The Friendliest Town

In 2011, Pocomoke City a small town on Maryland's Lower Eastern Shore hired Kelvin Sewell, its first African-American police chief. Sewell, a former Baltimore city homicide investigator and narcotics officer had grown tired of the aggressive tactics used by the Baltimore Police Department...particularly those targeting black communities. Determined to deploy a different approach to law enforcement, Sewell implemented an intensive community policing plan. He and his officers parked their cars and walked the streets. Sewell's system worked: crime plummeted. Residents both black and white became ardent supporters of Sewell's new paradigm of policing. But a conflict was brewing; an ongoing dispute over racial discrimination engulfed Sewell and his officers in a battle that would not only cost them their jobs and professional reputations, but would thrust them into an emotional legal battle that would touch all segments of the community. In 2011, Pocomoke City a small town on Maryland's Lower Eastern Shore hired Kelvin Sewell, its first African-American police chief. Sewell, a former Baltimore city homicide investigator and narcotics officer had grown tired of the aggressive tactics used by the Baltimore Police Department...particularly those targeting black communities. Determined to deploy a different approach to law enforcement, Sewell implemented an intensive community policing plan. He and his officers parked their cars and walked the streets. Sewell's system worked: crime plummeted. Residents both black and white became ardent supporters of Sewell's new paradigm of policing. But a conflict was brewing; an ongoing dispute over racial discrimination engulfed Sewell and his officers in a battle that would not only cost them their jobs and professional reputations, but would thrust them into an emotional legal battle that would touch all segments of the community. In 2011, Pocomoke City a small town on Maryland's Lower Eastern Shore hired Kelvin Sewell, its first African-American police chief. Sewell, a former Baltimore city homicide investigator and narcotics officer had grown tired of the aggressive tactics used by the Baltimore Police Department...particularly those targeting black communities. Determined to deploy a different approach to law enforcement, Sewell implemented an intensive community policing plan. He and his officers parked their cars and walked the streets. Sewell's system worked: crime plummeted. Residents both black and white became ardent supporters of Sewell's new paradigm of policing. But a conflict was brewing; an ongoing dispute over racial discrimination engulfed Sewell and his officers in a battle that would not only cost them their jobs and professional reputations, but would thrust them into an emotional legal battle that would touch all segments of the community. In 2011, Pocomoke City a small town on Maryland's Lower Eastern Shore hired Kelvin Sewell, its first African-American police chief. Sewell, a former Baltimore city homicide investigator and narcotics officer had grown tired of the aggressive tactics used by the Baltimore Police Department...particularly those targeting black communities. Determined to deploy a different approach to law enforcement, Sewell implemented an intensive community policing plan. He and his officers parked their cars and walked the streets. Sewell's system worked: crime plummeted. Residents both black and white became ardent supporters of Sewell's new paradigm of policing. But a conflict was brewing; an ongoing dispute over racial discrimination engulfed Sewell and his officers in a battle that would not only cost them their jobs and professional reputations, but would thrust them into an emotional legal battle that would touch all segments of the community.