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Frank Battaglia is a former Baltimore Police Department officer who was commissioner of the Department between 1981 and 1984.

Biography

Battaglia was the only Italian-American police commissioner of Baltimore, controlling a police department previously dominated by Irish-American police officers during a time period nicknamed the "Holy Roman Empire." Battaglia would lose the post for a consultant position in 1984 to Bishop L. Robinson as Mayor Donald Schaefer shifted control of the department to the city's majority African American community. It was under Battaglia that former BPD officer Gary D'Addario was elevated to the rank of lieutenant. D'Addario is best known as the shift commander featured in David Simon's Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets book and was the inspiration for the character of Al Giardello seen on NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street. During the Baltimore riot of 1968, Battaglia was ranked as a Lieutenant Colonel and was the Department's official Field Force Commander.

References

1. Baltimore Sun "Bealefeld urges more effort to fight violent crime".
2. Simon, David (2006) . "One". Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (4th ed.). Owl Books. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-8050-8075-9. D'Addario is one of the last survivors of the Italian caliphate that briefly ruled the department after a long Irish dynasty.....But the Holy Roman Empire lasted less than four years.
3. Simon, David (2006) . "One". Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (4th ed.). Owl Books. pp. 29–30. ISBN 978-0-8050-8075-9. the mayor acknowledged the city's changing demographics by dragging Battaglia into a well paid consultant position and giving the black community a firm lock on the upper tiers of the police department.
4. "EVER ON THE WATCH" THE HISTORY OF THE BALTIMORE POLICE DEPARTMENT by W.M.Hackley "The Baltimore Riot of 1968". Archived from the original on 2008-09-05. Retrieved 2008-07-09.

• American people of Italian descent
• Commissioners of the Baltimore Police Department
• Living people