Baltimore Mayor Fires Police Commissioner Because of Uptick In Crime

DeSousa promised to put more uniformed officers on the streets, starting Friday morning. He said waves of officers would deploy hourly in areas most plagued by violence. He is decentralizing some units of the Police Department to more resources in the nine districts.

"The No. 1 thing you will see is more police officers on the streets in the community in uniform. They are going to have specific missions each and every day," DeSousa said. "They are going to do pro-active, constitutional policing. They are going to enforce the laws of Baltimore City. They are going to be very visible. They are going to have positive engagement with the entire community. They've been placed in strategic corridors of the city. We took a look at the top for districts in the city that led the violence last year. They're deployed there. There's going to be officers on foot addressing problematic businesses."

His message for criminals: "I have a real strong message for the trigger pullers -- it's that we're coming after them," DeSousa said.