Anne Arundel County executive Steuart Pittman said in a statement Tuesday night that police chief Timothy Altomare will retire, effective Aug. 1.
Altomare became the county’s chief, which includes the state capital of Annapolis, in 2014.
Pittman said Altomare took over a “divided and damaged” department that year and implemented a number of reforms, including doubling the number of Black officers in the force.
The Capital Gazette reported he retired because he “won’t stand for efforts to remove the teeth from policing.”
The retirement comes just days after a use-of-force lawsuit filed against three officers from the department based on a 2019 incident when a Black man was pulled over in Gambrills, Maryland.
Video taken of the incident showed Daniel Jarrells of Odenton handcuffed, face down on the road, while an officer knelt on the back of his neck.
Pittman said the video does not show “the kind of policing that we train,” in a video news conference earlier this week.
Pittman said an addition to the county’s use-of-force policy is scheduled to be announced Wednesday during a virtual town hall event.
