By Pierce Jaffri and Chanda Kumar
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writers
The Baltimore City Council adopted a bill Thursday that is designed to strengthen the police department by moving the police academy from Pimlico Middle School to Coppin State University.
Bill 15-0250R, which was introduced by Council member Nick Mosby, requests that the Baltimore City Police Department complete a cost and resource benefit analysis of conducting all or parts of the police academy training and police officer enhanced training at Coppin State’s Bishop L. Robinson Sr. Justice Institute.
The bill also calls on representatives from the police department and Coppin State to appear before the council to discuss a mutually beneficial partnership for police training.
Mosby said that Coppin State has state-of-the-art resources and amenities that Pimlico Middle School is not able to provide. He said it would also provide officers with the ability to utilize the training they receive through the academy on Coppin State’s campus by transferring learned knowledge and skills into a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.
According to Mosby, the relocation also provides a recruitment advantage for the police department.
“It provides a huge recruiting tool on a college campus for the Baltimore Police Department,” Mosby said. “There has been issues of sometimes attracting folks who are from Baltimore or from areas such as Baltimore to the police department, so it provides a huge opportunity for them to let the folks around Coppin and East Baltimore as well as the students of Coppin State University be exposed to the police academy.”
In addition to enhanced training facilities, educational opportunities and recruitment opportunities, the potential relocation of the police academy adds an additional emphasis to Baltimore City police training: the concept of community policing.
The relocation of the police academy would move the academy from its current location on the corner of Northern Parkway and Park Heights to West Baltimore, which is where much of the April unrest occurred in the city following Freddie Gray’s death.
“It puts it in the community, a community that has had significant issues as it relates to police-community relations,” Mosby said. “This will allow the cadets to be running in the community, to know the community members, and provide a better insight for exactly what they’re going to face.”
Mosby’s bill passed through second reading proceedings and was adopted by the council at Thursday’s council meeting, which was the last meeting of the 2015 legislative year.
2 Comments
This is an excellent idea. West Baltimore will be exposed to some of the training that cadets/police officers go through.
I am a full, tenured professor at Coppin State University. I love the way Mosby is making some decisions that the professors, students, and other stakeholders at Coppin State University have not vetted. Interesting. It makes me wonder if this was in the works prior to the Baltimore uprising or African American spring.