Annapolis Mayor Ellen O. Moyer announced yesterday a slate of new leadership for the city Police Department, including an interim chief, the supervisor of a new state-backed anti-crime program and a volunteer adviser in the form of a nationally known former New York City police commissioner.
Michael A. Pristoop, who has run the Department of General Services for less than eight months after 21 years with the Baltimore Police Department, has been tapped to take charge of the Annapolis department starting next week.
He will get help from an unlikely source: Howard Safir, who as New York police commissioner and ally of former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani was credited with a 40 percent drop in crime. He lives in Annapolis and has offered to help the department in an advisory capacity.
The state capital, with five homicides in less than four months, is on pace to break its homicide record for the second straight year. It recently became the target of an initiative called Capital City Safe Streets, which draws on federal and state resources to crack down on offenders at every level. State officials, including Gov. Martin O'Malley, hope it will serve as a model for other municipalities.
Yesterday's announcements also included the selection of the program's coordinator, Beth Hart, an intelligence analyst who was previously manager of Baltimore's citywide system of surveillance cameras.
"We've got our neck on the line [with Capital City Safe Streets] to show what works and what doesn't work, and to quantify those things that really make a difference," Moyer said. "We're moving forward with really good people."
Fourteen-year chief Joseph F. Johnson, the only African-American to lead the Annapolis Police Department, is set to leave in June but has been working on a limited basis since health problems forced him to step aside briefly last year. He did not appear at yesterday's news conference.
Though city officials are continuing with a nationwide search for the next police chief - at $128,000 last year, the highest-paid position in city government - Moyer said yesterday that she would like to keep Pristoop. For his part, the 42-year-old Baltimore County resident said he wants the job as well.
"It is my hope to become the permanent chief," he said.
