Welcome to the Casbah!

Among its tourist attractions, Baltimore boasts of succulent crab cakes, miles and miles of red-brick row houses, and the fourth busiest harbor in the nation. It quickly glides over its most famous tourist lure, the seamy, sinful strip known as "the Block," a symbol and byproduct of a police department that ranks with the worst in any major U.S. city.

A searching indictment of the 3,000-man force was returned last month by the International Association of Chiefs of Police after an eight-month, $52,000 study for the state of Maryland. It prompted the police commissioner and his chief inspector to resign and, more important, jolted complacent Baltimoreans into a thorough reappraisal of law enforcement in their city.

The Long & the Short. The I.A.C.P. found the Baltimore force wanting in almost every particular, from organization and administration to the manners of meter maids (surly) and the size of billy clubs (too long). Administration was so poor, the study said, that the night shift, which had a 40% heavier work load than the day shift, actually had 17% fewer men. The force is so slothful that an aggrieved Baltimorean cannot even be sure that his complaint will be recorded, much less acted on. Investigation is so lax that at least four times in the past year police have attributed deaths to natural causes, despite knife and gunshot wounds on the victims' bodies. Recruitment standards are so low that almost anyone with an eighth-grade education can make patrolman. Civil liberties have been widely ignored by investigators, and, most astonishing for a city with a 40% Negro population, there is no formal procedure for investigating citizen complaints of police brutality.

The most blatant evidence of police inefficiency and probable corruption, said the I.A.C.P. report, is the Block, a "nationally notorious 'Casbah'," only a block from city hall, half a block from police headquarters. The Block is actually a five-block stretch of sleazy--but hardly inexpensive--nightclubs, strip joints and clip joints, most of them openly offering prostitution. The I.A.C.P.'s conclusion: "Public officials have either been 'reached,' or they are incompetent in the performance of their duties."

Reprieved & Relieved. To perform the major surgery that the Baltimore department needs, Governor J. Millard Tawes last week appointed State Adjutant General George M. Gelston, 53, who commanded Maryland's National Guard during the Cambridge race riots of 1963 and 1964. Gelston, a trim, crew-cut six-footer who won plaudits from both whites and Negroes for his fair, imperturbable handling of a potentially bloody conflict, plans a major reorganization, including such reforms as an inspector general to hear complaints from the ranks, stiffer recruitment standards, and more Negro cops.

The Block will remain--with a major difference. "Operating the nightclubs is perfectly legal," says Gelston, "and there is no intention of closing them down. But we are going to close down the illegal operations that go on--soliciting, gambling and narcotics peddling. I'll give the Block fair warning. If they won't listen, I want them raided."

Most Baltimoreans, who regard their Casbah as a civic asset, were relieved that it would not disappear entirely. "A well-planned city should cater to all sorts of impulses," City Planner David A. Wallace once noted. "Though the Block's appeal is to the saucier impulses, it adds a very needed liveliness which many cities lack. Baltimore should be grateful for it."

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