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New Police Commissioner to be Announced By End of Month, Pugh says

Mayor Catherine Pugh announced Wednesday that she will name a new Baltimore Police Commissioner by the end of the month. The announcement comes among talk of new changes to the department and training efforts.

Mayor Pugh would not say who is on the selection committee, nor wuld she say identify the potential candidates for the job. But she did say that the selection process has changed since former-Commissioner Darryl De Sousa’s swift departure in May.

"I don’t think Commissioner De Sousa had a long screening process," she said.  "I think that it [the process] is more inclusive of other people."

With the uptick in violence in September, Pugh says she’s working to get more officers patrolling the streets by adding five more classes to the police academy and getting help to do it.

"We’re having conversations right now with Coppin State University about how we add those additional classes," says Pugh.

Pugh says she is also reestablishing the auxiliary police force and asking the state for additional funding for training and more state troopers to help patrol.

"As you well know we are still monitoring overtime, but we don’t have enough officers and that’s a reality," she says.

Meanwhile, Interim-Commissioner Gary Tuggle is pulling officers from desk jobs and putting them on the streets.

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