Hamm resigns

The Baltimore Sun

Baltimore Police Commissioner Leonard D. Hamm, hired to stabilize a department in turmoil but recently under fire as the city's homicide count soars, has resigned, sources close to the decision told The Sun yesterday.

Mayor Sheila Dixon is expected to make the formal announcement at City Hall today.

The administration has been struggling to craft a response to the rise in homicides and shootings that have sapped police morale and become fodder for Dixon's rivals in this year's election.

Dixon asked for Hamm's resignation during a City Hall meeting Tuesday night after some in the administration felt that the public had lost confidence in him and that his tenure had become a distraction, sources said. Frederick H. Bealefeld III, the deputy commissioner of operations and a 26-year police veteran, is expected to serve as acting commissioner.

Spokesmen for the Dixon administration and the Police Department declined to comment. Hamm could not be reached last night. At an event outside the New Psalmist Baptist Church in West Baltimore last night, Dixon declined to comment or answer questions about who is in charge of the city's Police Department.

Hamm's departure not only leaves the city without a commissioner at a critical time -- when homicides threaten to reach the record-high rates of the 1990s -- but will also become an issue in this year's Democratic primary, as Dixon faces a number of candidates who see crime as her biggest vulnerability.

Dixon's leading opponent, City Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. -- who had called for Hamm's resignation weeks ago -- issued a statement last night criticizing his tenure, and several other mayoral candidates are planning events today to address the issue.

"The interim mayor has been evaluating and deliberating on this for seven months at the peril of our citizens," Mitchell said. "Now Hamm is resigning, but the failure to lead begins with my opponent."

Hamm, 58, was named acting police commissioner by then-Mayor Martin O'Malley in November 2004, He was O'Malley's fourth commissioner in less than five years. The Cherry Hill native, who joined the police in 1974 and spent much of his time in the Central District, was seen as a homegrown leader who could bring stability to a demoralized department that had been embroiled in controversies with its previous two commissioners -- both of whom came to Baltimore from New York.

Hamm hewed to the zero-tolerance approach that O'Malley advocated for tackling crime in Baltimore's troubled neighborhoods, but critics and civil rights advocates blasted the department for making mass arrests. After O'Malley became governor, Hamm and Dixon -- arguing that the city "cannot arrest its way out of this problem" -- began talking about the Police Department's need to adopt a community policing approach to win back public trust in many neighborhoods.

Hamm and Dixon have come under increasing criticism in recent months, not only for crime itself but also for their response to it. Last year, Baltimore recorded 276 homicides, making it the second-deadliest large city in the country, behind Detroit, according to FBI crime statistics. This year, the city's homicide numbers have worsened significantly, with police officials and other experts attributing at least some of the increase to a troubling rise in gang activities.

Since May 1, the city has averaged a homicide a day; it is on pace to record more than 300 murders for the first time since 1999. Also, about 100 more people this year have been victims of nonfatal shootings.

The transition from zero tolerance to an effort focused more on violent criminals -- combined with persistent understaffing -- has been difficult for many of the rank-and-file officers to cope with, officials said, further reducing morale in the department.

"If he leaves, he leaves," said Paul M. Blair Jr., the president of the city's police union. "He makes number eight in eight years. What does it do to the morale? Everyone will be juggling around. Look at the major police departments that have had chiefs for 12 years. They have stability. We haven't had that for a long time in this city."

During Hamm's tenure, total crime declined, though the city's most-watched indicator of violence -- the homicide number -- did not improve. He encountered many of the same problems as his predecessors: rampant drug dealing, an overburdened court system and poor relations among city and state agencies involved in administering the city's criminal justice system.

There have also been a number of embarrassing policy reversals. This summer, the Dixon administration ordered the department to deploy foot patrols in some of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods -- part of an effort, officials said, to build trust between residents and police. Short on staffing and overtime money, top police officials had to take about 85 detectives off homicide cases and other investigations to walk the beat.

But two weeks later, under mounting pressure and criticism from within police ranks as homicides soared, Hamm and Bealefeld decided that homicide detectives would be excused from foot patrols.

Suggesting that her message was not getting through to officers, Dixon held an unusual closed-door meeting in June with about 500 city officers, who were ordered to attend.

As the city negotiated its budget this spring, Dixon promised to curb police overtime -- repeatedly saying that the department didn't have "a blank check." And while overtime was reduced, Dixon amended her position in May by arguing that the increase in crime necessitated spending more money.

Hamm also weathered criticism for several high-profile scandals and miscues, including police corruption cases involving his officers and, more recently, questions over his role in a generous pension package given to his former deputy police commissioner, Marcus L. Brown.

A poll conducted for The Sun that was published this week showed that more than two-thirds of likely Democratic voters named crime as the top issue facing the city. The same poll found that 38 percent of voters believe Hamm is an ineffective police chief, compared with 26 percent who thought he was effective and 35 percent who were not sure.

Still, many political insiders believed Dixon would keep Hamm on, at least through the election. The administration had just renegotiated his contract this spring, increasing his salary 6 percent to $162,000 a year. The one-year contract had appeared on city Board of Estimates agendas but was deferred at least once. The five-member board, which includes the mayor, approved the contract in April.

O'Malley was frequently criticized for the turnover of commissioners during his time as mayor -- including last year, when he ran against then-Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. -- and it is unlikely the administration will find anyone to perform the job between now and the election.

At events and news conferences over the past several weeks, Dixon has been constantly asked about Hamm. Her answer has been consistent: She would hold off on making a decision until after the election.

"I want to assess all the leadership in the Police Department to see if they're the best people, and I want to take this time to do that," Dixon told The Sun on June 27. "I think Sept. 12 I can make my decision, yes or no, do I want to keep the leadership or do I think we need to new leadership."

Lt. Frederick V. Roussey, a past president of the police union, said the city's political leadership should support -- but not interfere too much with -- how the Police Department should be expected to battle crime.

"Whoever is commissioner, City Hall just needs to let the police be the police," Roussey said. He said micromanaging by the O'Malley and Dixon administrations tied Hamm's hands.

O'Malley officials declined to comment last night, but the governor -- at a political event in Baltimore on Tuesday -- said he thought that the transition of power this year and the nonstop state and city political campaigns of the past two years are at least partly to blame for low police morale and crime.

"I think if you look over the last year and a half -- it was happening even as I was mayor, as much as we pushed against it -- if you let the enforcement efforts continue to decline, you're going to see the most violent crimes spike up, and that's what happened," O'Malley said.

"I'm talking about people who want to blame policing and police officers for every ill that our society suffers from. I think when those messages go out, as they have in the course of two back-to-back elections, ... unfortunately, it makes officers more reluctant to go out and enforce the law."

gus.sentementes@baltsun.com john.fritze@baltimoresun.com

Sun reporters Julie Bykowicz, Liz F. Kay and Annie Linskey contributed to this article.

Surging violence

Homicides and shootings in Baltimore this year are up significantly over the same period in 2006. Homicides are on pace to exceed 300 for the first time since 1999.

What happened

Police Commissioner Leonard D. Hamm (right) has resigned, sources said yesterday. Mayor Sheila Dixon is expected to announce his departure this morning at City Hall.

What's next

Frederick H. Bealefeld III is expected to take temporary leadership of the 3,000-officer department, according to sources. A permanent new commissioner is not expected to be picked until after the Sept. 11 Democratic primary for mayor. ARTICLE, PG 4A

Recent city police commissioners

Edward V. Woods

July 1989- November 1993

Thomas C. Frazier

January 1994- September 1999

Ronald L. Daniel

December 1999- March 2000

Edward T. Norris

March 2000- December 2002

Kevin P. Clark

February 2003- November 2004

Leonard D. Hamm

November 2004- July 2007

Copyright © 2021, The Baltimore Sun, a Baltimore Sun Media Group publication | Place an Ad
72°