The first Negro in the history of the Atlanta Police Department has been appointed to this department’s second highest rank.

In an announcement by Chief Herbert T. Jenkins, Captain Howard Baugh has been promoted to the rank of superintendent.

Superintendent Baugh joined the Atlanta Police Department on October 19, 1953 following service with the United States Marine Corps where he had distinguished himself and received a battlefield promotion to the rank of sergeant.

He was among the first to be named to the Detective Division of the department when Chief Jenkins integrated this division on June 20, 1956. This promotion was followed by his being named a superior officer with the rank of sergeant on April 1, 1961; and a lieutenant on May 1, 1962.

Six years later, Superintendent Baugh was named a captain and in this rank was the first Negro in the department’s history to be placed in a command post when he served as commander of the Evening Watch of the Uniform Division.

Presently the new superintendent is heading the Crime Prevention Bureau of the department. This particular bureau was formed as a result of the recommendations of the Atlanta Crime Commission, which incidentally a year later was also one of the recommendations of the commission established by former President Lyndon Johnson to investigate the causes of crime in America (Kerner Commission).

Superintendent Baugh is a member of Saint Anthony’s Parish and presently is serving as the vice president of the Home and School Association.