In his book,“We Own This City,” Baltimore Banner investigative reporter Justin Fenton unwinds a twisted tale of dirty cops, oblivious leaders, and a community betrayed by those sworn to protect it.
Fenton unearths the rotten roots of the Gun Trace Task Force, an elite plainclothes police unit that won praise for its arrest rate, all while skimming from drug busts and illegally searching citizens:
”If somebody ran, they believed that person was likely carrying something they shouldn’t have and would chase after them. So this proactive police work was really phishing. Trying to look for something and a lot of people who weren’t doing anything wrong would get stopped and searched as a result.”
A true story of crime, cops, and corruption…
Read an excerpt of the book here.
Watch a trailer for HBO's "We Own this City" here.
Check out more reporting by Justin Fenton on the Gun Trace Task Force:
Cops and Robbers: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
