The Rise and Fall of America's Most Corrupt Police Squad

Factual America

The Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF) was meant to help the Baltimore Police Department fight violent crime. Instead, its officers terrorised innocent civilians. In 2017, a criminal investigation resulted in the successful prosecution of the officers, and they were convicted of extortion, fraud, racketeering, and robbery.

In I Got A Monster, director Kevin Abrams tells the story of what happened, and how a crusading defence attorney named Ivan Bates helped bring the corrupt police officers to justice. In the documentary, Kevin also speaks to the GTTF’s victims, giving a voice to people too often denied one.

Kevin tells host Matthew Sherwood about the GTTF’s Jekyll and Hyde leader. Wayne Jenkins was a tough but charismatic cop. Away from the spotlight, however, he was also utterly corrupt. They explore the question of how so many officers, who were also the subject of internal police investigations, managed to end up in the same unit. Was it a coincidence or a conspiracy?

Kevin and Matthew discuss the broader issue of police corruption in the US, how it has been allowed to continue, and what has happened to the Baltimore Police Department since 2017, Kevin also reflects on his experience of making I Got A Monster, which was completed thanks to the goodwill and help of a diverse range of people, including the FBI, local journalists, and Baltimoreons.

Watch the episode at https://factualamerica.com

”... documentary has a great ability to humanise things, and to make things feel real [so] that people can get a greater understanding emotionally of what people are dealing with... police corruption and the victims of it.” – Kevin Abrams