Michael Wood, Jr. served in the Baltimore police department for 11 years, including time as a detective and sergeant. He left the department in early 2014, more than a year before black Baltimore resident Freddie Gray died after being held and allegedly mistreated in police custody.
Yesterday (June 24), the same day that Gray’s autopsy was released to the Baltimore Sun revealing “high-energy injuries” he probably sustained from being shackled and tossed around in the back of a police van, Wood took to Twitter to reveal some of the misconduct that he claims to have seen as an officer.
He said on Twitter he would continue posting these daily, and continued today.
Quartz reached out to current Baltimore police lieutenant Anthony Proctor, who has served in the department for 20 years, including about a year in which he supervised Wood. Proctor wrote a letter of recommendation for Wood, posted on LinkedIn, after Wood left the force last year. Proctor tells Quartz he has not seen the tweets, but when told the content of some of them said he did not experience or hear about these allegations when working with Wood or at any point during Proctor’s time in the department. And if Wood did observe them, he should have reported them, Proctor says. “If those things were observed it should have been addressed immediately at that time,” Proctor says. “The culture that I grew up in, we were quick to address the issues with one another because we wanted to ensure that one—we were safe, and two—the citizens were safe.”
When asked on Twitter what he regrets most, Wood included “not speaking earlier” in his list. He also wrote that it took distance from the department to recognize some of the wrongs.
Others on Twitter thanked Wood for publicizing what they said many Baltimore residents already knew.
Here’s what he’ll be talking about tomorrow:
Quartz has reached out to Wood and will update the story with a response.