The day after Baltimore City officially surpassed last year?s homicide total, Councilman Kenneth Harris said a hearing on his resolution calling for the police department to transfer officers from specialized units into regular patrol has finally been scheduled.
“I?ve calling for this hearing since April,” Harris said. “Given what?s happened with the homicide rate, we need to examine how we use our resources.”
Harris said Councilman James Kraft, head of the public safety committee, would announce the hearing date at the next City Council hearing. Harris said the hearing would be in January.
“We really need to carefully evaluate the department?s use of these units,” he said. “When we?re down patrol officers in many districts, I think we need to do what we can to get officers back into regular patrol.”
Harris introduced a resolution in April, calling for the City Council to hold hearings on the deployment of officers in specialized units, citing concerns over shortage of regular patrol officers.
Specialized units are teams of six to seven plainclothes officers that target specific crimes.
Currently, city police deploy dozens of specialized units from the Organized Crime Division, Specialized Enforcement Teams and the flex squads. Harris said the number of officers assigned to specialized units is too high.
“We need officers in the community,” he said.
Baltimore recorded its 270th homicide last weekend, surpassing last year?s total of 269. Harris said the ongoing death toll means the hearing is critical.
“We need to look at this issue now, not later,” he said
Paul Blair, the head of the city police, said some of the specialized units are redundant.
“You have units from the Organized Crime division that have duplicate units in the districts,” he said. “They have city-wide coverage, and then the district have their own vice and narcotic units; it?s redundant,” he said.
Police spokesman Matt Jablow said the department currently has no plans to disband any specialized units.
