43
Former YPD chief Baker dies
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A former officer who served when Donald G. Baker was police chief in the 1970s said Baker always knew what was going on.
Lou Ciavarella, who was on the force for more than 30 years as a patrolman and a crime-lab officer, said Baker constantly listened to the police scanner, and whenever something important happened, no matter the time of day – or night – there was sure to follow an inquiry asking someone to contact him.
“It seemed like he was always – and I mean always – listening to the police radio,” said Ciavarella, now part of the security contingent at City Hall and the municipal court. “Nothing that was out of order could happen that he didn’t respond to immediately.”
Baker died Saturday at the age of 87 in an Austintown nursing home.
Baker was born Aug. 2, 1928, in Youngstown, attended Chaney High School and served in the Navy for almost two years. He was appointed to the police department in October 1950, left briefly to work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska and was reappointed to the force in 1953.
He worked his way through the ranks as a detective, lieutenant, captain and deputy chief before Mayor Jack Hunter appointed him chief in 1970. He served as chief for seven years and retired in 1981.
Vindicator files are full of his time on the job. In August 1955, he was injured after a cruiser he was in crashed into a tree. In March 1961, he received a commendation for his actions during a robbery at an Isaly’s store. As a detective, in June 1962, he received another commendation for his part in catching three men who were suspects in several burglaries. Those three men, in turn, helped detectives clear 63 robbery and burglary cases.
As chief, he started a new crime initiative in 1971 to cut down on burglaries, and he also announced in 1972 that he would be keeping an eye on officers who may have been abusing their positions.
The files are full of several officers who were suspended by Baker. In 1975, city council formed a committee to investigate morale problems in the department blamed on Baker, but the committee never took any action.
Baker also was credited, while chief, with helping catch two men in January 1975 who took money from a Mahoning Avenue dry-cleaning business while he was eating lunch.