Frustration, anger and disappointment might be the best way to sum up the attitude Monday among city leaders pushing Mayor Sheila Dixon to lead the charge in hiring more blacks to command the police department.
“I would like to see more diversity at the top, not just with African-Americans but with other minorities,” said District 12 City Councilman Bernard “Jack” Young. “I want to see it across the board. Police Commissioner (Leonard) Hamm told me he put the best and the brightest at the top of the department, and I wonder why so few African-Americans are a part of that.”
The police department has 55 commanders, of whom 14 are black, according to police department records.
While Baltimore City NAACP President Marvin “Doc” Cheatham expressed support for newly appointed police commissioner Fred Bealefeld last week, he is far from satisfied.
“In a city with 65-70 percent African-Americans, I think it?s clear we have a long way to go. I look forward to working with him, but we have more work to do, not only to recruit more African-American officers, but to keep them.”
Jeff Red, former Baltimore police officer and president of Vanguard, an association that advocates for African-American police officers, called the lack of minority representation a “shame.”
“Something needs to done; there is something wrong with this picture,” he said.
Mayor Sheila Dixon is aware of diversity problems among the top staff of the department, said her spokesman, Anthony McCarthy.
“It is a serious concern, it is conversation the mayor had with all applicants for the job and something she expects to be addressed,” he said. “But Mayor Dixon cannot turn around a long-entrenched culture in he police department, but her expectations are clear.”
The department is under fire from several lawsuits charging discriminatory practices, including the case of Sgt. Louis Hopson, who along with 14 other Baltimore city police officers alleged blacks were disciplined more severely than whites for similar infractions. The case is awaiting trial.
