Baltimore's New Top Cop
To: Mary Pat Clarke, Councilman, 14th District.

RE: Baltimores New Top Cop

FROM: Allan W. Garske, 3101 Guilford Avenue, agarske@hotmail.com,(410) 880-2483

Congratulations on your election as City Council representative for Baltimore's new 14th District.
I was pleased to see that a new website for the City Council was up immediately after your confirmation last week.

I enjoyed attending the recent Candidates' Forum at the Waverly Branch of The Enoch Pratt Free Library and also was able to hear your hour long radio interview with Anthony McCarthy.

I have some thoughts to share about the Forum and also about some of the other issues you discussed. However, since an early item for Council consideration will apparently be the possible approval of Mayor O'Malley's choice of Acting Police Commissioner Leonard D. Hamm, I wanted to share with you some questions regarding Baltimore city policing.

1. One of the successes of recently fired Police Commissioner Kevin Clark's administration was the formation of a squad to clear the city corners of drug dealers. Would Commissioner Hamm if approved continue that approach?

2. Witness intimidation has been a problem in bringing drug dealers to justice. What approach would Commissioner Hamm take to this problem? How should citizen complaints of criminal activity be handled? How should citizen complaints about criminal activity by police be handled?

3. What changes if any would Commissioner Hamm make in how the police relate to the community in terms of public relations?

4. Commissioner Hamm after retiring from the Police Department worked in security for Morgan State University and the Downtown Partnership.

The education industry in Baltimore is a thriving aspect of the city's economy. What suggestions would Commissioner Hamm have to improve security for the city's college students. (On the Homewood campus we have had a recent unsolved student murder. The 1989 murder of JHU coed Brigitte Phillips still goes unsolved.) Also, what role should City police take in policing the Baltimore Public Schools.

Some controversy has been raised about the operation of street surveillance cameras by the private police of the Downtown Partnership and the Charles Village Community Benefits District. Does Commissioner Hamm feel these cameras should be operated by the regular Police?

Please share this Email with whoever you think might be interested. I will post it on my Weblog which is accessible at: https://allan366.tripod.com/AllanG/