Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon has stepped in the fracus over a new police department policy by to withhold names of officers who fire their weapons and ordered that it be revised.

This sudden turnaround, which she announced during an impromptu news conference yesterday, has her for one of the first times jumping into a policy issue that has embroiled her most important and public agency for weeks and led to tussles with the media and now the City Council, where some members feel misled by officials at a public hearing. Listen to the podcast of Guglielmi's debate on the Marc Steiner show.

Scott Peterson, the mayor's spokesman, told me this morning that Dixon wants to "take a step back" because of reaction to the policy from the press, the public and City Council members:

"Obviously this is a policy we are looking at, that we want to make sure we get right. This administration wants to make sure that policies that we put in place for this city are the best policies for its people. The mayor is working in cooperation with the commissioner. They're looking toward possibly reviewing the policy ... to make sure it fits this city. ... It's a policy debate. This happens in politics. ... Everything is on the table in looking at this policy."

Well, yes, policies do get reviewed in politics, but usually before they actually become policy. Scott is trying to make this sound like a routine part of the process; such debate and research should've and could've been done before the policy actually was thought up and implemented. The police union, the citizen groups, the police civilian review board, the City Council, and others all could've been consulted.

All the spin in the world can't rewrite history -- the policy was implemented, and now the mayor, after public flak that won't die down, is stepping in to revise and possibly reverse it, even after her police commissioner defended it at a City Council hearing and his chief spokesman repeatedly tried to defend it in the media and on a radio show.

This morning, the spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi, told Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton:

"We are revisiting the policy. I think the whole issue has taken on a life of its own and is truly a distraction for the department and City Hall. We're going to try to find a middle ground between transparency and protecting officers families and officers. Each locale is different. What works in the federal government, New York City, Atlanta, may or may not work in Baltimore."

That comment came after Guglielmi had posted an unscientific Baltimore Sun web poll on the topic on the department's Facebook page. Of the 583 people who resonded, nearly 60 percent backed the police policy.