This month, Baltimore police promoted an officer who was once charged in the death of Freddie Gray — and she will now oversee civilian complaints filed against officers.
Alicia White now works in the department’s Public Integrity Bureau. The decision was announced in a media release from the department on Feb. 9 and went into effect on Feb. 11. She is one of two officers tasked with overseeing the unit that will handle complaints filed by civilians, according to the Baltimore Banner, a local outlet that initially reported the law enforcement agency’s decision to promote the officer.
The Department of Justice implemented a consent decree into the police department following Gray’s death, outlining specific steps the law enforcement agency must make when managing its disciplinary process. The unit is tasked with completing thorough investigations of complaints filed by civilians who allege excessive force, misconduct and bad policing tactics by officers in the department.
This is White’s second promotion since Gray’s death, after the law enforcement agency promoted her from lieutenant to the rank of captain in August 2022.
White was one of six officers charged in Gray’s death nearly 10 years ago.
Gray, a 25-year-old Black man, was arrested in Baltimore’s Westside on April 12, 2015, over possession of a switchblade, which is considered legal under Maryland law. After sustaining injuries in police custody, Gray died a week later.
The Department of Justice found insufficient evidence that officers involved gave Gray a “rough ride” in a police van, an assertion prosecutors made during trial arguments that it contributed to Gray’s death. The van ride lasted for nearly 45 minutes.
Former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby charged White and the five other officers with manslaughter, assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct. Three of the officers involved were acquitted at a trial by a judge, and another officer’s trial ended in a hung jury, resulting in a mistrial. White and a sixth officer were awaiting trial when state prosecutors dropped all charges against the officers in 2016. Federal prosecutors declined to charge the officers a year later.
White was the first officer to defend herself in 2016 following her charges being dropped.
“I knew even seeing it myself that that wasn’t who I was. Having to walk and people look at you and figure that’s who you are, I knew that wasn’t me,” she said in a televised interview in 2016.
“That I am not that officer that was seen on TV. Even in walking the streets while I was in this area I think that if you were to ask people that knew me they would say, that wasn’t that officer,” White added
A $6.5 million settlement was reached in Gray’s death months later in September 2015.