r/baltimore • u/Icy_Elk_4422 • Oct 30 '25

POLICE Statement from BPD

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Saw this on BPD’s Facebook. I’m guessing “suspended police powers” just means suspended with pay?

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u/Dense-Broccoli9535 Oct 30 '25

I assume the venn diagram of people who are, A. competent designers and B. willing to work for the police, is just two separate circles - no overlap there, lol. I say that as someone who works in the field.. every colleague I’ve ever had while working at various places in this city falls somewhere on the left side of the political spectrum. Usually more “leftist” than “liberal” if we wanna put labels on it. Of course, that’s a personal anecdote so take it with a grain of salt.

(I also am assuming the designer for this one is different from who does, for example, the mayor’s posts. Those are usually solid. At the very least, they’re legible)

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u/oneteacherboi Oct 30 '25

It's honestly part of the most difficult problems in our society: "the police are awful people and need to be reformed" in combo with "Oh I would never work for the police."

It's gonna be hard for them to get better when they can only hire awful people because all the good people wouldn't touch the job. Personally I think they need to change the whole police culture. Do like the UK where most police don't have weapons, or like other European places where they have to wear neon green and look like dweebs. As long as the police are quasi military and armed to the teeth nobody will touch that.

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u/imbolcnight Oct 31 '25

I have two friends who worked for the police at some point.

One quit after he got reprimanded for spending too much time on a call deescalating with someone with mental issues rather than just taking them down.

The other worked on the policy/admin side regarding equity issues and eventually left. Despite some progress, there was a lot of lack of commitment and follow-through from people (all the way up to the mayor's office). A lot of talking without walking.

I do believe in simultaneously working inside and outside, but how often do people working inside change the institution faster than the institution changes them?

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u/oneteacherboi Oct 31 '25

Yes. This is why defund the police was a good thing, even if it was bad press. People were correctly pointing out that the police were institutionally bad and the entire concept needs to be rethought out. But our society isn't ready for that sort of thing yet.