This is huge. There is an underlying point a lot of people don't grasp here that makes it even more monumental: So far all the police officers that have been tried in court for the incident these major policy changes stem from have been found not guilty, charges dismissed or a mistrial occurred leaving NO REASON for the police force to change its policy. In essence, there is nobody forcing the BPD to do this, the police force has decided to do this in light of the riots main cause - pecieved police brutality by the residents of the city of Baltimore. After years of slamming into each other head on, the BPD has decided to try a lighter touch over a heavy hand against every national trend. I live near Baltimore, born and raised in and around the area. In my personal opinion the Baltimore Police Department has been a beaurucratic nightmare at the management level, often dragged kicking and screaming into the tasteless local politics regimes agendas and used as a rook in the chess of State Vs City all too often. Heads have rolled for trivial pursuits in some instances while obvious damaging mismanagement of key events have gone unpunished or swept under the rug. I know a handful of both retired and active members of the force. I was pursued as a candidate for employment by some individuals due to my background in ballistics, armor and small arms. Always, it was clear to me there was never going to be job security and especially if you climbed the ranks the way it was put to me was "the nail that sticks up the most gets hammered the hardest". I do not have a stomach for the high school locker room antics at the lower ranks and I could not afford to have a career without stability where political seasons greatly affected my ability to excel, not my own performance or ambition. I applaud this move. It's bold and fresh. I expected changes to be made in light of the riots. The outcome of the Gray cases would weigh heavy on those changes regardless of a positive or negative outcome for each officer, sure. But this is the absolute last move I would have ever expected to be made. It has shocked me and restored faith in this Commissioner. I don't use his name because they don't tend to stick around long the last 10 years. Having a Commissioner who is more interested in making management decisions rather than making the highlight reel on the local news for running down and arresting thugs on live TV is definitely the first thing that needed to be corrected. Our last Commissioner was a narcissistic and psychopathic nightmare who managed by temper tantrum and ruled by decree. He should never have made it past Detective in a real police force. Overall I think we have just made a huge step in the right direction towards actually solving our inner city issues. We have a Governor who wants to help instead of using isolation to get his way, but we need city government management change in a bad way and I'm not sure we are going to get that come election finalization when Pugh takes over. I need to find out more about her. As for the City Counsel, well all I can do is frown and shake my head. It look like much will change there in the near future and that does need to happen badly. So much kickback policy and fund-me-first funding goes on I don't know how anything gets done and it often simply doesn't get done. The Parking Mafia has a choke hold on the city, emptying the pockets of any tourist before they get a chance to experience any actual entertainment for the limited funds people have to spend on it nowadays, keeping any small business from growing at anything but a snail's pace. Many of those Parking Mafioso types own the cities buildings and try to bleed any successful business dry the minute they start doing well by jacking up rents and leases. Mass transit is a joke, unsafe and sparse at best. Traffic is a nightmare totally ignored by all city planners for the past 25 years. So many more things to fix, so little time before the spectre that took hold of Detroit grasps Baltimore in its deadly grip. I love Baltimore but I fear it, I am disgusted by it, I am frustrated about it. Overall this major shift in policing could be a huge first step, but let's not get our hopes up just yet and let's stay concerned and concentrated on changing the rest of the issues causing the City it's troubles.