Crimes Reported

Violent crime in Howard County fell 11 percent in the first nine months of this year, while vandalism and similar crimes rose nearly 5 percent, according to statistics released by the Howard County Police Department."

Baltimore city school police are working to reconcile insufficient documentation of roughly 300 police reports to meet an annual deadline for the Baltimore City Police Department to submit its annual crime stats to the federal government, school and law enforcement officials confirmed Thursday. In a memo, city police informed school police leaders that more than 300 reports were considered "delinquent," because paperwork had not been filed, or not filed properly. Sources told The Baltimore Sun that roughly half of the reports pertained to Part I offenses, which are considered the most dangerous and are often felonies.

BOATS BURGLARIZED AT ANNAPOLIS DOCKTwo boats docked at the Annapolis Pleasant Cove Yacht Basin were broken into last week, with valuables worth more than $4,700 taken.One boat is owned by Jon Lewis Boisclair, of the 3000 block N. Street N.W., in Washington. He reported a television and binoculars, valued at $2,850, missing.The other boat is owned by Leonard Panzitta, of the 600 block Parkwood Road, Severna Park. Panzitta reported that a pair of binoculars, tools and a radio, valued at $1,700, were taken.

The number of serious violent crimes not reported to police fell from 50 percent to 42 percent from 1994 to 2010, but in recent years the percentage of crimes unreported because of concerns about police has doubled, according to a study released today by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.  Highlights from the report include:  -Rape and sexual assault continue to be unlikely to be reported to police at a startling rate - 65 percent went unreported...

Maryland reported a 6 percent drop in overall crime in the first half of 1997, continuing a state and national trend toward declining crime rates.The statistics issued yesterday by Maryland State Police and the governor's office also marked Maryland's first January-to-June crime reduction since 1990.The 140,016 crimes reported from January through June this year amount to a crime being committed somewhere in Maryland every 1 minute and 45 seconds -- but also represented a drop from the 148,742 crimes reported for the first half of 1996.

Report shows crimes of violence on riseThe number of violent crimes reported to the Harford County Sheriff's Office increased in the first six months of 1992 compared with the same period last year.From Jan. 1 to June 30, 1992, the Sheriff's Office investigated four murders, compared with none during the first six months of 1991, a report released last week shows.The number of robberies rose from 12 in the first six months of 1991 to 26 during the first half of 1992, while the number of assaults increased from 355 to 397, the report shows.

While Baltimore County established a record for murders in 1992, the number of less serious crimes actually decreased by 4.8 percent, according to a report released yesterday.The annual crime statistics from county police and showed that violent crime continued to rise: there were more rapes, robberies and murders in 1992 than in 1991.Murder led the way. Forty-four people were killed in the county, compared to 25 the year before, an increase of 76 percent. The county has averaged around 30 murders per year over the last decade.

The number of crimes reported on Baltimore's light rail system has risen dramatically this year at a time when overall crime is down on other forms of public transit.Mass Transit Administration officials attributed much of the increase to higher light rail ridership. The southern segment of the Central Light Rail Line was completed in June, and the MTA estimates that there may be twice as many passengers riding the system as a year ago. The disruptive behavior of adolescent boys, often as young as 12, also appears to be contributing to the problem, officials contend.

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.

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."

The Carroll County Sheriff's Office is reporting that an Eldersburg man in the 20s was threatened with a hammer and robbed of an iPhone in an early morning incident on Sunday, June 17. The incident occurred at about 2 a.m., according to the report. The sheriff's office said the victim had agreed to meet two people - a man and a woman - on Hodges Road, near the area where it comes to a dead end, in order to sell an Apple iPhone to them. But when everyone had arrived, one of the suspects pulled out a hammer and threatened the victim with it, and ordered him to hand over the phone and his money, the report said.

All Baltimore County Sgt. Stephen Fink wanted to do was inform the people in the Towson area about crime in their neighborhood. He distributed a weekly crime report that summarized burglaries, arrests and other incidents that residents clamor for. Then, in 2009, he was told to stop sending out the information because it in addition to getting in the hands of homeowners, it was also getting into the hands of the media. A department spokesman at the time quickly restored the service, to both the media and the residents.

According to a release from the Annapolis Police Department, officers responded to 93 calls for service and arrested 13 people in the past 24 hours. Here are a few recently reported crimes, according to police: Theft from vehicle : Between 7:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. Monday, an unknown suspect removed a black Gucci purse, money and Christmas presents from a vehicle in the 1000 block of President St., according to police. There was no sign of forced entry to the vehicle, police said.

Laurel police report felonies, arrests and property crimes. Prince George's County police report violent crimes and property crime. Howard County police report major crimes, break-ins and car thefts. City of Laurel Sharon Court , 100 block, Nov. 19. Entry gained through door. Laundry service ATM damaged; nothing reported taken. Two males observed on video entering laundry room and attempting to force open ATM laundry machine. Police attempting to identify subjects.

It was the talk of Roland Park. A couple was held up at gunpoint on a street in the middle of the day. The man brandished a silver handgun and covered his face with a ski mask. He stole a wallet, credit cards and a purse with the woman's diamond engagement ring, then sped away in a minivan. It occurred Tuesday afternoon. Steve Elkins picked up his morning newspaper the next day and saw no mention of the crime. "For other parts of the city, the incident might not be newsworthy, but for low-crime and ostensibly 'safe' Roland Park it is surprising, and as a resident of the area, something I find disturbing," Elkins wrote me in an e-mail.

Driven by a substantial increase in robberies, serious crimes in Howard County rose by a third in the first three months of 1995 -- a rise county police partly attributed yesterday to a mild winter that made life easier for criminals.The increase in the number of crimes reported -- continuing a countywide rise in serious crime over the past two years -- came despite a slight drop in some types of violent crime, including rape and assault, and a dip in auto theft.During the January to March period this year, robberies nearly doubled and theft went up by 71 percent compared to the same period last year, according to county crime statistics released yesterday.

Washington. -- Is there a growing epidemic of crime? Of starving American children? Of dead babies? Of ill-educated teen-agers? Or is it a growing epidemic of media mindlessness and maliciousness?Data-doctoring has long been an American public-policy disaster. It comes with the noble territory of a free press and free politics. But is statistics-spinning getting worse? Can something done?In recent weeks, we heard:* That the violent crime rate is going up.* That ''a startling number of American children [are]