Baltimore New Police Commissioner

He thinks he’ll be able to combat crime like that and he thinks we’ll have a great year. Baltimore residents/law abiding gun owners, what do you think?




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I'd say that the current warm-up is going to give the gang-bangers all the opportunity they need to get out there and get a jump on a new record year. All that cold weather kept things quiet for a bit undoubtedly. Of the 55 arrests they made in that headline, 55 of them will likely be nolle prossed.

I don't think he will be any more successful than his predecessors, unfortunately. I wish him well... but count me as skeptical.

Not likely in my mind that he can do a thing about the larger prosecution and sentencing side of Baltimore's crime equation.

I wish him luck. He'll need it.

Hope for the best.
But the same Mayor will presumably still micromanage, the same prosecutors and judges will continue doing their thing , the same gang and drug culture are in place , same poverty , same dysfunctional schools , same political machine, same voting public generally non-participating ,and largely apathetic or co-dependent.


On the plus side, MDS members in position to know , report at out the outset he has decent raport with rank & file Ofc . Remains to be seen how that holds in the long run .

Kman said:

That's what Bmore needs...another black in a position of power.
Everything is going to be OK now.

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Baltimore was a mess under Owe'Malley, too. Imbeciles, geniuses, and everything in between come in all shades.

Just another temporary short term stooge that will blindly follow the misguided policies of the city politicians right down the crapper turning Baltimore into the new Detroit.

Allen65 said:

Baltimore was a mess under Owe'Malley, too. Imbeciles, geniuses, and everything in between come in all shades.

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Agreed. This has to do with party, politics, and power.

I bet he is excited... to get the credit towards his pension and $150,000 firing bonus like Davis. As for actually fighting crime, good luck with that.

Mini14tac said:

Just another temporary short term stooge that will blindly follow the misguided policies of the city politicians right down the crapper turning Baltimore into the new Detroit.

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That ship's already sailed. Detroit has seen a rebound in the city center with a thriving young professional scene. Baltimore is the new benchmark for failure as a municipality.

De Sousa said an effort to deploy more officers onto the street for a 13-day operation had already resulted in 19 guns’ being seized, including an assault rifle and a shotgun, and 55 arrests.

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http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-de-sousa-reorganization-20180122-story.html

here we go. we need more laws...

Four people have been killed in shootings since De Sousa took over Friday morning. And in the early hours of Saturday morning, officers shot a man in the leg.

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So except for all the murdering, maiming, robbing, and stealing, Operation Blitz was a complete success. Sounds like the new commish knows all about spin.

#GoodLuck

I have met him as he was the Major for Northeast District where my business is located. He got things done and the crime rate for what he had to work with was low. It fell apart after he left. I think if the politicos leave him alone he will give results that the city needs. Coming up thru the ranks gains much respect from the troops. They need a leader they can relate to not a imported talking head. I say Good Luck to Him. Chris

Really?

Kman said:

That's what Bmore needs...another black in a position of power.
Everything is going to be OK now.

Click to expand...

Wow. Some pretty worthwhile insight there.

The sad fact is, Baltimore is dealing with a lot of fallout from the uprising/riots, and the crooked gun trace task force backlash isn't helping.

We've long had our problems, but during the riots, a great deal of prescription drugs hit the streets. Prescription drugs had never had a real street presence in Baltimore until then, and most of the drug markets had settled out. There was still violence, obviously, but distribution and turf was pretty well shaken out.

Then you add hundreds of thousands of prescription pills into a mix where the police are demoralized and standing down, so a new distribution chain needs to evolve, and as you'd expect, there has been a great deal of conflict, even by Baltimore standards.

We also deal with a shocking backlog, as BPD's computer system is antiquated to say the least. They are making headway, but it can still take weeks for police reports taken by hand to make it into the system. Not exactly conducive to agile police work.

Another post riots/uprising problem is in the juveniles courts. Previously, right around 90 percent of children charged as adults were bumped back to the juvenile courts. Now that percentage is (and this is second hand information, but I believe the statistic to be accurate) over 99 percent. There is very little the police can do to keep juvenile offenders off the streets.

And on top of the general distrust for the BPD, this Gun Trace Task Force fiasco is a killer. Some of the stories I've heard are frankly horrifying. The level of corruption and the criminal network linking the BPD and Philadelphia PD would be devastating to just about any police force.


Throw in the under funded schools, closing rec centers, and more, it's a tough nut to crack.

I thought Kevin Davis was a solid guy and a good cop. He said the right things, and my understanding is, the cops liked him. Every time I saw him talk to the community, he got through. But his tenure was doomed, starting as it did right after the city emerged from curfews and armed National Guard patrols.

From folks I've spoken to who know Sousa, he sounds like a very good cop, and likely to get the job on more than an interim basis. He's smart, and he came up in Baltimore, so he gets the city and the force. I wish him the best (I mean, I live here, so I'd be crazy not too), but there's only so much the police commissioner can do. New blood on the force. Ripping out every crooked cop like the people from Gun Trace and changing the blue code can go a long way to restoring not just relations with the community, but the morale of the force.

And this may sound silly, but the BPD really needs to address its customer service standards. I've had some great dealings with the BPD, but I've also had some terrible ones. Everyone I know who lives in this city has at least one bad cop story. I get that it is an incredibly difficult job, especially here, but changing the way they interact with us could go a long way to help.

RE:

Chris said:

Coming up thru the ranks gains much respect from the troops. They need a leader they can relate to not a imported talking head. I say Good Luck to Him. Chris

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I agree Chris, but an import isn't always bad. Ed Norris was a good cop and instilled good policing. I thought he had a positive effect. Batts was a mistake. Davis was good. He came from PG County, so he got a lot of the issues Baltimore faces. My one complaint is that he and the Mayor never put on a unified show. If the commissioner can't get that support, and make those stands in the media, he's screwed.

All I want to hear him say is.....Arresting and jailing good citizens carrying handguns illegally in the city, for self protection, won't be a priority for the Baltimore Police Department.

I am way more concerned with being able to trust that the police are doing their jobs. I got held up on my front porch a few years ago. I was about to give the guy my wallet and phone when he asked me to open my door. At that point, I decided I'd rather be dead on my porch than let him get inside with my family. So I threw my stuff at his head so he couldn't get my keys, grabbed the gun, then we fell down the steps and proceeded to beat the snot out of each other.

The detective never actually came out to talk to me. She called me twice, but never returned my messages. I tracked down photo and video of the guy following me into the farm store before he followed me home, then video of him running down the street with me chasing him. The detective had a month to claim the video before the files were erased, and she never even bothered.

That is the kind of crap that not only leaves a bad guy on the street, but strips the good guys of faith in the force. That's why I say customer service.

BigTrain said:

The sad fact is, Baltimore is dealing with a lot of fallout from the uprising/riots, and the crooked gun trace task force backlash isn't helping.

We've long had our problems, but during the riots, a great deal of prescription drugs hit the streets. Prescription drugs had never had a real street presence in Baltimore until then, and most of the drug markets had settled out. There was still violence, obviously, but distribution and turf was pretty well shaken out.

Then you add hundreds of thousands of prescription pills into a mix where the police are demoralized and standing down, so a new distribution chain needs to evolve, and as you'd expect, there has been a great deal of conflict, even by Baltimore standards.

We also deal with a shocking backlog, as BPD's computer system is antiquated to say the least. They are making headway, but it can still take weeks for police reports taken by hand to make it into the system. Not exactly conducive to agile police work.

Another post riots/uprising problem is in the juveniles courts. Previously, right around 90 percent of children charged as adults were bumped back to the juvenile courts. Now that percentage is (and this is second hand information, but I believe the statistic to be accurate) over 99 percent. There is very little the police can do to keep juvenile offenders off the streets.

And on top of the general distrust for the BPD, this Gun Trace Task Force fiasco is a killer. Some of the stories I've heard are frankly horrifying. The level of corruption and the criminal network linking the BPD and Philadelphia PD would be devastating to just about any police force.


Throw in the under funded schools, closing rec centers, and more, it's a tough nut to crack.

I thought Kevin Davis was a solid guy and a good cop. He said the right things, and my understanding is, the cops liked him. Every time I saw him talk to the community, he got through. But his tenure was doomed, starting as it did right after the city emerged from curfews and armed National Guard patrols.

From folks I've spoken to who know Sousa, he sounds like a very good cop, and likely to get the job on more than an interim basis. He's smart, and he came up in Baltimore, so he gets the city and the force. I wish him the best (I mean, I live here, so I'd be crazy not too), but there's only so much the police commissioner can do. New blood on the force. Ripping out every crooked cop like the people from Gun Trace and changing the blue code can go a long way to restoring not just relations with the community, but the morale of the force.

And this may sound silly, but the BPD really needs to address its customer service standards. I've had some great dealings with the BPD, but I've also had some terrible ones. Everyone I know who lives in this city has at least one bad cop story. I get that it is an incredibly difficult job, especially here, but changing the way they interact with us could go a long way to help.

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I agree with a lot of that, but Baltimore City has the third highest budget per student in the country...

No, Baltimore schools are not under-funded
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/no-baltimore-schools-are-not-under-funded/article/2564013

Do Baltimore Schools Need More Money?
http://www.newsweek.com/do-baltimore-schools-need-more-money-329085

Give Every Child in Baltimore a $17,329 School-Choice Voucher
https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/terence-p-jeffrey/give-every-child-baltimore-17329-school-choice-voucher

Baltimore second in per-pupil spending, Census Bureau says
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-05-21/news/bs-md-ci-census-schools-20130521_1_school-system-per-pupil-spending-districts

How much does Baltimore spend on its schools?
http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/may/05/chris-wallace/foxs-wallace-baltimore-ranks-third-school-spending/

Baltimore does not need any more money. They waste and abuse the money they have and they are the 3rd most expensive district in the state. And 2/3 comes from outside Baltimore so basically Montgomery and Howard county send Baltimore money. They cannot even keep the schools with heat. People need to be marching on North ave and demanding accountability. haha, I crack myself up.

Someone also needs to march over to the City Finance Dept and knock some sense into the idiots who refuse to let vacant properties go to tax sale because they would sell for way less than the tax lien and some morons think tax sales would reflect poorly on Baltimore bond rating.

If Sousa manages to arrest the entire city bureaucracy, he might have a chance at cleaning up the city.