ALL THINGS considered, Edward T. Norris was a good police chief. But as the cocky 42-year-old former New Yorker now exits to head the Maryland State Police, Baltimore's challenge is to quickly move beyond the initial reforms he instituted in his three years here. Much more needs to be done.
A recap is in order. In the rapid revolving door of chiefs that preceded Mr. Norris, the department's upper ranks were depleted as each incoming commissioner wanted his own colonels and majors and got rid of his predecessor's. As a result, the city Police Department is now so young that 60 percent of officers were hired after 1996, according to Mayor Martin O'Malley. The loss of experience is incalculable.
Moreover, the department is still recovering from the disastrous social experimentation of former Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier, who rotated career detectives out of the homicide squad and replaced them with novices. The upshot: an alarming pattern of botched cases, which continues to this day. Those embarrassing failures underscore one of the department's key weaknesses: chaotic evidence-gathering and sloppy investigations that are due to poor training and the force's overall lack of seasoning.
Correcting these glaring deficiencies should be the next chief's No. 1 priority. That's why it is important for Mayor O'Malley to promptly appoint a successor and make sure the department is not engulfed yet again in destructive top-echelon purges and destabilizing reorganizations.
The goal must not only be a more professional and better-performing police force but a more functional overall criminal justice system as well.
That can be achieved only through an improved working relationship with the state's attorney's office, which is the Police Department's partner in getting criminals prosecuted and sentenced. The next commissioner alone cannot accomplish this. Mayor O'Malley must also show maturity and change his tactics. Since his provocative behavior has not produced desired results, perhaps he ought to try to charm State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy.
Commissioner Norris' career move is somewhat odd. It is not often that a major-city police chief voluntarily moves to a lesser agency. Yet that's exactly what he is doing in going over to the state police.
True, with greater resources - due to money flowing in from the federal government's antiterrorism efforts - he is in a position to modernize the state police and broaden its mission. But will he find enough excitement and satisfaction in his new job, or is it a mere stepping stone on his way to homeland security duties in Washington?
Historically, the state police have not operated in Baltimore, except in emergencies. Mr. Norris should step up operational cooperation. That would be fully justified as a recognition that many of the jurisdictional lines are artificial and hamper effective crime-fighting.