Baltimore, Maryland Mayor Stephanie Rawlins-Blake announced yesterday her selection of former Long Beach Police Chief Anthony Batts as Baltimore’s next police commissioner. Batts’ new job comes nearly ten months after his troubled departure from the Oakland Police Department, where had served as Police Chief since leaving LBPD in 2009.
Batts spent more than 30 years with the LBPD including 27 as an officer and a final seven as chief before taking over the Oakland force. Under his helm, Long Beach experienced record low crime rates and he was lauded as a “change agent” who was very well liked.
“He made a huge difference in this community and we’re sorry to see him go,” City Manager Pat West said of Batts in an interview conducted by the Post in 2009. “We consider Tony to be America’s top cop.”
In Oakland, however, Batts is reported to have butted heads with the new mayor and he submitted his resignation just weeks prior to the OPD’s headline-making clash with protestors from the Occupy movement. In his resignation letter, Batts said that he “found [him]self with limited control but full accountability.”
Batts will start his position with the 3000-officer Baltimore Police Department on September 27, pending approval from City Council, which the Baltimore Sun reported this week were not happy with the non-internal choice. Members of the City Council had reportedly urged the mayor to make a local hire as many of the previous commissioners were also from outside the city and hiring from within would offer stability to go along with the recent reduction in crime rates.
City Councilman Robert W. Curran, who also represents parts of Northeast Baltimore, expressed concern about bringing in a new chief from outside the department.
“They’re not going to be able to hit the ground running,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if he’s from Oakland or Oklahoma, he’s not going to be able to understand the situation up here in the Northeast.”