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BALTIMORE, Maryland (WJZ) — Baltimore City police officer Dequwan Houchins is facing an indictment for allegedly logging fake traffic stops, according to Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates.
Houchins is accused of four counts of false entry in a public record and five counts of misconduct in office. Bates said that if found guilty of all charges, Houchins could face a penalty of 12 years in jail and a $4,000 fine for each of the false entry charges. The misconduct charges do not have a maximum penalty.
Bates announced the charges at a press conference Monday morning.
The allegations came to light in December 2025 during “a routine audit” carried out by the Baltimore Police Department. The audit “discovered that for several months, officer Houchins had been making numerous false reports of traffic stops,” as well as fake entries to an electronic reporting system, Bates said.
During the period Houchins was investigated, it was also discovered that he had not filed any bodycam footage, as is required by police department rules. Investigators suspected the officer had been using the false reports to claim that he was unavailable to respond to any service calls. This left other officers to respond to calls that would have been assigned to Houchins.
“This was just a lazy cop who didn’t want to do anything and wanted to collect a paycheck,” Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said.
“Troubling disregard” for responsibility
“Every Baltimore Police officer takes an oath to serve and protect our city, and with that oath comes a responsibility not only to the public, but to the fellow officers who rely on them every day,” Bates said. “The allegations in this indictment reflect a troubling disregard for that responsibility.”
In a statement, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott called the actions of the indicted officer “shameful,” and he thanked police ethics investigators “for taking action.”
During some of the times officer Houchins allegedly entered false traffic stops, investigators said they saw him sitting in his patrol car, and attending to “other personal matters”, which include ordering a smoothie, according to court records. By doing so, he “placed a burden on his brothers and sisters in uniform and potentially jeopardized their safety.”
The department began investigating Houchins after receiving an anonymous, internal complaint alleging Houchins made false traffic reports during a four month period. At the same time, the department launched a random audit and found some inconsistencies in his traffic stop records.
“This is bigger than one officer trying to make his numbers look good,” Worley added. “Even the numbers that he falsified, he wasn’t a ball of fire, so he wasn’t really out there doing a whole lot of work.”
Undercover detectives followed Houchins, who worked in the Northeast District for five years, during four patrol shifts. They found that he recorded nine legitimate stops and eight false reports.
Worley called this egregious and said the department regularly uses technology to make sure officers are doing daily tasks.
“It’s on a lower level than this. It’s making sure officers do the reports. If they have delinquent reports, it’s holding our officers accountable to doing the job that they get paid to do. 99% of them go out there every single day and bust their butts for the city of Baltimore,” Worley added.
The police department says this is a warning to the entire department that any misconduct will be seriously dealt with.
“The bad thing is he was probably sitting doing something else when another officer needed help, and somebody else had to help him because he was too lazy to do it,” Worley added. “Goodbye, good riddance, and if anybody else does it, we’ll do the same thing to them.”
Houchins’ police powers are suspended. He is being paid and is limited to administrative duty.
Several other Baltimore officers were indicted in 2026
This is not the first time a Baltimore police officer has been indicted on criminal charges this year.
In March, four Baltimore City police officers were indicted on charges including assault, misconduct in office and filing false reports.
According to the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, Officer Kevin Dugan was indicted on five counts of misconduct in office. Officer Kevin Hilton was indicted on charges of second-degree assault and misconduct in office.
Officer Mordechai Mandelbaum was indicted on charges of false report, false statement and two counts of misconduct in office. Officer Menachem Rosenbloom was indicted on charges of second-degree assault, false report, false statement and four counts of misconduct in office.
Also in March, three Baltimore police officers were indicted on charges including theft, forgery and misconduct in office, according to the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office.
Lt. Welai Grant was indicted on one count of theft between $1,500 and $25,000 and two counts of misconduct in office. She is accused of failing to report for her overnight shifts while logging the hours on her timesheet and receiving pay for eight shifts.
Sgt. Mark Rutkowski was indicted on one count of theft between $1,500 and $25,000 and three counts of misconduct in office. He is accused of inflating his work hours by clocking in before leaving his home and not clocking out until he returned. The indictment also alleges that Rutkowski logged into another employee’s computer to cancel his own leave, triggering overtime and “penalty pay” under the police collective bargaining agreement.
Officer Harrison Brandon was indicted on one count of forgery, two counts of identity fraud, one count of theft between $100 and $1,500 and two counts of misconduct in office. He is accused of submitting fraudulent doctor’s notes to obtain sick leave pay on five occasions.
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