Crime is down 9 percent this year, city police tell us.
The mayor says we're seeing "extraordinary results" and attributes the drop to her plan to target violent criminals.
Meanwhile, people are being attacked in and around downtown, from Mount Vernon to Federal Hill, and five people have been killed this week, including a man shot near the baseball stadium shortly after the bars and clubs had closed. Cops say they're beefing up patrols at the Inner Harbor and neighboring communities, and people say they're scared.
Police measure crime numbers, but they don't measure fear, and there is a disconnect between what the statistics show and how people feel.
This disconnect, says crime expert Sheldon F. Greenberg, is a direct result of law enforcement relying too much on statistics - which he calls the "political reality of policing" - while shrugging off ways of making people feel more comfortable.
Greenberg, the associate dean of the Johns Hopkins Division of Public Safety Leadership and a former Howard County police officer, notes that fear is difficult to measure but crucial to combat if city leaders want to match their statistical gains with people's perceptions.
"Victimization is very personal," Greenberg said. "Managing fear is as important as managing the crime itself."
And the perception is that crime in Baltimore is out of control.
"Crime is down in the city? Who are they kidding?" Larry Caudill wrote in a posting to the Crime Beat blog in which he describes how over the weekend someone stole from his daughter's and new husband's wedding card box that had been filled with cash and checks from 155 guests at a Harbor East ballroom.
"Besides putting a damper on the latter part of the reception and bringing tears to the eyes of the bride on what should have been an all out wonderful day, the police were phoned three times to report the incident and seek help," Caudill wrote. "They never showed up until hours after the event was over, when the family and guests were well on their way home. Don't tell me crime is on its way downward in this city, it's just not true!"
This is part of Caudill's experience in Baltimore, and no statistics from the mayor will convince him that the city is safer now than it was a few years ago. He said police compounded the problem and his fear that no one cares about crime by showing up after the guests had left, though police say they responded to at least four calls right after the theft was reported shortly after 10 p.m. May 22 and were led to various addresses by several different callers.
Police said the first call was to the reception on South Front Street, but another caller changed the location to a nearby hotel lobby on Albemarle Street. Police arrived but found no one, and were later called back to the reception for an argument between the caterer and family members. Caudill said he waited at the reception until 11:30 p.m. but didn't see an officer. Police did take a larceny report from the groom's mother the following morning at a coffee shop in Harbor East.
The scenario is confusing, but the experience left Caudill unsettled in the city he calls home. He feels victimized by the crime and ignored by the police, and has concluded the city is unsafe.
Police say 5,598 larcenies were reported in Baltimore through mid-May, down 6 percent from the 6,006 reported during the same period last year. The statistics say crime is down; the fear still remains.
