Posted on 07/09/2019 4:30:55 PM PDT by Kaslin
Regular readers are well aware of the troubles that have been plaguing Baltimore, Maryland for many years now. Pervasive gang violence, an out of control murder rate, endemic poverty and government corruption have combined to leave Charm City in a terrible state. Some of the people on the front line of this crisis are the men and women of the Baltimore Police Department, who are working in a dangerous environment while dealing with challenges of their own, including fractured relations with the communities they serve and incidents of corruption that have eroded trust.
Now, however, under the leadership of a new mayor, the Baltimore PD has been allowed to take steps to turn things around. A new drive to hire officers and improve conditions on the streets is being billed as what they hope will be the Greatest Comeback Story in America. (Baltimore Sun)
The Baltimore Police Department wants to recruit officers to “Be a Part of the Greatest Comeback Story in America.”
Police Commissioner Michael Harrison and Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young announced a new $200,000 marketing campaign Monday that they hope will help fill the department’s ranks, particularly with more women, minorities and city residents.
“It’s no secret that we need more police officers on the street to help make Baltimore a safer city and to reduce the burden on our existing officers,” Harrison said at a news conference. Starting salaries for new officers are $53,512, but the total pay can increase drastically with the department’s liberal use of overtime.
This is a welcome sign that perhaps the municipal government of Baltimore is finally coming to grips with their own problems. When it comes to the Baltimore PD, they’ve had serious retention problems. They hired 95 new officers in the last year but lost 100 police during the same period. This has led to a condition where one spokesperson said the police department has 500 fewer officers than it needs. Given the current rate of murders, shootings and other violent crime, that’s a formula for failure.
They hope to recruit a large number of new officers, promising good starting salaries and benefits. More importantly, they’re hoping to diversify their ranks, hiring more people from the specific communities they will serve. Familiar faces and names may go a fair ways toward rebuilding trust and getting people to stop fearing the repercussions of cooperating with the police.
There’s more to clean up than that, however. The department has been plagued with scandals in recent years, particularly in terms of the Gun Trace Task Force debacle. Mulitple officers in that group were convicted of trafficking drugs themselves, stealing from suspects and shaking down both criminals and regular citizens. That makes the trust-building exercises all the more challenging.
Can they pull this comeback off? I’ll be praying that they can because portions of Baltimore are currently little more than unofficial war zones. In order to get businesses to come back and employ people, they have to know that the streets are safe. For students to get a good education and go on to college, they have to be able to make it to school alive and not be recruited by the gangs. The challenges facing Baltimore are daunting and their population continues to fall, but they’ve got to try something. This is a city in crisis and it’s good to see the new municipal leaders at least trying to lead the way.
They are throwing money at the problem rather than leadership. The goal is diversity.
Are they going to hire people make a big buzz about it AND ENFOCE THE LAW?
or hire people and make a big buzz about it?
No.
It’s extremely rare to have police in my neighborhood, but we rarely see crime either. Must be something in the water in Baltimore.
I would say “Comeback? They could hardly get worse.” But all too often recently liberals and liberal run institutions seem to be taking that as a challenge. I will say they need to be careful and not lower their standards just to meet hiring goals. In fact, given their history of problems they need to raise their standards significantly. So can it be done? Sure. Is it likely? Not really, again, given their history, the local government, the local attitudes, and the all-to-likely “hire anyone” mentality to meet numbers.
[More importantly, they’re hoping to diversify their ranks, hiring more people from the specific communities they will serve. Familiar faces and names may go a fair ways toward rebuilding trust and getting people to stop fearing the repercussions of cooperating with the police.]
Either way, it ain’t worth saving. Garbage. Get out.
Build That Wall Around Baltimore, ... just in case.
What happened to Pugh, the old mayor? No charges for bribery yet?
Avon Barksdale says no - we own this city.
No , Black corruption rules
There is nMayor o carcetti in sight
Fixed.
White men need not apply.
Saw Baltimore for the first time visiting the Aquarium and some of the harbor. It was nice but the rest of the city is a typical DNC sh*thole. It’s a shame people vote the same a-holes into office when they live like they are in the third world.
It is all about making the police department resemble, even more, the racist, criminal mentality of the majority of the Baltimore population...
Baltimore is our own Mogadishu... Nothing except extermination can solve it's problems...
She resigned according to Wikipedia
When I was looking for a house in Aberdeen, MD (30 miles NE of Baltimore) I called the police to ask about the neighborhood.
He said, “I have no idea, we never go there.”
Works for me
I live north of Baltimore and have a friend who is a plainclothes officer in the city.
I know a young man who wants to go into LE. Just let him know about the recruit drive.
“Nothing like hiring gang members to become cops in order to reduce crime”
Ever since I was kid I believed that to be true. My dinky little town hired two of the town thugs as cops. I guess they figured that they knew all the tricks already.
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