Crime Is Down

Baltimore City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake introduced resolutions yesterday asking the city's police commissioner to brief the council on the effect of reduced police overtime on Baltimore's homicide rate, a plan to redraw police district lines and the effectiveness of the city's blue-light crime cameras. At a City Council lunch, Rawlings-Blake said current police district lines are outdated and could be responsible for a "structural deficit" in police overtime spending.

Baltimore City Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr., the leading Democratic primary opponent of Mayor Sheila Dixon, called for an independent audit of crime statistics yesterday, arguing that the official numbers do not reflect actual crime. Sounding a refrain that has become familiar in Baltimore politics, Mitchell questioned the Dixon administration's position that overall violent crime is down, while murders and nonfatal shootings climb. Mitchell promised to request an audit from the U.S. Department of Justice today.

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.

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NEW YORK -- Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who says he has given "no thought yet" to national aspirations, is campaigning for Republican candidates in Iowa, New Hampshire (those are the first two states he mentions; he is such a tease), South Carolina, California, Florida and elsewhere. This stirs speculation that there might be a national role for him in 2000, even though:He supported New York Gov. Mario Cuomo's re-election in 1994, is pro-choice, favors gun control, rent control and has implemented for city workers one of the nation's most liberal "domestic partners" policies, one that grants the same rights to married couples and unmarried couples of various sexual configurations.

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The percentage of Americans victimized by crime fell last year to the lowest level since the government began keeping data on the issue in 1973, according to a Justice Department report issued yesterday.The report found that the nation's rate of violent crime dropped 10 percent in 1996, while the rate of property crime declined 8 percent."I'm flabbergasted," said Jeffrey Fagan, director of the Center for Violence Research and Prevention at Columbia University."That's a very dramatic drop."

As law enforcement officials from around the state met in Baltimore yesterday to discuss anti-crime efforts, Maryland State Police issued an annual report showing that crime -- especially violent crime -- dropped statewide in 1996.Murder, rape, robbery and serious assault declined 5 percent, and overall crime dropped 3 percent compared with 1995, according to the annual report.But while overall crime dropped 5.1 percent in the Baltimore metropolitan region and 1.2 percent in the Washington region, it rose on the Eastern Shore and in Western Maryland, including Carroll County.

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In the days before computers, the police had File 13, for "forget it." The year was 1964, and Baltimore police discovered that half of the city's criminal complaints had not been properly reported. The police chief was forced to retire, the department established an internal affairs unit and lawmakers removed a restriction that only city residents could lead the agency. Altering, fudging, manipulating and sometimes even ignoring crime has been a part of police work here and around the country since cops started counting and politicians started using the numbers to climb into office or to sabotage opponents.

Executives of a venture capital company that has been a mainstay in Baltimore's Mid-Town neighborhood for a quarter-century told the mayor they are moving to the suburbs because their employees no longer feel safe in the city, an economic blow that demonstrates the far-reaching impact crime can have on a neighborhood. The announcement from Louis Citron, the general counsel of New Enterprise Associates on St. Paul Street, which has offices in Chevy Chase, California, China and India, came in the form of an e-mail Thursday night to Mayor Sheila Dixon and three members of the City Council.

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.

Last year, Baltimore police decided to pursue a potentially wince-inducing task: asking victims of crime if they thought the department was doing a good job. The results may surprise some: A majority of crime victims - 63 percent - were satisfied with the police response to their emergency calls. But most were frustrated with the follow-up, and nearly half said they plan to move out of their neighborhood in the near future, according to results of a survey conducted by the Baltimore Police Department.

Baltimore City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake introduced resolutions yesterday asking the city's police commissioner to brief the council on the effect of reduced police overtime on Baltimore's homicide rate, a plan to redraw police district lines and the effectiveness of the city's blue-light crime cameras. At a City Council lunch, Rawlings-Blake said current police district lines are outdated and could be responsible for a "structural deficit" in police overtime spending.

The members of the Eastern District police community relations council meet on the last Tuesday of every month, and they had developed a routine. Many people arrived early, sat down with an officer and quietly talked about drug dealing near their homes. It's not a good idea to air such complaints in public. But the members learned this week that they will no longer be able to have that sit-down with an officer. Complaints about established drug operations - crimes in progress still go to 911 - now need to be e-mailed directly to the major in charge of the district.

With all my work to provide a different and smarter take on crime, readers want only one thing: "They just want to know how many break-ins are on my block." That insightful analysis comes from Robert E. Pierre, a crime reporter for The Washington Post. We appeared together this week on a radio show put together by the federal government's Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency. In English, that's parole and probation for D.C. criminals. Its spokesman, Leonard A. Sipes Jr., who used to speak for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, runs an impressive media operation that consists of TV, radio and blogs - designed to promote the agency but also to discuss criminal justice issues.

Baltimore City Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr., the leading Democratic primary opponent of Mayor Sheila Dixon, called for an independent audit of crime statistics yesterday, arguing that the official numbers do not reflect actual crime. Sounding a refrain that has become familiar in Baltimore politics, Mitchell questioned the Dixon administration's position that overall violent crime is down, while murders and nonfatal shootings climb. Mitchell promised to request an audit from the U.S. Department of Justice today.

We turn now to the new TV drama Law and Order: Political Intent. Note to viewers: We've had a role reversal, a switching - not of cops and robbers, but of Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives. In this year's race for governor, the leading law-and-order candidate turns out to be the Democrat, Mayor Martin O'Malley. He charges his Republican opponent, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., with releasing a stream of dangerous criminals from prison. Excuse me? This is the Republican who's being accused of being soft on crime by the Democrat?