Baltimore mayor fires police commissioner

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake thanked Police Commissioner Anthony Batts for his service and announced that she was appointing Deputy Police Commissioner Kevin Davis as interim commissioner.

“The passive response… allowed the disorder to grow into full-scale rioting”, the review said.

Gray, 25, died April 19, one week after sustaining a severe spinal cord injury while in police custody.

The move to replace Batts comes two months after six of the city’s police officers were charged with crimes ranging from assault to murder over the death of Freddie Gray.

Almost 400 buildings were damaged or destroyed, and damage has been estimated in the millions of dollars.

Mr. Batts has defended his agency’s response, saying officers were told to stand shoulder to shoulder in “skirmish” lines for their safety and that of bystanders, but he has also pointed out that many lawbreakers were arrested. Union officials have questioned that and requested access to communication records from commanders and City Hall.

“It is disappointing that the FOP continues to issue baseless and false information instead of working with us to find solutions that will protect our officers”, he says.

He said Baltimore had already taken steps to improve areas of weakness, including assessing riot gear and putting monitoring cameras in police transport vans.

Other reviews of police performance are being done by the department, aided by the police Executive Research Forum, a non-profit policy group, and the global Association of police Chiefs. It also said the police department’s criminal intelligence section was “severely hampered by the understaffing of trained detectives”.

Since the rioting stopped, the city has seen a sharp increase in violence, with 155 homicides this year, a 48 percent increase over the same period previous year.

The term “credible”, when used in connection with intelligence, has a specific meaning, including that certain criterion have been met. If Captain Kowalczyk acknowledges that this is the law enforcement best practice, it would be a start in restoring confidence to the rank and file in the commanders of the Baltimore Police Department.