“I’m Impatient:” After A Record Setting Year Of Violence, Baltimore Mayor Fires Police Commissioner
After setting the record for murders per capita, Baltimore mayor, Catherine Pugh, decided it was time for a change, electing to replace the city’s police commissioner with one of his deputies.
As reported by CNN, this decision came after Pugh worked “hand-in-hand” with the now-former commissioner, Kevin Davis, for 13 months before announcing he will be replaced by Deputy Commissioner Darryl D. DeSousa. Mayor Pugh describes this move as an act of progress for the city that eclipsed more than 340 murders last year.
“I’m impatient,” Pugh told the media Friday morning (Jan. 19). “We need violence reduction. We need violence to go down.”
Pugh’s replacement of Davis are one of the many blemishes on the face of the Baltimore Police Department following the 2015 murder of Freddie Gray which include a 2016 Justice Department report stating the department has a long history of racial bias against blacks in addition to several officers being accused of filing false affidavits in order to seize money.
And while the latter activities seem like a Baltimore version of Training Day, DeSousa vows to curb the overt issue of violence by placing more uniformed officers in “strategic locations,” near “problematic businesses.” Although it is unclear how these “problematic” businesses and locations will be determined, Mayor Pugh seems to be optimistic about this new approach to policing.
“This commissioner (Davis) worked hard, but I’m looking for new … ways to change what we’re seeing here every day,” she explained. “I need my police department to give me creative ideas.
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