Excerpt from Report and Resolutions of the Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Delegates of Maryland: Upon the Reports and Memorials of the Police Commissioners and the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore
It is well known to the members of both Houses, that for several years prior to the commencement of the regular session of the Legislature of Maryland in January, 1860, a state of things had existed and been developing itself in the city of Baltimore, which imperatively demanded the interposition of the law-making power. It is needless to dwell upon the causes or magnify the degree of the evils referred to, it being matter of public notoriety that the laws for the personal protection of the citizen, and especially those which guaranteed the free and inviolate exercise of the elective franchise, had almost wholly-ceased to be practically operative, and an organized system of lawlessness, violence and terror had usurped their place. The extent to which the city of Baltimore had suffered, not only in her good name, hut in her material prosperity, from the causes referred to, is familiar to the public at large, and the subject had for some time occupied the serious attention, as it largely concerned the interests, of the whole people of the State. At the elections held in the Autumn of 1859, the outrages in Baltimore, under the eyes of the municipal authorities, were of so flagrant and insufferable a character, as to raise the direct and unavoidable issue between anarchy and civil government. Proofs of the most overwhelming conclusiveness having been furnished to the General Assembly at its regular session referred to, there was no recourse but to take vigorous steps to re-establish the supremacy of the laws. By the Act of 1860, ch. 7, (incorporated in the 4th article of the Code of Public Local Laws, beginning at section 806,) all police authority previously delegated to the corporation of Baltimore was accordingly withdrawn, and the same was conferred, with greatly enlarged powers, upon a Board, called the Board of Police, composed of five members. Of these, it was provided that four, who were called "Commissioners," should be elected by the Legislature for designated terms of years, at the expiration of which, their successors were to be appointed in the same manner. It was further enacted, that the Mayor of the city, for the time being, should ex-officio be a member of the Board.
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