He said that as the city claims that the Inner Harbor area is under control, officers are being pulled from other districts to beef up the downtown presence, leaving neighborhoods vulnerable. A beefed-up complement of officers is to start patrolling the harbor area next week.
"They're pulling from other districts to address a problem that they say doesn't exist," Cherry said. Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III "says everything's fine, and in one swipe replaces two of his leaders in the district. Actions speak louder than words."
But it might be the Bolton Hill incident that persuaded the Police Department leadership to make a change.
The baby's father, Travis Hardaway, said he got a call from the department's public affairs office, a visit from three officers, a call from a city councilman and another visit from police - all after a reporter requested a copy of an incident report for the robbery.
Siwei Yao, the Chinese-born nanny, said she told the first responding officers that she didn't want to go to the police station because she couldn't leave the baby, and that she was confused about procedures in the United States.
"They told me, 'Do you want us to take a report or go find him?' " Yao said. "They told me, 'It's up to you; it's your choice to have a report.' "
Police spokesman Nicole Monroe told The Baltimore Sun this week that the officers had first classified the incident as a larceny and later upgraded the crime to an unarmed assault and robbery. She described the handling of the incident as a miscommunication that would have been spotted.
But sources said commanders were angry at the Comstat meeting because officers had actually classified the attack as a "police information," a general type of report that does not show up in the city's crime statistics and which is generally taken when there is scant information.
Bailey and Mackell reportedly defended the officers, sources said, saying that there had been a language barrier. But Barksdale responded that people from his office had since made contact with Yao and had no trouble understanding her.
After Barksdale left the meeting, Bealefeld lectured commanders on the need to collect reliable information on city crime, placing much of the blame on sergeants. He said that if majors cannot oversee their sergeants, they are replaceable, the sources said.
