Central District

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.Baltimore CityNorthwestern DistrictEscape: Police continued yesterday to search for a man who slipped out of handcuffs, opened the door to a patrol wagon and escaped while being transported about 10 p.m. Tuesday to Central Booking and Intake Center. Agent Angelique Cook-Hayes, a police spokeswoman, said John Edward Wise, 20, of the 5300 block of Cordelia Ave. in Pimlico was arrested in the 2800 block of Reisterstown Road and charged with operating a stolen car. He escaped in the 1200 block of W. North Ave.Southwestern DistrictDrugs seized: Officers of the district's drug enforcement unit continued yesterday to seek the occupants of a house in the 2100 block of N. Longwood St., which was raided Saturday.

Police said a man who was arrested yesterday in Southeast Baltimore gave them information on thefts from 60 vehicles in Fells Point and Little Italy.Earlier this month, the man was arrested in the Central District and gave officers details of thefts from more than 100 vehicles in the downtown area, said Lt. Richard James of the Southeastern District.After the earlier arrest, the man was charged with one count of theft from an auto and released on his own recognizance, James said.James said the man was arrested yesterday after officers saw him acting suspiciously and charged him with being a rogue and vagabond.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.Baltimore CityNorthwestern DistrictShooting: A pregnant woman, 28, was in the 3400 block of Virginia Ave. about 6: 40 a.m. yesterday when an unknown person shot her in the abdomen with a shotgun. The victim, who lives in the 4300 block of Park Heights Ave., was taken in by a resident and was rushed by ambulance to Sinai Hospital. The woman was in critical condition last night.Central DistrictArrest: A man arrested Jan. 13 by Officer Ken Ramburg and charged with stealing property from a car in the 200 block of W. Lanvale St. is a suspect in more than 100 other car break-ins in the Central District since January 1998, police said yesterday.

A Baltimore police officer who patrols downtown streets is under investigation after being accused by his trainee of discarding drugs seized as evidence and playing basketball while on duty, a source said yesterday.The officer, whose name was not divulged, originally was suspended from duty. But commanders have decided to return him to duty until the investigation is completed, the source said.Robert W. Weinhold Jr., a department spokesman, would say only that a Central District officer is being investigated for allegedly mishandling evidence.

More than 60 police officers were called to restore order early yesterday at the downtown Brokerage after a crowd of thousands gathered for an entertainment event became unruly.Officers wielding bullhorns and batons were called from across the city when the crowd stampeded after a gunshot about 1 a.m., police said."We used everything and every available person we had to move them," said Central District Lt. John Bailey. "Public safety was in jeopardy."Sgt. K. J. Ellinger described the scene as a "near-riot situation."

Stan Smith removes his Omega watch and billfold, the last of his valuables. The alarm system is activated. Only then does he venture beyond his rowhouse, avoiding alleys and strangers, for a pleasant evening jog on the streets of Bolton Hill.It's not like it used to be when the 54-year-old high school teacher grew up in a small town in Oklahoma, where front doors were left unlocked. "It's more of a comment on society as a whole," he said. "It's not only in the city."Smith and others in his neighborhood thought their fears would be allayed when they agreed two years ago to pay a surcharge tax for the creation of the Midtown Community Benefits District, carved in the heart of Baltimore to address issues of grime and crime.

Police have increased patrols in Bolton Hill and an organization that supplements city services will follow suit in the wake of an attack that left a Bolton Hill man dead.The changes were announced at a Sunday community meeting, attended by about 100 Bolton Hill residents -- who also learned that a $25,000 reward, donated by an anonymous former resident, has been offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the death Friday of 86-year-old Ernest Hildebrandt.Increased patrols were promised after some residents at the meeting, held at Memorial Episcopal Church on Bolton Street and attended by Central District police, said they wanted more police presence.

The number of bank robberies last year plummeted almost 70 percent in the center of Baltimore -- where many banks are concentrated -- and city police are attributing the drop to improved communication between businesses and officers, increased security and news of high arrest rates.Bank robberies in the city as a whole also fell last year, but less dramatically -- 13 1/2 percent, from 133 in 1996 to 115. Such robberies were up in four police districts. The biggest increase was in the Northern District, from six bank robberies in 1996 to 32 last year.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.Southeastern DistrictShooting: A man, 22, was in the 600 block of N. Ellwood Ave. about 2 p.m. yesterday when he heard several gunshots and felt pain in his face. He was in good condition at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the chin.Central DistrictRobbery try/shooting: A gunman shot a man, 38, in the back when the victim tried to flee during an attempted robbery in the 1800 block of Division St. about 6 p.m. Sunday.

In June and July, a quartet of Baltimore police officers will cross the 10 states and 1,870 miles that lie between Houston and Baltimore to benefit leukemia research.Central District officers Julianne Pritchard, George Whittingham, Edward Wolf and Carl Bird -- ranging in age from 26 to 31 -- are participating in the charity ride organized by the Houston Police Department. Since 1982, the trip has been an annual tradition for the Houston Police Department, which chooses a different destination every year, ranging from cities in Canada and Alaska to California.

Actions speak louder than words. That's why putting more police on the streets around the Inner Harbor and downtown was the only way city police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III was going to allay concerns about safety at Baltimore's premier tourist attraction and in surrounding neighborhoods after a recent rash of seemingly random acts of violence by unruly teenagers. It's one thing to talk about an overall drop in crime in the area, but people can't see a statistic. To really make them feel safe you've got to show them there are more than enough police on duty to keep a lid on things and ensure that everyone has a good time.

The police patrol area is called the Central District, implying center of the city, or downtown. But its borders stretch far beyond, north of North Avenue into Reservoir Hill, west of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard past the trendy enclave of Bolton Hill and up the Pennsylvania Avenue drug corridor. City cops list 19 neighborhoods within this urban footprint, but that doesn't begin to explain the diversity of the area's night life, club scene, red-light strip, restaurants, shopping areas, waterfront attractions, upscale hotels, hospitals, universities, corporate headquarters, the convention center and City Hall.

The Police Department ousted its top leadership yesterday in the Central District, a move that comes amid violent attacks in the downtown area and one day after The Baltimore Sun reported that officers had failed to properly handle the robbery of a nanny in Bolton Hill. Maj. John Bailey, a 35-year veteran, and his second in command, Deputy Maj. Avon Mackell, a 21-year veteran, were stripped of their command positions after what sources described as a particularly heated exchange with department leadership after a woman was choked and robbed of an iPod while she walked with a baby Monday afternoon.

Woman fatally stabbed in downtown Baltimore Baltimore detectives arrested a woman yesterday shortly after police staff monitoring crime cameras watched an attack and directed officers to a fleeing suspect, said Sterling Clifford, a Police Department spokesman. The camera monitors - many of whom are retired police officers - were watching live footage from the areas near The Block, the city's adult entertainment district, and noticed a fight among several women escalating about 2 a.m. yesterday.

Baltimore City Central District Robbery: A 62-year-old man was accosted by a gunman in the 2000 block of Mount Royal Terrace about 10 p.m. Monday and robbed him of his walletand $12. [

The renaissance of Bolton Hill has made it one of the city's most desirable neighborhoods, with tree-lined streets, a strong community association and stately 19th-century rowhouses that sell for an average price of nearly $240,000. Neighbors are friendly. Police consider it among the city's safest areas. But the comfort zone that Bolton Hill residents have grown accustomed to was attenuated this year when a man committed a string of offenses that escalated from simple burglaries to rape and attempted murder.

Central District Arrest: A man was arrested about 8 a.m. Sunday after he alledgedly damaged two surveillance cameras, spilled food on the floor and tried to open a cash register at McDonald's in the 100 block of E. Baltimore St. Charged with attempted theft and destruction of property was Marlow Sanders, 25, of the 200 block of N. Spring Court.

As a sign of how much is riding on the $350 million effort to revitalize the west side of downtown, Baltimore police plan to open a substation unlike any other in the city. The 12-officer substation is scheduled to open in November at Howard and Lexington streets, in the basement of the former Hecht's Co. department store building, which will be reborn as 173 apartments with rents of $752 to $1,990 a month. "You'll have almost a complete police station right there at the center of the development they're putting all this money into," said Lt. Col. Steven McMahon, who commanded the Central District for six years and is now nighttime duty commander citywide.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes from police reports in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Baltimore City Central District Drug arrests: Operation Eastside/Westside, a two-day drug initiative over the weekend, resulted in the arrests of 77 people on various drug charges. Officers also seized large quantities of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and Ecstasy, nearly $5,200 and three vehicles. The initiative directed by Sgts. Bryant D. Moore and Burl A. Tuller took place Friday and Saturday nights and involved undercover drug enforcement unit officers from the nine police districts.

MANY CRIMINALS may be stupid, but they're not blind. They can see that Baltimore's crackdown on homicides has dangerously depleted routine patrols in many districts. The result is that while killings and assaults have dipped, business-related armed and unarmed robberies have soared in five of the nine police districts. The worst increase is in the Northeastern District, where such robberies are up 75 percent over the first quarter of last year. Southeastern reported a 56 percent increase, Northern 47 percent, Northwestern 21 percent and Southern 15 percent.