The Baltimore Police deputy commissioner overseeing the department’s consent decree with the federal government will leave the agency at the end of September, he announced Wednesday.
Eric Melancon, who leads the agency’s Compliance Bureau, said he will return to New Orleans to be closer to his family and to pursue a new career opportunity. He did not specify what the job was. Melancon was tapped to lead the bureau in August 2022, and previously served for three years as former Commissioner Michael Harrison’s chief of staff.
Melancon also led the agency’s after-action review of events — and lapses — leading up to and during the annual Brooklyn Day gathering in early July that turned deadly. Two young people were killed, and 28 others wounded when shots rang out in the Brooklyn Homes development, in what likely is Baltimore’s largest mass shooting.
The police leader shared his resignation plans at an oversight hearing before Baltimore City Council about the Brooklyn Homes shooting. He noted that it was important to him to ensure a comprehensive review of the incident was completed before his departure.
Baltimore Police spokesperson Lindsey Eldridge said Wednesday that a replacement for Melancon has not yet been determined.
Melancon called it an “honor and privilege” to serve the department and city residents, and thanked Harrison for giving him the opportunity to serve as a “transformational force” for reforms. The Compliance Bureau, he said, does a “tremendous job” ensuring the department is a “national model for being a self-assessing, self-correcting and transparent law enforcement agency.”
The deputy commissioner also played a public role in town halls about Baltimore Police’s memorandum of understanding with Johns Hopkins University regarding the school’s police department. That agreement, signed late last year, was necessary for the formation of the university’s private police force. The meetings were often disrupted by protests in opposition.
Harrison caught many in Baltimore by surprise in June when he announced that he would resign. Mayor Brandon Scott nominated acting Commissioner Richard Worley as Harrison’s replacement the same day. A nomination hearing for Worley is scheduled for Sept. 21.
The former commissioner brought Melancon with him to Baltimore from New Orleans, where Harrison led that city’s police department.
Baltimore Sun reporter Sabrina LeBoeuf contributed to this article.