Ex-head of police gun unit charged with robbery, extortion

BALTIMORE – Months after seven members of a Baltimore Police Department gun trace task force were indicted on charges of robbing people, the former head of the unit has been charged, federal prosecutors said.

Sgt. Thomas Allers, 49, was arrested after an indictment returned Aug. 24 was unsealed Wednesday. He was charged with nine counts of robbery and extortion. Allers stole more $90,000, sometimes from people who had not committed crimes, prosecutors said.

Allers stole money from people in homes after search warrants were executed, according to the indictment. The sergeant stole money that victims had earned lawfully, prosecutors said, and Allers filed false incident reports stating little or no money had been seized.

According to the indictment, in April 2016, Allers and others robbed people in a home of more than $10,000 after arresting one of the residents. Later, one of the residents was fatally shot because he could not repay a drug-related debt, prosecutors said.

Allers joined the Baltimore Police department in 1996. He became officer-in-charge of the Gun Trace Task Force, a unit created to investigate firearms crimes, in 2013. He was reassigned from the unit in 2016, prosecutors said.

In March, seven members of the task force were indicted in the alleged racketeering conspiracy.

Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said in a statement, “I condemn any and all criminal activity that erodes our trust with the community.”

A spokesman for the police department had no immediate comment on Allers’ status with the department. Online court records do not list a lawyer for him.