The mayor acted just hours after the police union issued a report critical of the department’s response to the unrest set off by the death of Freddie Gray, an unarmed black man who sustained a fatal spinal cord injury while in police custody. But Ms. Rawlings-Blake insisted she was responding to a “crime surge,” and not acting to placate the union, whose report said the riots were preventable.
“Recent events have placed an intense focus on our police leadership, distracting many from what needs to be our main focus: the fight against crime. So we need a change,” the mayor said at a City Hall news conference. She added: “This was not an easy decision. But it’s one that is in the best interest of the people of Baltimore.”
Mr. Batts’s firing comes at a time of increasing tensions between the police union and department leadership — and a sharp rise in crime. In the weeks since May 1, when six officers were charged in Mr. Gray’s death, murders have risen to a level not seen in decades. There have been 155 homicides this year, 50 more than in the same period last year, and nonfatal shootings have nearly doubled, the police said. Almost half of the killings occurred after May 1.
