Firing of Baltimore police commissioner ‘shock’ to governor

On Wednesday, Batts was sacked as police commissioner amid the worst crime spike in the city since the 1970s and plummeting morale among officers who complained their boss was failing to provide the support and leadership they needed to do their jobs.

“Too many continue to die on our streets, including three just last night and one lost earlier today”, Rawlings-Blake said.

Rawlings-Blake also announced Deputy Police Commissioner Kevin Davis will immediately replace Batts as an interim commissioner.

“The police wouldn’t do the things they do if the commissioner didn’t allow it”, she said.

(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky). Interim Baltimore Police Department Commissioner Kevin Davis speaks with a reporter after meeting with students participating in a junior state’s attorney program, Thursday, July 9, 2015, in Baltimore. In the meantime, the US Justice Department is conducting a civil rights review of the Department, and Batts has been criticized by the Baltimore police union.

Rawlings-Blake said that debating leadership of the department was taking away from efforts to battle crime, and “we can not continue to have the level of violence” that has been plaguing the city since the April riots.

Baltimore’s next police commissioner will have a daunting to-do list: quell a surge in homicides, rebuild trust between officers and the public, win the confidence of a demoralized and alienated department, and keep the peace when the explosive Freddie Gray case comes to trial.

THE MAYOR OF Baltimore fired heer troubled city’s police commissioner yesterday (Jul 8) following a spike in murders weeks after unarmed black man, Freddie Gray, died of injuries in police custody.

The announcement came hours after the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #3 released a 32-page analysis of the police department’s response to the April 27 riots, where more than 200 officers were injured. The most recent violence happened Tuesday night, when gunmen jumped out of two vans and fired at a group of people a few blocks from an urban university campus, killing three people.

“As a resident of this county, I wish the new administration and police chief nothing but the best in the years to come”, Davis said.

“The officers characterized the Baltimore Police Department’s leadership during the riots as unprepared, politically motivated and uncaring and confusing”, said Gene Ryan, president of the police union.

“This was not an easy decision but it is one that is in the best interest of Baltimore”. “He should have been fired”.

Commissioner Batts and command staff members addressed officers during a roll call on April 25, 2015 at Police Headquarters. We call the police when we really need them, when people hurt us.

His contract with the city paid him $190,000 and was to run through June 2020.

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