1476 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 830

and privileges of the system of which he is a member, with
out any regard to the age requirements or the requirements
for physical examination required by such system, provided
the total combined service prior to becoming Police
Commissioner and as Police Commissioner shall be
not less than twenty-five (25) years. He shall be
subject to removal by the Governor for official miscon-
duct or incompetency in the manner provided by law in
the case of civil officers; he shall receive a salary of ten
thousand dollars per annum, payable quarterly. The said
Commissioner shall not be eligible to an elective or ap-
pointed office during the term for which he was appointed
Before entering upon the duties of his office, the Commis-
sioner shall enter into bond to the State of Maryland, with
one or more sureties, in the penalty of ten thousand dollars,
conditioned for the faithful discharge of his duties as such
Commissioner; said bond to be approved by the Judge of
the Superior Court of the City of Baltimore, and to be kept
and recorded by the clerk of said Court, in the office there-
of, together with the certificate of appointment as afore-
said, and shall also take and subscribe before the said
Judge of the Superior Court, or the clerk thereof, the oath
or affirmation prescribed by the sixth section of the first
article of the Constitution, and the further oath or affirma-
tion, that in every appointment, promotion, reduction in
rank or removal to be made by him, to, in or from the police
force created and organized under this sub-division of this
Article, he will in no case, and under no pretext, appoint,
promote, reduce in rank or remove any policeman or officer
of police, or detective, or any other person under him, for
or on account of the political opinions or affiliations of such
policeman, officer, detective or other person or for any
other cause or reason than the fitness or unfitness of such
person, in the best judgment of said Commissioner for the
place to which he shall be appointed, or from which he shall
be removed, and the said oath or affirmation shall be re-
corded and preserved among the records of said Court.

The said Police Commissioner shall have and exercise
all the powers exercised by the Board of Police Commis-
sioners of Baltimore City and wherever the term or ex-
pression "Board of Police Commissioners" is used in any
of the public local or public general laws of this State, such
term or expression shall be construed as applying to the
Police Commissioner created by this section.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That this Act shall
take effect June 1. 1943.

Approved May 6? 1943.