Michael Harrison
Within 24 hours of Joel Fitzgerald’s decision to withdraw from the confirmation process to be Baltimore’s next police chief, Mayor Catherine Pugh has picked another finalist from her fraught search process: New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison.
Pugh announced her choice in a press release this morning, hours after she arranged, and then abruptly cancelled, a press conference about the city’s ongoing, eight-month-long police commissioner search. “We will, of course, be communicating further details,” she had said while calling off the presser.
Then came this morning’s announcement about Harrison, who’s served with the New Orleans Police Department for 27 years, been its chief since 2014 and, unlike Fitzgerald, has informed his home city of his plans to leave. That’s a notable departure from a month ago, when the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported Harrison said he was “humbled” about being recommended by a panel of police executives for the job here in Baltimore—without having applied—but planned to stay put.
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