Maryland Historical Society
Marshall Jacob Frey, Baltimore City Police Department
Career Highlights:
- Instrumental in working to establish or expand the Baltimore Police Departments Marine Unit, Detective Bureau, Mounted Unit, and Police Academy.
- Worked tirelessly to increase morale by championing increases in personnel salaries, standardizing uniforms and equipment, and assisted in developing a dedicated pension fund across the ranks.
- Single-handedly held control of a volatile mob at the Camden Station for nearly 70-hours without sleep during the violent 1877 Baltimore & Ohio Railroad riots.
Marshal Jacob Frey was a historic 19th-century reformer and leader of the Baltimore Police Department, serving as the city’s police marshal from 1885 through 1897. Marshall Frey joined the police department in April 1867 with the rank of captain and was assigned to the Southern District.
Small in stature but stalwart in his resolve to be an effective and influential leader and reformer, Marshall Jacob Frey would exude a quiet confidence of character, effectiveness, and resolve over a career spanning 30-years that would draw praise and admiration from all corners.
“Reminiscences of Baltimore” is one man’s contemporary retrospective of significant events in a mid-to-late 19th century American city amid great social, cultural, and political upheaval and transformation. Jacob Frey’s intent was not to present an in depth, redundant, or chronological historical thesis, but rather a personal observation, from a man who dedicated his life to serving his hometown of Baltimore through civic engagement in community, municipal leadership and within the business community-at-large. Marshall Jacob Frey passed away on 1 Jan 1911 and was laid to rest in Baltimore’s Green Mount Cemetery the following day.
Learn more about Marshal Frey’s exemplary career at the Baltimore Police History WEBSITE
