Police Commander

Note: This blog post should have made it clear that Hite has been named interim chief until a final selection is made. Rick Hite spent more than three decades in the Baltimore Police Department, and many years as the voice of an association of black officers. Now, he has his own department to run, named chief of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department . He takes over after a scandal -- the former chief resigned on Tuesday after a blood sample taken from a suspended cop was mishandled . While in Baltimore, Hite was an outspoken advocate not only of his colleagues but of the city's youth.

John Lloyd Bergbower, a Johns Hopkins Medicine security vice president who as a city police commander battled drug buyers in Southwest Baltimore, suffered a fall at his North Baltimore home Sunday and died later that day at Sinai Hospital. He was 60. "He didn't need to run into a burning building or take on an armed gunman to know that John Bergbower was a courageous man," said Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, who served under him in the Southwestern District nearly 15 years ago. "He was a very smart, capable person with an air of confidence about him that made an impression on a young sergeant like myself.

A 27-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department who retired in 2001 and went on to work in corporate security at the Johns Hopkins medical institutions died Sunday after falling in his home on Sunday. Hopkins announced the death of John L. Bergbower, 60. He had been vice president of security for the medical institution. He joined Hopkins in 2003 after working for the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. Bergbower joined the city police in 1974 as an Eastern District patrolman, putting his first assignment near where he would later end his career at Hopkins.

Baltimore police issued a formal report Thursday agreeing to carry out recommendations from an independent commission that gave a stinging assessment of last year's Select Lounge shooting, in which a plainclothes officer was mistakenly shot and killed by his colleagues. The 102-page response details promises made by the police commissioner in November to prevent another shooting like the one that killed Officer William H. Torbit and a civilian, and wounded several bystanders in the midst of a chaotic, unruly crowd.

On a warm, breezy afternoon, as East Baltimoreans mourn the shooting death of the "little flower" of Darley Park, police Maj. Melvin T. Russell is right where he wants to be — smack in the middle of a crowd of children, teachers, parents and neighbors. It could be a scene fraught with tension. An officer under Russell's command has been suspended and is the subject of an intense police investigation, amid allegations that the rifle used to kill 13-year-old Monae Turnage was found in the officer's car. But Russell focuses on the vigil — he picks up a child and jokes with the mother, spreads handshakes and hugs.

The gun battle raged in three different spots near the old Murphy Homes high-rise in West Baltimore, ending on a cold February day with the death of a 20-year-old man in a hail of gunfire from four city police officers. Four years later, one of the officers claimed he was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but says he never got the help he needed to cope with killing a man. Instead, Richard A. Willard says the department is trying to fire him. The sergeant sued the Police Department this week, and is seeking an injunction in U.S. District Court court to delay his Feb. 22 termination hearing.

The major who heads the Baltimore Police Department's Southern District is being moved to headquarters to head up an effort by the agency to become nationally accredited, according to a spokesman. Maj. Margaret Barillaro took over the Southern District in July of last year after a popular major, Scott Bloodsworth, retired rather than accept a new assignment overseeing reforms in the sex offense unit. The new major in South Baltimore will David Reitz, who is being promoted from his rank of deputy major in the Southeast District.

Baltimore joined several other cities from Boston to Los Angeles by sending in the police to disband occupiers who have taken over town squares. Like some but unlike many, Baltimore police evicted more than three dozen protesters and homeless people without making a single arrest. Nearly two dozen were sent to homeless shelters, and police in riot gear acted responsibly and with restraint. Protesters left without any trouble. The picture has been radically different across the country.

The Baltimore Police Department announced a reshuffling of its ranks Friday night, including the selection of a new commander of its homicide unit and a new assignment of the supervisor who helped implement reforms in the sex offense unit. Lt. Col. Garnell Green, a 22-year veteran who has most recently overseen Westside patrol operations, will take control of the homicide unit. The unit has struggled with a sagging clearance rate hovering over 40 percent, and officials undertook a nationwide search to fill the spot.

The police officers involved in a fatal shooting outside a downtown club appeared Monday before a panel charged with reviewing the incident, but refused to answer questions. James K. "Chips" Stewart, the chair of the commission, said the city police officers declined to answer questions on the advice of their attorneys, who said they feared that the officers could face internal sanctions based on their testimony. "While they agreed with our overall goals, there were specific areas where they think their clients could be in definite jeopardy," Stewart said.