‘Time to get rid of’ deputy mayor, one Baltimore public safety leader texted another

Discontent with city leadership may have played a larger role than has been acknowledged in the recent, back-to-back departures of Baltimore’s police commissioner and director of the neighborhood safety office. Texts messages obtained by The Banner through a public records request show Shantay Jackson, then the outgoing director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, sent text messages to then-Police Commissioner Michael Harrison during the Police Department’s consequential City Council budget hearing on June 6, which led to his abrupt departure two days later.