Leonard Hamm is a former

commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department Since 1920, the Baltimore Police Department has been led by a single commissioner. Prior to this, it was led by a multi-member board of commissioners. Commissioners of the Baltimore Police Department Presidents of the Board of Police Commissioner ...

who served as the head of the department from 2004 to 2007.

Biography

Hamm grew up in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

's Cherry Hill neighborhood, attended

Baltimore City College Baltimore City College, known colloquially as City, City College, and B.C.C., is a college preparatory school with a liberal arts focus and selective admissions criteria located in Baltimore, Maryland. Opened in October 1839, B.C.C. is the thir ...

and joined the department in 1974. He would eventually rise to the rank of Lieutenant and then Major under former commissioner Thomas Frazier, becoming the Baltimore Police Department's first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

officer to command the Central District. With a rising homicide rate, departmental personnel problems and a mayoral election approaching, Hamm was asked to resign by Mayor

Sheila Dixon Sheila Ann Dixon (born December 27, 1953) is an American politician who served as the forty-eighth mayor of Baltimore, Maryland. When the former mayor, Martin O'Malley, was sworn in as governor on January 17, 2007, Dixon, the president of the Bal ...

in the summer of 2007. Hamm was succeeded by Deputy Commissioner for Operations Frederick H. Bealefeld III, a 26-year veteran of the force. Hamm worked as the Chief of Campus Police at

Coppin State University Coppin State University (Coppin) is a public historically black university in Baltimore, Maryland. It is part of the University System of Maryland and a member of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. In terms of demographics, the Coppin State stu ...

in Baltimore until June 2021. In 2015 Hamm's memoirs were published, ''The Hamm Rules on Relationships, Leadership, Love and Community http://www.hammrules.com/

Family

In June 2008, it was discovered that Hamm's 39-year-old stepdaughter Nicole Sesker was found murdered in Northwest Baltimore. At the time of her death, she struggled with addiction and had also traded sex for housing, food, drugs and money. Sesker was a former volunteer and employee of

Power Inside Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may a ...

, a local women's group that assists women on the streets. Sesker used her experiences to inspire and educate others through media advocacy and public speaking. In 2004 she wrote, "I left prison with a made-up mind that I wouldn't be one of the ones that said something needs to be changed. I would help the changes be made. I would be, and am, a voice the public can't ignore."Power Inside
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamm, Leonard African-American police officers American police officers H Baltimore City College alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century African-American people