Baltimore's mayor has sacked the US
city's police chief, saying his leadership had become a distraction from
fighting a "crime surge".
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said
she was replacing Police Commissioner Anthony Batts with his deputy,
Kevin Davis, for an interim period.
The city was rocked by riots in April when a black man died after suffering injuries in police custody.
Six officers were charged over the death of the 25-year-old, Freddie Gray.
Speaking
at a news conference on Wednesday, Mayor Rawlings-Blake said Mr Batts
had "served this city with distinction" since becoming police chief in
October 2012.
But referring to the city's high homicide rate, she said "too many continue to die".
"The
focus has been too much on the leadership of the department and not
enough on the crime fighting," she told reporters, adding: "We need to
get the crime surge under control."
The city has seen a sharp
increase in violence since Freddie Gray's death on 19 April, with 155
homicides this year, a 48% increase over the same period last year.
On
Tuesday, the police department announced that an outside organisation
will review its response to the civil unrest that followed Mr Gray's
death.
Media captionA month after Freddie Gray suffered a fatal injury under police custody, Baltimore residents reflect.
Freddie Gray's death followed several other cases where black men died after contact with the police
Police officers complained that they were poorly equipped and badly led during April's riots
The US justice department is
also conducting a civil rights review of the Baltimore force and Mr
Batts has been criticised by the city's police union.
Earlier on Wednesday, the union released its report into the police handling of the rioting.
It
said officers had complained "that they lacked basic riot equipment,
training, and, as events unfolded, direction from leadership".
The
report also said "officers repeatedly expressed concern that the
passive response to the civil unrest had allowed the disorder to grow
into full scale rioting".
Recent events had "placed attention on
police leadership", Ms Rawlings-Blake said, but denied her decision was
influenced by the union report.
Mr Davis, who is taking over
immediately as interim police chief, praised his "friend" Mr Batts and
said he was a "true reform commissioner".
Mayor Rawlings-Blake
said Mr Davis would "bring accountability to police, hold officers who
act out of line accountable for their actions".
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