BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Former FBI agent and criminal justice expert Tyrone Powers called on Baltimore Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm to step down during a keynote speech at a crime seminar on Thursday.

“I love Commissioner Hamm to death, but it is time for him to retire — we need stronger and better leadership in the department,” he said.

But Col. Rick Hite, chief of community relations, who also spoke at the event, defended Hamm.

“We all know the crime problem is larger than the man that sits in the commissioner’s chair,” he said.

Powers, director of the criminal justice at Anne Arundel Community College, made his remarks at the fifth annual Justice Day program at Coppin State University in Baltimore.

This year’s theme, police relations with blacks, focused on illegal arrests, the rising homicide rate — and the politics of crime fighting.

“We need to stop politicizing policing,” said Powers, to an audience that included roughly 30 city police cadets in training.

“Politicians have used the city police department to show they are tough on crime for short-term political gain — but you need a 10-year plan and long-term thinking to reduce crime.”

Hite argued that police have been asked to make difficult arrests.

“If an officer sees someone urinating in the middle of the street, is that a police problem or a values problem?” Hite asked. “We evolved from being peace officers to enforcement officers policing values.”

Former city police Col. Edward Jackson, now a professor of criminal justice at Baltimore City Community College, said officers need to have closer ties to the city.

“You have officers with the highest pay and benefits living in Pennsylvania; they’re not stakeholders in the community,” he said. “When I started out, you were supposed to live within 21 miles of the Washington monument — living in the city helps officers to identify with the community they serve.”

But a quick survey of the new cadets showed a scant number of city residents.

“How many of you live in the city?,” he asked.

Only three cadets raised their hands.

State Del. Jill Carter said deteriorating relations between police and residents are partly the result of an overly aggressive arrest policy.

“Thousands of people arrested without charges are now stigmatized and will have trouble finding jobs,” she said.

“I hope when you’re officers you will follow your conscience if you’re ever asked to make illegal arrests,” she said addressing the cadets.

sjanis@baltimoreexaminer.com