He added: "What was the use of having the group do the work and do the study if you are not going to go forward?"
Blair said that he boycotted the commissioner's recent confirmation hearing because he is so upset about Bealefeld's reluctance to embrace the plan.
A group of 10 Police Department leaders - including Chief of Patrol Col. John Skinner, who is one of the commissioner's close advisers - studied the experimental arrangement and completed the nine-page report in May.
They concluded that the new schedule "has had a significant impact on the District's ability to operationally address crime patterns. ... As a result of this impact the Northeast District continues to achieve notable and significant reductions in crime." The report says the system has "greatly improved the working conditions and quality of life of the officers."
The report recommends that the police expand the new schedule to a second police district to "create a foundation of planning for implementation citywide."
The new report is the second evaluation of the program. The first, in February, took place as the district was seeing a 28 percent increase in robberies and a 30 percent increase in violent crime, according to the report. But in the new report, committee members concluded that the spike in crime then was due to instability in the command structure.
Clifford credited other continuing police operations in the Northeastern District for the recent drop in crime. He declined to specify what those operations are.
Mike Hilliard, a former police major and community leader, said he supports the new plan particularly because of the five-hour period in which two shifts overlap. He said that gives commanders more resources to suppress crime.
"Maj. [Delmar] Dickson has done some smart things with that power shift," he said, referring to the Northeastern District commander. "The crime reduction you are seeing is real. The reason it is happening is they are involving the community and they are deploying smartly."
annie.linskey@baltsun.com
