Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon Wednesday signed a bill into law renaming the Baltimore Police Department?s headquarters to the Bishop L. Robinson Sr. Police Administration Building in honor of the former police commissioner.
Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm said he spearheaded the movement to rename the headquarters after the man who showed him the ropes.
“He was my mentor,” Hamm told The Examiner. “All of us wanted to be like him.”
Bishop Robinson joined the police department in 1953 and rose through the ranks to become commander of the Operations Bureau.
In 1984, then Mayor William Donald Schaefer appointed Robinson to become the first black man to serve as the city?s police commissioner. He held the job until 1987, when Schaefer, who became governor, appointed him secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, where he served for 10 years. Robinson also was later appointed to serve as secretary of the Department of Juvenile Justice.
“Bishop Robinson?s achievements have helped create a world where no door is left unopened for African-Americans,” Dixon said in a statement. “I would like to personally thank Bishop Robinson for serving our city for more than 50 years. I pray that more young men and women in this city aspire to serve their fellow citizens as well as he has.”
