With the forced resignation of Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm, the Baltimore Police Department continues to be defined by turmoil, a local criminologist says.
A destructive pattern of politicized policing and a flawed command structure may continue to thwart the crime-fighting efforts of a department that has gone through eight police commissioners ? counting interim commissioners ? since 1999, experts said.
“The average police chief in the United States will survive from a low of two years to a high of four and five years,” said Sheldon Greenberg, a former Howard County police officer who is now a criminologist at Johns Hopkins University. “What has gone on [in] Baltimore is not only unusual, but is quite unique.”
Without stability at the top, changing priorities and crime-fighting strategies can cloud the mission of the department, Greenberg said.
“Every new commissioner can be a positive force for change, but the crisis of instability in Baltimore makes it more difficult,” he said.
The powers of an interim commissioner can be limited, said former interim Baltimore Police Commissioner Bert Shirey, who held the post from December 1999 to early 2000.
“His marching orders will be to keep things calm and pump up morale, but I don?t know how much authority he will have to make big decisions; he will probably be caretaker until the new police chief,” he said.
Despite the limitations of the interim position, Shirey said the newly appointed acting police commissioner, Col. Frederick Bealefeld III, can get things done.
“You?ve got to make your presence known and you can?t have the department go adrift,” he said. “You have to identify any major weaknesses, if nothing else, to help the next guy.”
Some city leaders applauded Mayor Sheila Dixon?s move as a necessary break with the past.
“It appears that the failed policing strategies of the O?Malley years have finally come to an end. For the first time, after a succession of eight police commissioners serving the Mayor O?Malley administration, Mayor Dixon has sought my opinion and counsel on how we can work together in the best interest of our citizens,” Baltimore City State?s Attorney Patricia Jessamy said in a written statement.
Dixon said that despite Bealefeld?s interim status, she wants him to be active.
“I expect him to move forward; I expect to see results,” she said. “I expect him to come back with a plan and really get things moving.”
