Crime In Baltimore

Crime in Baltimore dropped nearly 11 percent during the first four months of 1999, continuing a downward trend for the past three years, according to statistics released yesterday by city police.Homicides have taken one of the largest drops in the past several years. Seventy-seven killings were recorded in Baltimore from January through April, compared with 106 during the same time in 1998 -- a 27 percent drop.The city is on pace for fewer than 240 killings this year, which would be far less than the 314 that occurred in 1998 and made Baltimore the fourth-deadliest city per capita in the nation.

Crime in Baltimore County continued to decline in the first half of this year, according to police figures released yesterday, with homicides in particular dipping to the lowest level in two decades -- six in the first six months of 1999.Other violent crimes also dropped significantly during the first six months compared with the same period a year ago. Reported rapes dropped 21 percent and robbery was down 13 percent.Overall violent crime was down 3.7 percent, while all crimes declined 7.3 percent.

Crime in Baltimore dropped more than 9 percent between January and March compared with the same period last year, a decrease city police and neighborhood leaders attribute mostly to community policing.Community leaders say e-mailings between residents and police through the Internet, neighborhood meetings and a cordial relationship between authorities and residents also played a part."For example, we have extremely effective safety programs in our community," said Doreen Rosenthal, president of the Mount Royal Improvement Association.

The best efforts of the Baltimore Police Department to keep the city's homicide rate from topping 300 for the ninth year in a row failed yesterday morning with the fatal shooting of a teen-age male in the 1900 block of W. Lanvale St.Police identified the victim as Donte Brooks, 16, of the 600 block of N. Edgewood St. No arrest had been made.Homicide Detective Gary Hoover said Brooks was an apparent robbery victim who was shot twice about 2: 30 a.m. and died at 9: 30 a.m. at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

Baltimore's police union commended yesterday Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's call for city police to enforce traffic laws more aggressively in an effort to reduce violent crime.Wednesday, Schmoke toured Cleveland, a city similar in size and demographics to Baltimore, to view crime-fighting strategies that officials there said have helped reduce the homicide rate.Although Cleveland and Baltimore use many of the same crime-fighting initiatives, including community policing, Schmoke noted that police in Cleveland write more traffic tickets.

To step up Baltimore's battle against crime, the city's Board of Estimates approved the use of a $5.4 million federal grant yesterday to help police and prosecutors target repeat offenders.The crime prevention program, sponsored by the Mayor's Coordinating Council on Criminal Justice, will receive $604,541 from the city.The federal and local money comes as the Glendening administration promises more funds for the city's "hot spots," according to Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke.In particular, the city and state plan to target Baltimore's northeast section, in areas around York and Harford roads, he said.

Violent crime in Baltimore County fell 2.5 percent during the first nine months of 1997 compared with the corresponding period last year, a decrease that authorities attribute to crime-fighting programs involving police, residents and business owners.The drop in murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault accompanied a dip of 1.2 percent in all crimes reported, according to police statistics released this week.That decline, along with an increase in arrests for robbery and burglary, can be traced to better cooperation between police departments and between police and residents, county police Chief Terrence B. Sheridan said.

Violent crime plummeted in Baltimore in the first three months of this year, picking up where 1996 left off when the number of assaults, shootings and robberies dropped significantly for the first time in a decade.Police officials are taking credit for the reductions -- nearly 20 percent for violent crime and 14 percent for property crime -- saying three years of incremental changes in the department are starting to pay off."I think that it validates our strategies that we put in place," said Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier, who was hired three years ago as shootings and homicides hit record levels.

THE CHASTISING tone of a progress report on zero tolerance police tactics was totally predictable. It was issued by a Baltimore City Council committee chaired by Martin O'Malley, whose crime-fighting philosophy differs sharply from that of Police Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier. Yet there is more common ground than you might expect.The police chief is doing a lot of what Mr. O'Malley wants, but Mr. Frazier refuses to call it "zero tolerance," the term Mr. O'Malley imported from New York. Although Mr. O'Malley will admit the commissioner has made progress, he downplays that and instead talks about what still needs doing.

FOURTH DISTRICT Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. appears to be testing the waters for Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke by proposing a 2 percent increase in Baltimore's piggyback income tax rate. The proposal is modest in comparison to the 10 percent increase the mayor failed to get last year. But while this dog may be smaller, it still won't hunt. It is a bad idea for the same reason the larger tax hike was rejected in 1996: Arguments that it is the best option aren't convincing.Mr. Mitchell proposes the $2.2 million that might be generated by raising the piggyback tax from 50 to 51 percent be used to hire more police officers and expand the state's attorney's office.

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.

With the unofficial beginning of summer here, crime in Baltimore so far this year is down in nearly every category, mirroring a national trend as most large cities defy predictions that crime will rise in a struggling economy. Total crime is down 9 percent, including an 11 percent drop in violent crime. Property crime, which rose last year for the first time in 15 years, is down 9 percent so far this year. And homicides, which for much of the year were up by a considerable margin, have largely stabilized in recent weeks.

When Baltimore police roll into city neighborhoods known for serious drug violence, the first thing they often hear are shouts of "Five-O! Five-O!" from lookouts warning of their approach. The lookouts, mostly men in their 40s and 50s who are considered too old to play much of a role in the street-level drug trade, earn a meager subsistence on the periphery of the business. Younger, up-and-coming dealers pay them a pittance to keep watch, usually in the form of just enough heroin or crack cocaine to get them through another day. So when Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, who came up through the ranks and once walked those mean streets himself, considers how to manage Baltimore's endemic crime problem, he's got to be thinking of those middle-age guys on the street who, broke, unemployed and addicted, are as much victims of the city's violent drug trade as are the junkies who line up in the shadows to buy their daily fix. "The best thing I could possibly do to reduce crime in Baltimore would be to give all my officers two kinds of cards to hand out," the commissioner says.

There is a lot of talk today about one's carbon footprint and how we can all be "greener" in our approach to everyday living on the planet. But what impact do we have on crime - and how can we reduce it? Just imagine: It's Friday night in a McMansion in the suburbs of Baltimore. A rich white guy settles in for the evening with a couple of martinis, some weed and a couple of lines of coke. He's not hurting anyone, right? Wrong; he's contributing to the deaths of Baltimore's unfortunate black youths.

Long before a video of a Baltimore policeman berating a skateboarder in the Inner Harbor became a YouTube sensation, crime was one of the hottest Internet topics from the city. Most days, there are more blog posts from Baltimore about crime than about the Orioles, politics or practically any other subject, according to blog trackers like blogpulse and Ice Rocket. Call it the Wire-ization of Baltimore, but the topic continues to shape the identity and perception of the city. At least a half-dozen blogs focus on crime in and around the city.

We asked painter Tony Shore, whose gritty new images of gang violence and street crime are on view at C. Grimaldis Gallery, whether he'd been watching too much TV lately - specifically, The Wire, HBO's police drama about gang violence and street crime in Baltimore. Not at all, Shore replied. Over the past few months he's been far too busy making his signature acrylic-on-black-velvet paintings to watch TV. Still, since winning the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts' $25,000 Sondheim Artscape Prize last summer, Shore has taken his painting in an unexpected direction.

For the second year in a row, more Baltimore families have suffered through the murder of a loved one than in the previous year. The increase, though slight, underscores a troubling trend in homicides that leaves Baltimore standing virtually alone among major American cities. Since 1990, Baltimore's homicide rate, the number of killings per 100,000 residents, has stayed consistently high, while most other U.S. cities have seen their numbers drop in the years since crack cocaine-related crime was at its worst.

Sean Taylor dies nearly every single day in Baltimore. Tragic. Senseless. Wasted promise and stolen potential. No, he's not usually a professional football player with an enviable bank account. But he is usually young, black and the victim of a crime. Last Monday, in his Palmetto Bay, Fla., home, his name was Sean Taylor. At the exact time Taylor was shot by an intruder, in Baltimore, his name was Michael Crowder, a 33-year-old man who was found unresponsive not far from his Coppin Heights home.

Dondrea Ross' backyard is no longer her own. It belongs to the drug dealers who stalk the playground behind her house. They have knocked down the light poles so they can conduct their illicit business in private. They have chased off the children who used to run and play there. "I can't cook out. I can't hang clothes," said Ross, 44, a single mother. She doesn't confront the dealers for fear of being hurt. She doesn't call the police because she has convinced herself that they wouldn't respond.

Acharred porch on McKewin Avenue says more about the violence tearing at Baltimore than any police report or crime plan. It shows vividly why some criminals remain out of reach and conveys the lengths that people will go to silence a neighborhood, terrorize a witness and frustrate the prosecution of criminals. Crime is the No. 1 issue on voters' minds this election season, and candidates running for city office should visit McKewin Avenue and see the scene of this crime. The escalating murder count gets most of the attention, but making Baltimore a safer city isn't only about driving down the number of homicides.