Baltimore's police commissioners [Pictures]
Who's going to be Baltimore's next police commissioner? If history is a guide, we have no clue. There hasn't been much of a pattern in the city's selection process over the past 23 years, with great strife over candidates' race and qualifications, and debates over the pros and cons of insiders versus outsiders. Of the past seven commissioners, four were black and three have been white, while three were from outside the agency and only two had a continuous rise through the ranks to the top spot. If anything, the process tends to favor, not surprisingly, the agency's deputy commissioners.
--Justin Fenton
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2012: Anthony W. Batts
Where he came from: Oakland Police Department, by way of Harvard University
Batts was selected by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on Aug. 28, 2012 following a national search. He's been out of policing since 2011, when he stepped down from the chief post in Oakland, Calif., not long after the election of a new mayor there whose style conflicted with his own. Prior to that, he spent nearly 30 years in Long Beach, Calif., including holding the title of police chief from 2002 to 2009. Batts has a doctorate and a master's degree, and was doing research and lecturing at Harvard University after Oakland.  |
