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Police Reform Not Quite There Yet

P. Kenneth Burns
/
WYPR

Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts announced Monday his department has implemented more than half of the recommendations of a consultant’s report since it was completed a year ago. But he didn’t take a victory lap.

“This is the midway point,” Batts said. “We’re working in the right direction to make this a better city and a better police department that serves this city.”

The report, drafted by Strategic Policy Partnership and Bill Bratton, the current New York City police commissioner, was released last year as investigators were looking at the in-custody death of Tyrone West in July 2013.

It outlines a strategy to fight crime and overhaul the city’s police department.

The department has implemented 85 of the 164 recommendations from the report.  City police have increased the number of foot patrols and commanders are communicating more with each other through morning teleconferences.  Rank and file officers are communicating more with community groups.  In turn, members of the community have been invited to address officers.  In addition, there is a board that reviews incidents involving force called the Force Investigative Team (FIT.)

“I said at the beginning of this plan that this will be my bible; that tool that you can hold me accountable to; I still mean that.” Batts said.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said statistics show that crime is down but that will not be enough to see if the department is making improvements.

“It’s not enough for me to show progress on paper,” she said, “The true metric for success rests in the faces of the residents that I see every day.”

Police officials credited a dramatic increase in crime tips to Metro Crime Stoppers for the decrease in crime.  

Here is the list of recommendations from the consultant's report implemented by Baltimore Police.