Harrison right for the job
Late on Feb. 20, after a long day attending meetings and strategy sessions, Michael Harrison — the former New Orleans police chief who’d been tapped to lead Baltimore’s department — settled in for a more-than-two-hour discussion with residents from Southeast Baltimore.
It was the seventh of nine such meetings. Mr. Harrison spent both Valentine’s Day and his wedding anniversary locked in conversations with a public that had every right to be skeptical.
There were questions about the city’s ability to fully comply with a federal consent decree and queries about Mr. Harrison’s commitment to instituting a community policing model. Above all, residents wanted to know exactly how he planned to restore trust in a department that some in Baltimore had lost faith in.
Mr. Harrison’s answers were clear and concise. He was received well, but there was an understandable guardedness to the whole affair.
I’d first met Mr. Harrison in late January and immediately liked him. He seemed to possess the right combination of humility, intellect and integrity. There was also a smidge of self-assuredness present — a trait that would be needed to help push through tough reforms in Baltimore’s police department.
My personal feelings about him aside, I wanted to provide the public with a window into the type of leader Mr. Harrison might be here in Baltimore. For that, however, we needed to turn to the people who knew him best.
Beginning in late January, and over the course of several days, two of my City Council colleagues spent nearly 11 hours in Mr. Harrison’s hometown of New Orleans conducting background interviews with roughly two dozen people, who ranged from elected officials to civil rights attorneys to criminal justice advocates.
What unfolded over the conversations, captured in nearly 300-pages of transcripts, was an important account of Mr. Harrison’s time leading the New Orleans Police Department.
Mary Howell, an attorney who’s spent four decades fighting for civil rights, spoke about New Orleans’ long road to reform and noted that previous efforts, while well-intentioned, never lasted long enough to take root.
“If there’s not a change from inside, in terms of the culture, all of this stuff is fragile and is susceptible to being undone and eroded,” Ms. Howell told our council investigators.
“With Chief Harrison, what we saw was an embrace,” she continued. “Instead of fighting or resisting,” he welcomed reform and became its biggest champion.
Tanya Tetlow, a former federal prosecutor and longtime advocate in New Orleans for reforming the department’s handling of domestic violence cases, also noted, with frustration, the way past efforts toward change “slipped” away.
“I’d tried to work on these issues before with other chiefs and got nowhere,” Ms. Tetlow said. “But Chief Harrison admitted there was a problem and wanted to improve. I’ve never seen a bureaucracy, especially a police department, turn around so quickly. Everything we asked for he gave us.”
And it wasn’t just people who’ve spent their careers holding the department accountable who praised Mr. Harrison’s skills as a leader, a fact that will serve him well here in Baltimore as he prepares to earn the trust and support of the men and women who make up our department.
Sgt. Willie Jenkins, a midline supervisor with the New Orleans Police Department, talked about the delicate balance Mr., Harrison navigated to get some skeptical officers to more fully buy into mandated reforms.
“Chief Harrison made it a point to make people feel their own responsibility towards the department and the community,” he said. The officers “understood that these things have to happen, because we have to continue growing as a community, with the police department and all the citizens, to know that we’re doing the right things at the right times, all the time.”
One after another, people who worked with Mr. Harrison praised his ability to lead during difficult times.
While Baltimore is undoubtedly a city of great promise, with an army of concerned citizens who’ve shouldered the heavy burden of reform, violent crime remains stubbornly high.
We know that the Baltimore Police Department will not serve as the primary factor in transforming our city. They will, however, play an important role. Selecting the right person to lead the department and work to gain the trust of our city is critically important.
During his many Baltimore meetings, Mr. Harrison acknowledged he was stepping into a city where the relationship between police and community was fractured and in need of mending.
But the terrain, he assured us, was familiar territory — a sentiment his supporters in New Orleans confirmed.
Michael Harrison is the right person for the job, and I look forward to casting my vote for him to become Baltimore’s next police chief.
Bernard C. “Jack” Young is president of the Baltimore City Council. His email is councilpresident@baltimorecity.gov.