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Departmental Motto
Established in the 1800's
"EVER ON THE WATCH"
Very early coat of arms of Baltimore
City
THE SHOULDER PATCH
The design of the patch is predicated upon historical and significant events that occurred in the City of Baltimore and the State of Maryland. The shield on the patch
is the Great Seal of Maryland which was brought over from England during the early days of the Colony. The shield or escutcheon
bears the Calvert and Crossland arms quartered. The second Lord Baltimore (Cecilius Calvert) adopted this design with the
gold and black of the Calverts in the upper left and lower right quarters, and the red and white crosses of the Crossland
family (the second Lord Baltimore's maternal forbearers) in the lower left and upper right quarters. Superimposed on the shield
is the Battle Monument of Baltimore which is the City's official insignia and commemorates the successful defense of Baltimore
from attack by British forces in 1814.
Baltimore police
BALTIMORE POLICE
DEPARTMENT
Colonial Maryland
Under English common law, every person had an active responsibility
for keeping the peace. This was a vital principle in colonial Maryland, a fledgling society with no police or peace officers.
The responsibility included crime prevention through vigilance and the apprehension of suspected lawbreakers by groups of
persons raising the "hue and cry" or the more official "posse comitatus." Persons whose previous behavior indicated that they
were at risk of breaking the peace could be taken before a local court or magistrate and bound over to keep the peace, thereby,
in theory, preventing crime. Adapted from the British legal system were the positions of sheriff and constable, officers of
the county court who also enforced the law. Sheriffs and constables had no jurisdiction outside their own county. As population
increased, county and municipal police departments were created to meet local needs.
Baltimore
City Police Force
The first State agency to exercise police powers was the Baltimore City
Police Force. Established in 1867 under a Board of Police Commissioners, the Force was elected by the General Assembly (Chapter
367, Acts of 1867). Baltimore had been developing a police force since the formation in 1784 of a night watch "very necessary
to prevent fires, burglaries, and other outrages and disorders" (Chapter 69, Acts of 1784). Its police force, from 1867, was
governed by a State board although jurisdiction was limited to the City. From 1900 to 1920, the Board of Police Commissioners
was appointed by the Governor. After 1920, a single Police Commissioner of Baltimore City was chosen and also served on the
Governor's Advisory Council. The Baltimore City Police Department remained under State governance until 1978, when the Mayor
began to appoint the Police Commissioner, subject to confirmation by the City Council (Chapter 920, Acts of 1976).
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The preservation of the peace, protection of property and the arrest
of offenders has been the goal of Baltimore residents since August 8,1729, when the Legislature passed an act which created
BALTIMORE TOWNE.
The first attempt to organize a force to guard Baltimore occurred in 1784.
Constables were appointed and were given police powers to enable them to keep the peace.
The State Legislature on March 16,1853, passed a bill "to provide for a better security for
life and property in the City of Baltimore" This statute provided that police officers should be armed, that a badge and a
commission be furnished each member.
In March of 1862, the military authorities who had taken control of the department on June 27,1861,
turned over the police department to the authority of the state.
In 1885 a telephone CALL BOX system was introduced to enable communications
from the officer on the street to the station houses.
The first PATROL WAGON went into service on October 25,1885.
BERTILLON BUREAU was established in 1896, to take photographs and measurements
of prisoners.
HARBOR PATROL was established in 1885.
TRAFFIC DIVISION in 1908.
POLICE ACADEMY was organized to train police officers in 1913.
RADIO COMMUNICATIONS went into service on March 4,1933.
ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION UNIT was established on February 21,1938.
LABORATORY DIVISION went into operation in June, 1950.
CENTRAL RECORDS DIVISION was created on August 7,1951.
K9 UNIT organized on March 1,1956.
HELICOPTER UNIT established November 1970.
PRINTRAK, an automated fingerprint Identification System went into effect
November 1984.
COMPUTERIZED BOOKING effective January 1985.
911 EMERGENCY Telephone System created March 1985.
Enhanced 911 went into effect.
E911 was an upgrade to the current 911 system. It allowed the call takers to
see on screen where the call was coming from, billing name and address
JURISDICTION
The Baltimore Police Department's jurisdiction encompasses an area of
91.3 square miles, 79 square miles of land and 13 square miles of water.
Baltimore's First Patrol Wagon System
By Patrolman Otto A. Urban of Northwestern District
September, 1950
About the year of 1885, the population of Baltimore City -numbered about 400,000 inhabitants. For the protection of these
inhabitants and nearly 350 miles of streets and alleys the police force consisted of 499 men capable of police duty. Divided
into day and night duty, this meant roughly about one policeman for each of its 1600 persons.
The supervision of so many persons was carried out without any established means of transporting arrested persons to the
seyera1 police stations.
Without claiming to have held the first "Kangaroo Court," who would be so naive to believe that an officer would prefer
to take a helpless drunk say, from North and Greenmount Avenues, or any similar distance in any of the other districts, to
the Northeastern Station instead of trying the case "on location" At that time it was not a question of how long an officer
would have to wait for a patrol wagon to take a prisoner to the police station, but how would he get his prisoner there at
all. The tale of the whee1-banow for this purpose has often been heard, but how did it occur ,that so many wheelbarrows were
available at so many needed places? What about persons arrested for serious crimes such as murder, burglary, robbery, etc.,
also police fighters. The latter would rather prefer battling every inch of the way instead of being "carted" in by his arrester.
Remember this, Baltimore at that time 'had won for itself a national reputation as ''Mob Town." When the first Northern troops
passed through Baltimore on their way to
Washington in April 1861, they were attacked by the citizenry, but so urgent was the need for every policeman along the
line of march of the troops to change stations. that no arrests were made because each officer wou1d have to deliver his prisoner
to the Central Station by himself.
Sometime around the year of 1883, Deputy Marshal Jacob Frey, who first advocated the patrol wagon system for Baltimore,
was browsing through some illustrated newspapers in the gymnasium of the Central Station when he found an article telling
about the patrol wagon system for transporting prisoners being tried out in the City of Chicago, Ill.
The Deputy Marshall, although never having been a patrolman himself, had much experience in handling refractory prisoners.
In one instance, he personally subdued a murderer named Thomas R. Hol1ohan who was on trial in the Court House at Annapolis.
During the trial Hol1ohan violently attacked the Deputy Marshal with a stocking filled with pieces of iron and stone, but
the Deputy Marshal "got his man."
The Deputy Marshal presented the article to the Board of Police Commissioners with a plea for its adoption in Baltimore.
He met with no success. However, this did not discourage him, and after about a year his persistency caused the Board to have
a bill drafted would give them the power to provide and sent to the Legislature which would give them the power to provide
the City of Ba1timorc with a suitable telephone, alarm, wagon service and harbor patrol launch.
The Legislature having failed to act in the matter, the Board decided to act on their own right and provide for these services
out of the Special Fund. Thereupon, Marshal John T.Gray and Commissioner George Colton were sent to Chicago by the Board to
get first hand information on these services.
They found the system to be very practical, but Marshal Gray found one disadvantage. The telephone apparatus as set up
was set in a small booth just large enough to accommodate one man. It was necessary, for the officer to unlock the booth,
step inside, send his messages with one hand inside of the booth, while holding his prisoner left standing on the outside,
with his other hand. He thought this to be to be too great a risk for the officer with an unruly prisoner.
Because of this, it seems that Baltimore came in for another "first." A system was worked out with the officials of the
Gamewell Alarm System to place the apparatus of the telephone and alarm system in boxes placed on poles and other places which
offered easy access from the street. The present-day box is a modified model of the type of box first used.
The system was installed on October 25, 1885 in the Central District at a cost of $18,276.36. The wagon was drawn by two horses; there were two horses for day duty and two for night duty. Later the system was installed
in the Eastern, then in the Southern and later in the "Western Districts.
The wagons in the last named districts were drawn by one horse.
There were 59 boxes set up in the Central District. It took less than one minute for the wagon be on its way from the time
the call received at the station, The run to the most distant box and return was made in 22 minutes.
The stable quarters in the Central District were established in a livery stable directly opposite the station since none
of the districts then established had accommodations for such service. These accommodations were added to the established
districts as the system was installed therein.
The first patrol wagon used in Baltimore as ordered by the Board of Police Commissioners from the national Vehicle Company
of Racine, Wisconsin at a cost of $36.20 including freight, etc.
For a period or 67 days to December 31, 917 calls were answered. In 1887 the system was installed in the Western District
at a cost of $11,000. It was followed in the Northeastern, the Northwestern and the Southwestern Districts
respectively.
 MAP OF BALTIMORE CITY DEPICTING THE DISTRICT BOUNDARIES
Rank structure and insignia
The Baltimore Police Department uses these sworn personnel ranks:
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