The Latest: Baltimore bound, New Orleans chief bids goodbye

BALTIMORE (AP) — The Latest on the nomination of New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison as the next leader of the police department in Baltimore (all times local):

12:50 p.m.

As he prepares to lead the Baltimore police department, Michael Harrison says serving as the superintendent of police in New Orleans has been “the highest honor and privilege” of his 28-year career.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh announced Tuesday that Harrison is her choice to be her city’s next police commissioner.

Harrison is a New Orleans native who became head of his hometown’s police department in 2014. He has helped the once scandal-plagued New Orleans department implement ongoing reforms. Many of those reforms were ordered under a federal court-approved “consent decree” agreement the city reached with the U.S. Justice Department in 2012.

Baltimore entered a similar agreement in January 2017.

In a statement to New Orleans media Tuesday, Harrison thanked New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell for her support.

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9:40 a.m.

A day after her first choice withdrew his name, Baltimore’s mayor has picked New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison as her nominee to lead the city’s troubled force.

Mayor Catherine Pugh says Harrison will soon retire from the New Orleans Police Department with the intention of coming to Baltimore. She says he’s “achieved clear, compelling and consistent results in reducing violent crime” and led a city under a federal consent decree similar to the one ramping up in Baltimore.

Harrison says he looks forward “to getting to Baltimore in the coming weeks to engage broadly with residents.”

Fort Worth Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald on Monday abruptly withdrew his name after a rocky nomination process. One of his sons is facing a second brain surgery this week.