Baltimore City officials announced on Thursday that Police Commissioner Michael Harrison is stepping down early from his contract.
A police spokesperson confirmed to WYPR that Harrison’s last day leading the force is Thursday.
During a press conference, Harrison did not divulge details about his decision to leave but that it was made with Mayor Brandon Scott after “several weeks” of conversation. “It became clear to both of us that this was the right time to make this transition,” said Mayor Scott.
Scott appointed deputy commissioner of operations and 25-year police force veteran Rich Worley to the job as an interim with plans to make him the commissioner if the city council approves. Worley said he would continue following the GVRS, or Group Violence Reduction Strategy. “We’re going down the right path,” said Worley, “That’s the city’s strategy and we will continue to do that.”
This year’s current fatal and non-fatal shooting numbers are down, as the Mayor pointed out during the conference. The city has touted the GVRS as a major factor in those reductions and has plans to expand it with the Mayor’s proposed FY 2024 budget.
Those reductions haven’t been the case until very recently. Harrison took the role in 2019. During that time the city saw 300 homicides every year, something that had occurred annually since 2015. The department has also had to contend with staffing shortages.
Harrison has led the department through four years of reforms related to the police department’s federal consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice for unconstitutional policing practices. In a budget meeting on Tuesday, Harrison said the city could be done with that decree “within a couple of years.”
Harrison’s departure comes as less of a surprise after Tuesday night’s budget meeting where Councilmember Eric Costello pressed on Harrison to say outright if he would commit to serving out his contract through March 2024. Harrison said he serves “at the pleasure of the mayor” and therefore couldn’t answer the question because, “I have to know where the mayor stands on that answer before I can actually answer the question.”
The police commissioner’s early resignation is now one of many high-profile exits that have marked Mayor Scott’s administration but it is also the second high-profile public safety departure within the last month. On May 11, Shontay Jackson, head of the Mayor’s Department of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, announced her resignation which will be effective on June 30th. MONSE is the office for many of the wraparound services that the city employs with efforts to reduce violence, among other things.
“I have been truly blessed to serve the city of Baltimore and receive the support and confidence of the men and women of this department, our elected leaders and the great people of Baltimore,” said Harrison. He told the press he does not have another job lined up, nor is he currently in interviews for one, but that he would now take this time to “breathe.”
