Montgomery County Council reviews former police chief's misconduct investigation

Tonight at the Inspector General investigation involving former Montgomery County Police Chief Mark Yamada. He was forced to resign last month after allegations that county resources may have been misused. Fox 5's Homa Bash live in Rockville tonight with these details. Hi, Homa. Hey, Kenneth. The point of today's audit hearing was to really go over the IG's report and see what can be done to provide better oversight for both county leaders and county workers because it seems that there was some sort of confusion over county policy, what was right, what was wrong, what was allowed, when there really shouldn't have been. The policy was in place. Everybody understood. But unfortunately, at the highest level was ignored. How quickly the executive was asked to resign shows that we do not tolerate this. We are embarrassed, quite honestly. But what I will tell you is you have an outstanding police department that is working hard. That is the current interim police chief but today former police chief Mark Yamada under new scrutiny as Montgomery County council members reviewed an inspector general report into alleged misconduct. The investigation began after complaints that he failed to take any required leave between 2024 to 2026 despite being unavailable at times. There were also allegations of drinking while at a police foundation event and also using county resources to bring a relative who also works for the county, to an out-of-state work conference. There is also a separate but intertwined investigation here involving an employee with the county attorney's office alleging the worker encouraged the chief to use the secure messaging app Signal to get around public records requirements. Yamada stepped down back in September after County Executive Mark Elrich asked for his resignation. He had been chief for just a couple of years, but with Montgomery County Police for nearly four decades. And I think the big question here is who polices the police chief. Exactly. That is a great question on who polices the police chief. And we need to make sure we have accountability and transparency in our county government. And that falls squarely with the county executive's office. And that's why I'm glad he's going to have representatives here as well. And one thing that council members continually highlighted was what a key role the inspector general and their office played in this investigation, getting numerous calls to the hotline that actually triggered the entire thing. So what happens from here? Well, there have been some immediate changes to policy and clarifying things both within the police department and within the county. Whether or not there are further consequences coming, that still remains to be seen. Kenneth. All right, Homa Bash, thank you.