Murders' Cold Trail

sun special report Killings in Baltimore have declined this year, but so has police success at resolving homicide cases - to the second-lowest rate in nearly 3 decades

"The stop-snitching momentum, which stands in opposition to law enforcement's ability to investigate and prosecute crimes, is swamping the beneficial impact of the lower homicide rate," said Kennedy, who studied crime patterns in Baltimore in the late 1990s. "Yes, there are dramatically fewer [cases] to investigate. But you still need witnesses. You still need juries that will convict."

Bob Cherry, the incoming president of the department's police union and a homicide detective since 1999, said that often leaves investigators short. Detectives have access to information from federal prosecutors, supervisors, beat cops, specialized gang and intelligence units, a program that continuously monitors and maps crime, and new efforts to track guns - making it "very rare" that they don't know who committed a murder, Cherry said.

"But if witnesses in the community aren't willing to come forward and say, 'That's the person in the photo array,' and they aren't willing to tell that to a jury, then we just can't seal the deal," he said. "When it involves gang members, it can take you seven hours just getting them to admit they were even out there, let alone who did the shooting."

McLarney said that when he first joined the homicide unit in 1981, he would go to a murder scene and return to a pile of phone messages at the office - some anonymous and some not.

"The community was far more forthcoming," the major said. "People in the drug culture have begun over the years to tolerate murder."

At a recent community meeting in the Northeast District, police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III implored residents to come forward with information about the Harris slaying. Angry and frustrated, Bealefeld said that he was nearly certain the killers lived nearby but that only two calls had come from the neighborhood.

"I want to be flooded with phone calls about every dog fight and pot smoker in the neighborhood," Bealefeld said, raising his voice almost to a shout. "These kids likely live in the neighborhood because they ran from there. They didn't get into a helicopter and fly to Pennsylvania."

Reluctant witnesses also used to hamper homicide detectives in Richmond, Va., once dubbed "Murder City." But no more. Richmond posted a 116 percent clearance rate last year, which can happen when police solve old cases.