The Associated Press
BALTIMORE (AP) -- Police Commissioner Edward Norris drew thousands of dollars from a charity fund to pay for fancy steak dinners and gold-plated cuff links, but to many Baltimoreans, he’s still a crime-fighting hero.
Before Norris was hired in 1999, Baltimore had more than 300 killings a year and inspired NBC’s hit television show “Homicide: Life on the Street.” Since then, Norris has slashed the city’s crime rate by 24 percent.
Now, residents like 60-year-old Jan Murray can sit outside at night in the crime-ridden area of East Baltimore without hearing gunshots.
“In my neighborhood alone, crime has gone way down,” said Murray, a retired corrections officer. “I’ve even seen the commissioner on the street. When you see the commissioner on the street ... it makes you feel safer.”
Norris recently acknowledged spending about $178,000 from the little-known account to fund perks for himself and his staff. He issued a lengthy apology last week that appears to have softened criticism of his financial blunders.
Norris’ apology expressed regret over his use of the account, which was started decades ago for charitable purposes. He wrote that he has “embarrassed and raised questions in the minds of many.” He promised to reimburse the fund if an independent audit uncovered personal expenditures.
“I accepted (the apology),” said Murray. “It took a man to even come out and say it. Everyone makes mistakes. He just got caught.”
City Councilwoman Catherine Pugh, who supported Norris during his selection in 1999, said she thinks that overall, Norris is doing a good job as police commissioner.
“I would hope that this doesn’t tarnish his reputation,” she said.
The account evolved from three charities for which police officers in the 1920s and 1930s raised private funds to help officers in need and buy equipment for police athletic leagues. It does not include taxpayer money.
Over the decades, the funds were invested in stocks and grew substantially, and in the 1980s they were consolidated into the supplemental account.
Norris was not the first police commissioner to use the fund. In the 1990s, Police Commissioner Thomas Frazier spent about $300,000 in five years, police said.
When Norris took office, the account had topped $440,000. He spent it on perks for himself and his staff, including new jackets for officers who got cold at an Orioles game. He also spent $20,000 on trips, eight in the past year to New York, including $2,500 at Smith and Wollensky’s steakhouse.
On one trip to New York in December, Norris attended a funeral, then stopped in Long Island to interview for a police commissioner’s job in Nassau County.
In an interview earlier this month with The (Baltimore) Sun, Norris acknowledged he used the fund to pay for the funeral trip but did not mention the job interview. He later said Mayor Martin O’Malley was aware of the interview.
After The Sun reported the existence of the fund, the mayor ordered the external audit, which will likely be complete in the next couple of weeks, officials said. The city will pay for the audit, but officials said they did not know how much it will cost.
Before the apology, Norris defended his use of the account, saying that during his trips to New York, he attended seminars and met with high-ranking New York police officials to help recruit for the Baltimore Police Department.
He said the meals and trips were also instrumental in raising more than $3 million for the Baltimore Police Foundation, a nonprofit group he established to help buy equipment for the force.
A police spokesman said Norris, recently sworn in for a second six-year term, would no longer talk to reporters about the fund. O’Malley also declined to comment on the issue.
Some Baltimore residents say the fund should have been donated to families of fallen officers. Others say the money was spent wisely because it kept up morale in the police department.
“It was well spent. That’s my opinion,” said Sandra Jones, 48, before hopping on a city bus just a block away from police headquarters. “It wasn’t state money. (Officers) need to be treated.”
Rodney Butler, a 21-year-old Baltimore janitor, said he thinks O’Malley, who recruited Norris from New York, gave Norris carte blanche to do whatever he wanted.
“Whether he apologized or not the city would have forgiven him,” he said. “Me? I don’t really care... Crime’s been down.”
O’Malley stood behind the commissioner after learning about the account. O’Malley spokesman Tony White said the mayor hopes the audit will absolve Norris.
Still, questions loom as city officials grapple with what to do with the account.
“Is this a fund that has become a perk for commissioner after commissioner?” said City Council President Sheila Dixon. She said a public hearing will be scheduled with Norris after Labor Day to “get to the bottom of that.”