Just days after the forced resignation of Baltimore Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm, former Commissioner Kevin Clark is lobbying the Dixon administration to give him the job he says is rightfully his.
Citing a rising homicide rate and a recent Court of Special Appeals ruling that his 2004 firing by then-Mayor Martin O?Malley was illegal, the ex-police chief returned to Baltimore on Monday to
present a letter to Mayor Sheila Dixon seeking to be reinstated now.
“As I see it, the city is in crisis, but I could turn this around in no time,” he said in an exclusive interview with WJZ-TV and The Examiner. “It?s my job.”
Clark was fired after a domestic dispute with his girlfriend made headlines in 2004, but he eventually was cleared by the Howard County police.
Now, the highly decorated former New York City police officer says his on-the-job experience makes him the best-qualified candidate to reduce crime in Baltimore.
“What the public wants is very different than the crimes we count,” he said. “They want drug dealers and prostitutes off the street, not statistics.”
Conducting an independent audit of crime statistics and improving officer morale would be Clark?s top priorities, he said.
“The schedule has got to go,” he said, speaking of the city policy of having patrol officers work six days in a row with two days off.
“We?re exhausting officers who sometimes end up in court on their seventh day,” he said.
Administration officials countered that Clark was not part of their immediate plans.
“I think former Commissioner Clark is a little premature; we have a long way to go in court,” Dixon spokesman Anthony McCarthy said. “Mayor Dixon will not be distracted with posturing.”
In January, The Examiner reported that Clark?s ex-chief of internal affairs, Zeinab Rabold, testified under oath in federal court that the investigation of her former boss was improper.
“They were too busy trying to set up the man to fire him,” Rabold testified.
Meanwhile, Clark said he would restore the integrity of the
department by being a decisive leader.
” ?Good guy? ain?t on my resume,” he said. “But I?m a professional, and I?ll get the job done.”
