On the heels of a particularly violent week in Baltimore City, leadership faces questions about what’s working and what’s not as the weather warms on and concern rises for more crime.
During a WBAL Radio interview, Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison was asked bluntly if City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby is making it more difficult for law enforcement, referring to her prosecution policies of not seeking charges for crimes she’s deemed low-level.
“Listen, it is not my job to decide that. My job is to make sure that we run a very, very strong and ethical constitutional police department. We have turned this department into exactly that,” Harrison said. “It’s really not my place to say who’s doing a good or a bad job. My job is to make sure that I’m held accountable – you can hold me accountable for turning the department into a department you paid for and deserve and expect.”
Harrison walked close to the line of criticizing Mosby and her policies, but he didn’t cross it. FOX45 spoke with former BPD interim Commissioner Gary Tuggle who said allowing lower-level crimes to go unchecked leads to an environment that could be dangerous for communities.
“When folks are allowed to commit those quality-of-life crimes it often times gets worse and escalates into other things, particularly when they know there are no repercussions for their actions,” Tuggle said.
Harrison’s comments echo similar statements from Mayor Brandon Scott who has become more openly frustrated with the crime problem, but like Harrison, wouldn’t directly criticize Mosby’s plans.
“The systems have not been working together for a long, long time,” Scott previously told FOX45. “Everybody can improve and must improve.”
During an unrelated news conference, Gov. Larry Hogan said leadership in Baltimore City won’t criticize Mosby because of politics, calling it “the typical Democratic politics in Baltimore City.”
“No one wants to talk about the problems. And nobody wants to fix the problems. I just think they were afraid to support the tough crime bills. They’re afraid to actually take actions that are going to get the violent criminals off the streets, and they’re afraid to criticize the failures. It’s a shame,” Hogan said. “We’ve tried to support them every way we can. We give them every single thing they’ve ever asked for. We back them up every way we can. But it’s just going to take better leadership in the city.”
Requests for further statements from Harrison and Scott went unanswered.
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