Baltimore County police chief says $3 parking violation put him on Brady list

Cecili Doyle, Ben Conarck

The Baltimore Banner

October 13, 2025

Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough said the only reason he’s included on a “Brady list” is a decades-old dispute over a $3 parking violation from 1986.

Such lists are kept by prosecutors’ offices and local law enforcement agencies to track police officers who, due to past misconduct, may have credibility issues when testifying. The Baltimore Banner reported last week that McCullough, the department’s first Black chief, was on the county’s list.

McCullough said in an interview Monday that when he was a 19-year-old cadet working for the Baltimore County Police Department he let a fellow cadet borrow his parking validation ticket to get a reduced rate.

“There was no criminal intent,” McCullough said. “I was simply giving another employee, another 19-year-old kid, my parking validation ticket so that he could get out of the garage.”

The chief said the fellow cadet told him that he lost his own parking validation ticket. McCullough didn’t realize his coworker was trying to reduce his parking costs.

The department investigated the incident and suspended McCullough — and the cadet he gave his ticket to — without pay for three days, he said.

McCullough said he was blindsided when The Banner asked him why his name was included on the Brady list. He said the parking validation investigation is the only reason he can think of that could raise questions about his integrity and put his name on the list.

“I had never seen the list, nor had I been told in the 40 years that I’ve been around that I was on the list,” McCullough said.

Why didn’t McCullough comment before?

Neither the police department nor the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office initially explained why the chief is on the list or answered a Banner reporter’s questions.

The initial lack of transparency from county officials prompted criticism from the Maryland Office of the Public Defender and local criminal justice experts.

McCullough, who was one of two Black cadets when he joined the department in 1985, said he was hurt and needed time to process.

“When I came on the Baltimore County Police Department, it was a very less-than-inclusive place to be,” he said. “I wasn’t always treated well. And it also hurt to know that for possibly almost 40 years of my life that I was on a list that I didn’t know about.”

McCullough shared a copy of a criminal misconduct review from 1986 in which then-Assistant State’s Attorney Sue Schenning declined to charge McCullough.

According to the report, she recommended the department handle the incident internally because it cost Baltimore County a “minimal monetary loss of under $3.00.”

The Banner previously filed a formal public records request for any documents that might shed light on the reason behind the chief’s inclusion by the state’s attorney’s office.

Deputy State’s Attorney John Cox said there is a “partial sentence with five words contained within an electronic case management system” responsive to The Banner’s request, but it cannot be disclosed because it is part of a personnel record.

In 2021, the state passed “Anton’s Law,” which altered Maryland’s public records laws to remove protections for police disciplinary records, making them no longer exempt from disclosure as confidential personnel records.

Cox said Anton’s Law did not apply to the partial sentence.

The chief explained his disciplinary record as a cadet — a civilian employee training to become a police officer — is part of his personnel file and not considered “police disciplinary records,” which is why Cox could not fulfill The Banner’s records request.

A target

McCullough said he’s been walking around with a pit in his stomach for the past two weeks.

It’s the same pain, he said, that he used to carry as a young Black man rising through the ranks of a predominantly white department.

“Back then, clearly the environment was such that if you were African American you would be targeted,” McCullough said.

The chief said his record speaks for itself, adding that he prides himself on treating everyone with dignity and respect.

“We can’t undo history. It’s what it is. And I’ve spent … 40 years of my life trying to build bridges inside my organization,” McCullough said. “You’ll find no one that will say to you that I play any kind of race-based games or anything.”

The 59-year-old has lived in Baltimore County for more than 30 years and holds a master’s degree in management from Johns Hopkins University. He also has gotten formal training through the Johns Hopkins Police Executive Leadership Program and the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety’s School of Police Staff and Command.

While several county council members did not respond to repeated requests for comment about McCullough, the county executive, Kathy Klausmeier, offered her full support in a written statement.

“Chief McCullough is a dedicated leader who has served Baltimore County with honor and integrity for nearly four decades,” Klausmeier said.

The chief said he disclosed the parking ticket investigation to then-Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. before he was sworn in as chief. Olszewski nominated McCullough for the position.

The Baltimore County Council voted unanimously to confirm McCullough in 2023.