrison said.

The scope of the review will be established by Bromwich and his team who will then share it with the DOJ, the consent decree monitoring team and U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar, who's overseeing the consent decree.

Bromwich has independence and wide authority, police said, in his review of the task force, made up of a group of officers now in federal prison for racketeering, armed robbery, selling drugs, overtime fraud and planting evidence.

Wednesday's announcement comes more than two-and-a-half years after their initial arrests.

"To expose the malignancy that grew in this department, we are ready to move forward," city solicitor Andre Davis said.

This task force comes the same day the number of vaping-related lung illnesses in Maryland jumped to 38.

Last month, Harrison testified in Annapolis. The department had not started its independent investigation because of litigation, but now, on the eve of another consent decree hearing with a federal judge, the department announced the independent review.

Harrison has directed all personnel to cooperate with the review.

"Baltimore Police Department's only role will be to provide whatever information he asks for," Harrison said. "I expect all members of our department will provide Mr. Bromwich and his team as much detailed information as possible."

"Since my very first day on the job and since my very first meeting with Judge Bredar... I recognize how important it is to this department and to the court to understand the circumstances that allowed the GTTF activities take place and to go one for so long," he added. "Those that don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it."

Bromwich said the report will show who acted wrongly or failed to stop the illegal activity.

The GTTF's ripple effect continues to be felt; last month, the city's state's attorney's office threw out 800 cases tied to the group.

There is no timetable or budget disclosed for the review, but it will be made public.

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