With all the talk of downgrading crime statistics and officers not taking reports, my colleague Justin Fenton stumbled on a new twist -- in Memphis, people are complaining that their police department is too good at recording crime, making the city look worse than people think it really is (at left, a shooting scene on Fayette Street captured by Sun photographer Elizabeth Malby).

In Baltimore, we have the exact opposite problem -- people think the cops are hiding crime and that the city is actually worse than police say it is. See previous articles on the nanny in Bolton Hill who was attacked but recorded as a "police information," which led to the ouster of a district police commander.

According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal, their police count just about everything, including thefts under $1,000 in value, which the New York Police Department doesn't. Different standards across the country, despite the FBI's attempt to make all crime reporting uniform, makes all these charts we see rating cities difficult. It's one of the reasons we fall back on the homicide count; it's generally believed that is the most accurate, even if it's one of the least effective ways to measure whether a city is safe.

We of course saw that even murder numbers can be problematic when Detroit under-reported its number to the FBI, putting them ahead of Baltimore for the number one slot in the homicide rate for 2008.

The newspaper article singled out Baltimore:

Other discrepancies surface in cases where several crimes are committed in one incident. While Memphis reports each individual crime, some cities report only the highest offenses -- such as murder.

Baltimore, for example, had 100 more murders than Memphis, yet inexplicably had a lower rate of violent crime.

With a population of 634,549, Baltimore reported 234 murders and 10,080 violent crimes, according to preliminary FBI numbers for 2008. Memphis, with a population of 672,046, had 137 murders, but 12,927 violent crimes.

To me, it doesn't make much sense to count a single incident several times. If someone is robbed, shot and killed, what is it? A robbery, a shooting or a homicide. Can it be all three? And if you count it as three separate crimes, does that make that incident worse than it really is? After all, it's one crime, not three. I would count it as a homicide for statistical purposes but also keep track of motive and means (robbery and shooting).

It's never easy and people will always think the numbers are somehow manipulated.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Shortly after a pit bull was doused with gasoline and set on fire in West Baltimore in late May, I went out with an animal control officer to see people treat their pets in this city. One of the first stops was a house on Patterson Park Avenue, where Wesley Sanders lived. A woman who lived down the street accused his two pit bulls, one named Savage, of attacking her smaller dog.

The animal control officer, Ricky Martin, went into the house and talked with the 30-year-old Sanders, who denied the allegation and emerged with his two dogs who played on his front steps while I videotaped the scene (see above).

That investigation is still pending, but I've learned that less than a month later, on June 25, police raided that very rowhouse and arrested Sanders on charges of selling drugs. According to charging documents, police broke down his front door and found suspected cocaine, a digital scale, a mirror with white residue on it, a sifter with white residue on it, small bags with 1,000 gel caps, used to package drugs, and, between two mattresses, a Taurus .357 Magnum handgun loaded with six bullets. Inside a nightstand of another bedroom, police said they found a ammunition for a .38 caliber revolver.

Police sa that Sanders has been convicted of attempted murder and with selling drugs in Baltimore County. I don't know yet what happened to his two dogs but I'm checking. It does demonstrate just how dangerous a job it is even for animal control officers.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Last week, I asked residents who participated in the Baltimore Police Department's community ride-along program (photo at left from Friday evening right in the Southwestern District) to send me their oberservations. Here are a few:

From Bethany: Thanks for the opportunity to share experiences from the city-wide ride-along. I had the great privilege to ride-along with Western District Officer Vargas Friday afternoon as well as attend the Police Headquarter's Reception. During the ride-along, I peppered the officer with countless questions about his work in my community and found him to be knowledgable, concerned and transparent about the joys and challenges of police work in an urban context. Through the course of the afternoon, I saw this police officer patrol the beat, greet folks in his sector, respond to calls from individuals and organizations within the community in need of assistance, and back-up other officers. I was pleased with the responsiveness and instincts displayed on the ride-along.
 
Following the field experience, our group was transported with three sergeants from the Western District to the reception at Headquarters. This event was a very comprehensive look at police work taking place in the city- through the emergency call center, forensics, camera surveillance, SWAT teams, K-9, etc. Throughout the evening, the Western District sergeants made sure that we were each having a positive experience. Highlights of the reception included hearing Commissioner Bealefield voice support for the role of community groups and advocates in promoting safety and his commitment to attend an upcoming Citizens on Patrol walk in the Western District.
 
Overall, this was an exciting event and a great opportunity to learn more about local police work and city-wide police efforts. I would encourage any city resident to meet and talk first-hand with their local district officers. I have found the folks at the Western District to be very hospitable to community members and interested in working together with concerned citizens. Improved partnerships between the police force and residents are integral to keeping our city safe.

Here is one more:

Your statement "Every patrol car in every district should be filled with a so-called ride-along to give residents a chance to see how police do their jobs." sounds as though those of us who participated in the ride along are "so-called people"

Last nights ride along was not my first. I have done this on several occasions. What made last nights ride along better were the residents who had never had the opportunity to do so. I don't think residents who complain realize what an officer goes through when he or she arrives at work, steps into a police car and patrol our streets. The tour of Police Headquarters showed residents where crimes are solved. Those who had not done so got to meet the Commissioner and much of his staff.

I rode with Sgt. McMillan of Central District. I watched as he and the officers figured out a way to put two dogs back into their yard without anyone getting harmed including the dogs. We responded to a hit and run with injuries and the subsequent arrest of the driver who left the scene a few blocks away. However, the call of a child being kidnapped from a car on Wilson and Druid Hill brought several officers to the corner only to discover the call was bogus. People who make bogus calls take officers away from residents who actually need their assistance. I listened as he answered questions asked by the officers working under him. His answers were clear, concise and professional. Officers needing additional clarification were not demeaned for asking additional questions. All of the officers worked together as a well oiled machine. I am proud of the officers in Central District. They are hard working men and women. They do not always get a thank you or know how much they are appreciated for what they do. Kudos to Sgt. Charles Hess and his staff for putting together the ride-along for Central District.

Last year the Police Department had a Citizen Police Academy with promises of one this year. The classes were very interesting as well as informative. Something like this will give residents an opportunity to learn what the officers learn only it is far more condensed. 

I do agree with you that many community meetings have residents who come and complain about crime and what the police are or are not doing. I do hope those who participated in last nights event will take what they observed and learned back to their community meetings. Hopefully the Police Department will do this again and get an even larger turn out than last night.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Steve Herlth glances out the side window of a police cruiser on Washington Boulevard and sees a group of kids hanging by the side of a liquor store.

"The guy on the bike is dealing right now," he tells the man behind the wheel, Southwestern District Officer Christopher Warren with the Baltimore Police Department.

The officer swung his cruiser through a parking lot and pulled up to the teens. As he pulled up the bicycle rider’s shirt and patted him down, Herlth rolled down the window and stared at the youth. Both lived in the same Morrell Park neighborhood, but this longtime resident who organizes community walks and is a liaison with police wasn’t scared.

"I’ve got to show him I’m not afraid of him," Herlth told me (that's Herlth in the midle of the photo, with Lt. Sean P. Mahoney in the white shirt and Officer Matt Daugherty after police stopped a car and found drug needles).

This was once scene out of many Friday evening and night on the streets of Baltimore, as city cops held one of the biggest community gathering in years. Not only did police open up virtually every office in the downtown headquarters building on Fayette Street, where people could chat with the police commissioner, they invited residents to ride with officers in every district in every corner of the city.

More than 170 people accepted the invitation — young, old, teens, community leaders, curious homeowners. It was more than a meet and greet — it was a chance for people to see how the officers work and confront the very issues they complain about day after day, week after week in phone calls and at community meetings.

"I want engagement on happy terms," Southwestern District Maj. Anthony Brown told me.

For more on the ride:

One of the biggest complaints from just about anyone is that they call 911 and either nobody comes or the officer simply rides by, without stopping, without getting out of the car, without talking to people. "They’ll see our guys running," Brown said. "They’ll see how the supervisor takes charge of the radio when it gets busy, and how that bicycle theft gets put in the back seat when the call for a domestic violence comes in."

The major gathered the residents in the roll call room and told them, "I hope today you get to see what police do. ... We want you to meet officers, not just on a 911 call."

Herlth was particularly happy with Brown, who took over the district in January, because he was reachable. He showed me his cell phone that not only Brown’s person cell phone plugged in, but those of the deputy major, the lieutenants and the sergeants. "His attitude is that if I need him, I got him," Herlth told me.

Morrell Park, like any neighborhood, has its share of problems. Its not as drug or crime ridden as other parts of the sprawling Southwest District, which reaches up into what is considered Northwest Baltimore, but for the people who live there the issues are real. Herlth knows the player, like the kid on the bike who didn’t have any drugs on him on Friday but deals marijuana and prescription pain killers.

Herlth pointed out other drug "runners" and another youth known as "Waked and Shake."

"We’re fighting a battle," he said, sparking a conversation with Warren. Herlth blamed parents. Warren asked, "Do we need so many bars and liquor stores in this city?"

Like any resident, Herlth wants more police, but he also recognizes that Morrell Park is far more stable than others Warren has to patrol. "How do we ask for more patrols when you have Poplar Grove right up the way that can have a shooting any moment?" he asked.

Warren answered with an old axiom of policing: stable neighborhoods get police service, while problem neighborhoods get police response. Residents in the stable communities "sometimes feel left out," the officer said. "The still have police, just not as much as the others."

During the course of the evening, Warren helped other officers at a car stop in which a man from Anne Arundel County was looking to buy drugs (he had nine heroin needs in a small bag), and responded to another stop in which an officer saw someone with an open container of alcohol in the car.

The driver happened to be a state employee with a clean record, but his friends all had been arrested before and were known drug dealers. Another call for a man with a gun led to an arrest of a 19-year-old on an old warrant and on Winchester Street, Warren spotted a known member of the Crips gang, a kid with "C" with a line through it tattooed on his wrist.

"As soon as we see a gang member, we move them out," Warren said after he told the youth to go to his home in Northwest Baltimore.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

If anyone wonders what can tie up a Baltimore police district and delay response to other calls, here's one overhead on the scanner on an otherwise quiet Saturday night. Police were trying to deal with a large party that attracted up to 300 people on Seidel Avenue off Bel Air Road in Northeast Baltimore about 9 p.m.

After several cruisers went up there, an officer got on the radio and shouted: "We need every available unit up there." That attracted a pile of cops who struggled for about 15 minutes to get the crowd under control and out of the area.

At one point, an officer said: "We're trying to negotiate" to which another officer, possibly a supervsor, responded, "Tell them to go inside or leave the area. Tell them to shut it down, go inside or leave the area."

I was listening to the scanner in the office and I don't know what kind of party this was, but the police had the helicopter, Foxtrot, fly low. Said an officer: "Have him make an announcement. Everybody has been warned not to loiter. Anybody standing will be arrested."

The air went quiet for a few minutes. At 9:15 p.m., an officer called off the troops, saying: "Seidel looks pretty good right now."

That was good news to the dispatcher who told the officers, "We got 18 calls pending, six are priority one."

A few minutes later, another officer asked over the air, "I'm just curious, how many arrests did we get out of there."

The dispatcher asked and one voice answered, "I know I just took one in."

"That's what I thought," the first officer said. "Incredible."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The turmoil within the Baltimore Police Department's disciplinary unit continues as the trial-board prosecutor who was fired for allegedly botching cases is now firing back, threatening to "pull back the curtain on the cesspool that exists within the Police Department's disciplinary oversight unit."

The official, JoAnne C. Woodson-Branche, whose position was eliminated, which required officials to throw out internal charges against up to 50 officers. Those include cases involving the Southwest District's flex squad unit in which two officers were accused of doing nothing to stop and assault and others were accused of storing drugs in their desks and planting evidence.

In her first public remarks, Woodson-Branche released a statement through her attorney, Warren A. Brown, alleging that she was prevented from pursuing cases by her commander. The lawyer, Brown, is a well known criminal defense attorney who has represented cops and people accusing cops of misconduct. He is not known for keeping his mouth shut.

Problems in the department disciplinary system is an old story but now comes with a new twist. Brown promises more revelations next week. Here is his statement:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Today the Baltimore Police Department is offering residents (who have already signed up) a great opportunity to ride with a cop. Every patrol car in every district should be filled with a so-called ride-along to give residents a chance to see how police do their jobs.

It's a great idea to show the other side, especially since police and crime can dominate neighborhood meetings. Many people complain that when they call the cops, the cops either don't come or simply drive by the problem and don't stop. Today, those people who complain and see how it works first-hand.

Residents are scheduled to hit the streets around 3 p.m. and then attend a reception at Police Headquarters this evening. Myself and Baltimore Sun police reporter Justin Fenton will be out with police and residents, on opposite sides of the city, and we'll report back.

I'd be interested in hearing thoughts from people who participate in this program. You can e-mail me at peter.hermann@baltsun.com and I'll publish as many as I can on the blog.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Baltimore police have arrested two twin 17-year-old boys with gun and drug charges in connection with the pit pull that was set on fire last month in West Baltimore. The horrific case led to an astonishing $26,000 reward and highlighted animal cruelty cases.

The twins had been charged as juveniles with burning the dog but they weren't named until today when authorities revealed they had searched the youth's house on South Pulaski Street and found three guns, a scale and a small amount of marijuana.

In the court documents, authorities say the two boys were suspects in the dog case and their father told me they were the one who had been charged. But the father, Charles Johnson, denied his boys burned the dog.

The motive is still not clear though the police commissioner has said it might be linked to a dog fighting ring. The police officer who used her sweater to douse the flames on the dog was hailed as a hero by the mayor and the police commissioner (see picture above). The dog survived for a few days but had to be put down with burns on 95 percent of her body.

Here is the charging document:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

After so much press about the nanny attack in Bolton Hill, which cops wrote up as a "police information" instead of an armed robbery, helping cost a commander his job, I thought I'd post this from a community list serve from a crime victim who got a good response from police.

It doesn't make the crime itself less scary, but it's nice to see some prompt action and a satisfied city resident who had his house invaded and wallet stolen as he napped:

"Yesterday afternoon [Wed June 24] I got home and took my routine half hour nap. It was 4:20 as I drifted off.  Because I hadn’t slept well the night before, I was dead to the world. About 20 minutes later (I always look at my watch when I wake), I heard the dog barking and woke up. 

The screen to the back window was up, and I looked around but found nothing out of place. Nothing that is, until about 20 minutes later a policeman rang the bell and asked if I knew where my wallet was. That was the only day I can remember in the last 5 years that I did not take my wallet upstairs, but left it on the table. Good thing I did -- apparently the thieves lifted the window screen, saw the wallet, and took it when the dog started barking, and I woke up.

The cops think I startled them and they split, having hit the jackpot. Had the wallet not been there, they would have gone farther into the house, most likely. To let you know what kind of bright lights these guys were, the cops caught them, a small, strong Black guy and a fat, hideously ugly White guy about three blocks from here, trying to buy liquor and get extra cash with my ID and cards. The Black guy was trying to use my ID to buy the liquor.  (Go figure….)  I guess when you need alcohol your mind knows no bounds. The pulled one of the boards on [my neighbor's] fence when they scaled it to come into our yard.

"I was lucky -- they caught them both, and they were charged. I lost $150.00 in cash, but got all my cards back and my license, and was able to cancel the cards before anything hit the boards.  I was also lucky in that I was asleep, and they didn’t do anything to me. I was fortunate to have a barking dog.

"Our house is armed to the teeth, with alarms, lighting, bump-proof locks, but I had opened the windows rather than run the A/C that day and left the alarm off. We’ve been here 5 years, and this is the first incident. I still do not feel unsafe, although it was very creepy knowing someone had been in the house and looked at me while I slept.

"My message to those of you who live in the city is to never let your guard down.  We live on a high traffic street, and the alley is patrolled constantly by MICA, and we have many safeguards, but for about 20 minutes I did not maintain vigilance.

"I have had multiple interactions with the Baltimore City Police department over the last 15 years, and every time the officers and crime scene investigators have impressed me with their promptness, efficiency, compassion, and professionalism.  Once more, I cannot commend these underpaid and overstressed fellow citizens more."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

I spent this past Friday riding a police boat with Natural Resources Police Officer Chris Morris (left), figuring the start of summer would be a great time watch him at work. City police had grounded their boats in December for the slow winter (thought they returned in April).

I was particularly interested in how much water Morris had to cover -- on this day he patrolled from the Inner Harbor to Middle River. Though police tell me their boats were in the water on Friday, I didn't see them starting at 3 p.m. that day. Another NRP officer assigned to Middle River had the day off, so Morris was responsible for an area that took him 31 minutes to get from one point to another, traveling at more than 41 mph.

Despite a beautiful afternoon and evening, few boaters were out and Morris spent most of his time conducting safety checks, measuring crabs to make sure they were the legal size and watching out for speeders. We did meet up with Baltimore County police officers (see Baltimore County Police Department video on their marine unit) out on their boat.

Former officers, publicly, and current marine officers, privately, complained that public safety was being jeopardized by pulling them off boats in the winter and early Spring. Morris told me that NRP didn't see a spike in calls in the city's absence.

So either police dodged a bullet or made a prudent staffing call.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

So, it's midnight and I'm at The Block (for work, of course!)

Steve Cook, the owner of Oasis, invited me to see what he describes as police overkill (at left is a picture he shot of the street Monday at 12:45 a.m.) that he says is killing business. After reports of random attacks and roving groups of youths causing havoc and intimidating visitors, police sent a small army of cops to downtown. That includes the famed strip of strip clubs on East Baltimore Street.

Authorities many months ago banned parking on the street to help control the crowds. Now, to enforce that, they set orange cones along the curb and at 1 a.m. they block the street off to vehicles entirely. Then, police line the street and walk, ordering people who even pause for a second move on or face arrest.

Cook argued that his venue is being policed more harshly than at the Harbor. Imagine, he told me, if cops ordered tourists to keep walking instead of pausing to take a picture of the Constellation. But of course at the Harbor, you're expected to stop and take in the scene. At The Block, stopping on the sidewalk attracts attention and trouble. So police say, go into a club or move along.

I was coming out of Oasis and shaking hands with Cook when an officer walked by and said, "Can't stand out here gentlemen." That apparently includes the club owners.

Cook is proposing gating the street as an adult enterntainment district to keep underage people out entirely, so that they don't mix with others going from club to club. It's never easy. First cops were criticized for not having enough enforcement downtown, and now they're getting flak for too much.

I'll write about this more in Friday's paper with some answers from police and the liquor board.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

David Kennedy is back with a new plan to fight crime.

If you've been around here, you'll remember the then Harvard criminologist came here in the 1990s as the city murders were soaring into the 300s (with a record 353 in 1993). Kennedy came amid a nasty public dispute between police and prosecutors and told them that understanding motive would help resolve cases.

Kennedy put research behind a theory that every cop knew -- that a small number of criminals were responsible for a majority of the crime. He quantified by showing that more than 75 percent of the victims had prior criminals records, as did 90 percent of the suspects. Those numbers are just as high today (at left, Baltimore Sun photographer Kim Hairston captures police investigating a shooting death on North Rosedale Street back in May).

"Even in the hardest-hit areas," Kennedy told me then. "At the street level, there is a logic and a history to almost everything that goes on. It's not immune to understanding, and is not immune from prevention."

A few years later, I went to a Comstat meeting where cops grill each other on crime and strategize. I watched as two detectives described shooting investigations and only in the conference room did they realize they were working linked attacks on virtually the same street corner. Another cop stood up and announced he knew the nickname of one of the suspects, and a third cop told the stunned group he knew the man's real name.

The police commissioner at the time, Edward T. Norris, was shocked that such basic detective work was unfolding in an office instead of on the street. That was more than a decade ago, and while we've now got homicides down to a more politically correct level, in the 200s, we're still the second deadliest city in the country and the number of people shot and killed on city streets is unacceptable.

Kennedy, who has worked with police departments all over the country and is now with the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, now has added to his program to include a variant of gang call-ins (which the city has done for a while) in which local, state and federal law enforcement call in gang members, lecture them and show them how much is known about what they do. It's sort of a street-level scared-straight. Kennedy proposes offering job placement (his plan is outlined in detail in the New Yorker).

Baltimore has agreed to look at Kennedy's updated plan, much of it still based on his original Operation Cease Fire that helped Boston many years ago. We have many programs in place, from a police violent crime task force concentrating on the most murderous neighborhoods to a group of former gang members who reach out to criminals to resolve disputes before they end in gunfire, called Operation Safe Streets.

The city needs to do something, but should avoid a patch-work of programs that are synced so that everyone knows what everyone is doing. The most important part is to ensure that the most violent offenders, the ones responsible for most of the crime, are targeted by authorities from the beat cop to the probation agent to the prosecutor. Under Operation Safe Streets, such a list is kept in a war room, but we need to make sure everyone is on board.

Back when Kennedy first came, the city planned a big announcement hailing the initiative as the most comprehensive overhaul of how cops fought crime to every happen in the city. But bickering between agencies forced officials to delay the announcement; the then Maryland U.S. Attorney balked, saying she didn't want part of a plan that doomed to fail if city cops, prosecutors and others couldn't agree on a strategy.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Baltimore Police Sgt. Louis H. Hopson Jr. may have filed his racial discrimination suit against the city department in 2004, but the issue he was complaining about first surfaced way back in 1994.

A report concluded then that black police officers were being fired at rates higher than their white colleagues for similar infractions. The report was written by former Officer Donald Reid, who concluded that of 139 officers fired from 1985  to 1994, 99 were black and 37 were white. The conviction rate for white officers was 60 percent compared to 90 percent for blacks.

It was a perfuctionary report that would follow police commissioners and mayors for years, finally ending this week when the city finally agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Hopson in 2004 over the issue. The city agreed to hire a monitor to oversee the disciplinary process for three years and pay 15 plaintiffs $2.5 million. The consultant will cost another $2 million and the city has spent more than $1.3 million in legal fees.

Police leaders dating back to Thomas C. Frazier either ignored the report or tried a series of fixes that never worked. The federal government stepped in at one point and said there was a histroy of racial disparity on the city force, and that police had violated black officers' civil rights by punishing them too harshly, prompting leaders to replace white commenders in charge of discipline, training and hiring with black officers, revamp the disciplinary process to remove discretion from mid-level sergeants and lieuteants, who were mostly white and impose a "matrix" that was supposed to make discipline fair.

The racial issue blew up under Frazier when he ousted the department's top black commander who called on the commissioner to resign if he didn't fix racial problems, including discipline. The nasty public fight led to court filings and protests in the street, and ended with the commander back on the force but relegated to an obscure office in City Hall.

Commissioner Edward T. Norris was forced to take a slew of police officers who had serious problems but got caught up in the dispute. And now we have another fix -- at least now police leaders can try to rectify the problem without the cloud of a lawsuit.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld is out of the hospital aftering having spent the night at Maryland Shock Trauma Center when he fell ill running a 10-mile charity race on Saturday.

A police spokesman says the 47-year-old top cop suffered from dehydration. Bealefeld was had started near last place in the race that started at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore and was earning $2 for every runner he passed (or, as the race patrons put it, "Caught by the Commish."

I saw Bealefeld just before the start (that's him at left chatting with cadets), and moments before the skies opened up with a fierce rain, and he joked he might be starting last, but he wouldn't remain there "for long." He told the crowd he could probably run the race in about 90 minutes, though he didn't tell them he'd never before run 10 miles.

A police officer biked next to him and cadets ran at 2-mile intervals slapping stickers on the backs of everyone he passed. Bealefeld made it to the 9-mile mark, heading back toward the finishing line at the zoo, when he fell ill and was rushed to the hospital. His spokesman said he had passed roughly 2,000 runners (out of about 3,100) at that point, earning about $4,000 for the Baltimore Police Foundation.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Top brass
        

Early Sunday's deaths of two young people who were drag racing in Woodlawn makes me wonder if the street racing scene that was so popular in Southern Maryland until last year's tragic accident in Upper Marlboro as migrated north. In that case, eight people who had gathered to watch the race died in the February crash when they were hit by a car traveling about 110 mph without its headlights on.

In Sunday's accident, onn I-70 near the Park and Ride, one car hit at least one bystander and several other cars. At this writing, Maryland State Police are still trying to determine whether the driver was participating in the race or trying to leave.

Police also said that the I-70 section is commonly used for drag racing and that they make frequent checks. It's got a long straight piece of asphalt and plenty of parking. But we've now had two multiple fatal accidents from drag racing in Maryland in the past 16 months, a dangerous not to mention illegal hobby.

Here is the statement from Maryland State Police:

(Woodlawn, MD) - Maryland State Police are continuing their investigation into an early morning crash on Interstate 70 in Baltimore County that claimed two lives and seriously injured two people who were transported to Shock Trauma.

The deceased have been identified as Mary-Kathryn Michele Abernathy, 21, of the 8600-block of Hayshed Lane, Columbia, Maryland and Jonathan Robert Henderson, 20, of the 1400-block of Redwood Circle, La Plata, Maryland. Both victims were pronounced dead at the scene by medical personnel.

The injured have been identified as Donneil Raeburn, 26, of the 4500-block of Dresden Road, Pikesville, Maryland and Paul Alan Duffy, 22, of the 8100-block of Sunrise Lane, Elkridge, Maryland. Raeburn was flown to the University of Maryland R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center by a Maryland State Police helicopter with critical injuries. Duffy was transported by ambulance to Shock Trauma with serious injuries.

The preliminary investigation indicates that shortly after 3:00 a.m., a large group of motor vehicles were stopped along the right shoulder of westbound I-70, west of the Park and Ride located at the Baltimore County/Baltimore City line. Several occupants had exited their vehicles and gathered along the right shoulder. For reasons unknown at this time, a westbound 2009 Chevrolet Impala, driven by Donneil Raeburn went out of control and struck the rear of a 2004 Chevrolet Cavalier owned by Paul Duffy who was struck as he stood outside of his vehicle.  

The force of the initial impact caused the Chevrolet Cavalier to continue on and strike the rear of a 1995 Acura Integra owned by Jonathan Henderson, who along with Kathryn Abernathy was standing near the Acura. Abernathy and Henderson were traveling together prior to the crash.

Witnesses at the scene advised investigators that they had gathered in the area to witness drag racing when someone observed a Baltimore County Police vehicle traveling eastbound on I-70.  As the police vehicle approached the Park and Ride, the individuals standing on the shoulder began to return to their vehicles and disperse when the crash occurred.  Investigators are attempting to determine if Raeburn was drag racing prior to the crash.     

Police are aware that motorist attempt to gather in that area of I-70. Frequent patrol checks are made to deter any types of illegal activity. Troopers made two checks of that stretch of I-70 less than an hour before the crash. 

Troopers from the Golden Ring Barracks responded to the crash and requested assistance from the Maryland State Police CRASH Team. The CRASH Team will be conducting a detailed reconstruction of the crash.  Alcohol is believed to be contributing factor. 
                 
No charges have been filed in connection with the crash at this time. The investigation is continuing. 

Personnel from the State Highway Administration responded to assist with detours around the crash scene. Due to the extensive crash scene and the number of people injured, westbound I-70 remained closed for about five hours. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Baltimore's police commissioner, who fell ill in the 9th mile of a 10-mile charity run today will remain overnight at Maryland Shock Trauma Center for observation. I still don't know how much money he raised by passing runners, but I'll let you know as soon as I find out.

Here is an update from Baltimore Sun reporter Scott Calvert:

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III (at left before today's race) will spend the night at Shock Trauma for "standard 24-hour observation" after feeling ill during a 10-mile charity run in Druid Hill Park this morning.

"At this point it's just not looking like it's anything critical," said police spokesman Anthony J. Guglielmi. He said the results of unspecified medical tests have come back and that "things look OK."

Additional tests were planned, he said.

"He is talking, he's coherent, he's responsive," Guglielmi said. "He's talking to family and staff."
Bealefeld, 47, had a health problem around 9:15 a.m. near the nine-mile mark of the University of Maryland Heart Center Baltimore 10-Miler. The race started at 7:30 a.m."He didn't pass out, but he didn't feel so hot," his spokesman said. "His aides saw that, and they stopped along
the route and contacted assistance."

"Officers brought him to an ambulance to be checked out; he was preliminarily evaluated at the race site and transported to Shock Trauma where he is undergoing formalized testing."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

We're not yet sure how many people Baltimore's police commissioner caught this morning as part of a road race in which cops got $2 for every runner the top cop passed.

That's because around the nine-mile mark, Frederick H. Bealefeld III suffered a minor medical issue and was taken to a hospital for evaluation. We're promised more details later and we'll update the story as warranted on our breaking news site.

I'll also give an update when we learn how much money Bealefeld raised in the 10-mile road race that started at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore in Druid Hill Park. Bealefeld (at left chatting with cadets before the race and before he was taken to the hospital) started nearly last of about 3,100 runners and got $2 for every person he overtook along the course. Cadets joined him and "tagged" the runners he passed by to get a count. The money was pledged by Corrigan Sports Enterprises, a local promotional group.

The race started, the commish, who runs often, said he wouldn't be last "for long." The money raised goes to the Police Foundation; the union chipped in $500. "There is no shame in being caught by the commissioner," the race starter told the crowd just before the 9:30 a.m. start, and just as the skies opened with a drenching rain.

Money raised also went to the University of Maryland Heart Center.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Top brass
        

The New York Times now has a homicide map that shows slayings dating back to 2003.

So far this year, the sprawling city with more than 7 million people has had just 163 slayings, down by 65 from this time last year. Baltimore, with 635,000, is now up to 102 for the year, up seven from this time last year. If New York number's hold, they're on pace for about 325 killings this year, which would be less than during some years in Baltimore in the murderous 1990s. We set a record in 1993 with 353 slayings.

The New York map is stunning to look at. Only 21 people have been killed in Manhattan this year (though the map doesn't say when it was last updated), which is three less than the number killed in just one Baltimore police district, the Northeast, which has recorded 24 killings so far this year.

The two cities are impossible to compare but there is no doubt that New York, which once had 2,245 slayings in 1990, now has one of the lowest per-capita murder rates in the nation. Baltimore stands at the second most murderous city behind Detroit.

The New York Times story that accompanies the map, which will be update routinely, gives an historic perspective on murder. You can track Baltimore homicides on our map as well.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

A story today in the Detroit News says that city's police department has routinely underreported slayings. It's worth taking a look, especially since numbers they had provided to the FBI put Baltimore in first place with the highest per-capita murder rate for city's with more than a half-million people. That ranking changed to No. 2 when Detroit police added a bunch of slayings to their total.

Now, the newspaper has found that the cops there did this often. It comes as Baltimore residents continue to question the veracity of crime stats here. While it appears Baltimore's murder numbers are accurate, I did find the Detroit story interesting in that it makes clear that the FBI wants cities to report even justified homicides. Baltimore's numbers only count unjustified killings.

I still think that for our purposes, counting only unjustified slayings makes sense in that we're trying to get an accurate count of violence. But it could be that Baltimore is underreporting its numbers to the feds. But as you'll see in the Detroit News article, what they're cops did was far worse -- misclassifying slayings as accidents and writing up as suicides cases the Medical Examiner had ruled homicides.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Mapping crime, Neighborhoods
        

With the all the attention crime at the Inner Harbor has attracted, it's nice to see Justin Fenton's story today on arrests made by Baltimore homicide detectives in the Sintia Mesa (left) murder case. She was a 25-year-old women found dead in January 2007 in the trunk of her car.

Police aid that Mesa was attacked by members of a drug organization but that the Morgan State graduate had nothing to do with any illegal practices. One of the suspects in her death is already serving a 20 year federal prison term for dealing drugs.

Police said it was after they took down the drug group that other witnesses started coming forward in the slaying (a strategy the commander of the Baltimore Police Department's homicide unit, Maj. Terrence McLarney, dubbed a "Trojan Horse"). Coupled with DNA hits, police charged two men with murder. Mesa had been abducted from a beauty salon on Liberty Road, forced to a self-storage locker in Laurel and later killed. Police said Mesa's boyfriend was a drug dealer who was trying to get into the music industry and had ties to the two suspects, who are charged with killing Mesa to get to her boyfriend's money.

Police said they got money from the storage unit, then sexually assaulted Mesa, tortured her and killed her. "She was an innocent victim," Detective Arthur Brummer told Justin.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Search warrant records from the FBI show that agents found a 100 rounds of hollow-point bullets and many other items in the Annapolis apartment used by James von Brunn, who has been charged with killing a security officer at Washington's Holocaust Museum.

The white supremacist had, among other things, checks from his son, the ammunition, notes from various bank accounts, a handwritten will (the records do not disclose its contents), a calendar and Veterans Affairs letter, an unopened envelope addressed to him from the Ronald Reagan Library, three books (stuffed with five letters) and a painting of what appears to be Hitler and Jesus.

The list begs more questions than it answers, but it provides some additional insight into the suspect's character. What it doesn't answer is the underlying motive, beyond hate, that compelled him to allegedly take such drastic action.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Louis Wood was, by his own admission, the most hated man in the room. The manager of Suite Ultralounge waited at Tuesday night's community meeting on crime to address an angry crowd, which had spent the better part of an hour complaining about crime downtown and at his club in the basement of the historic Belvedere.

Wood (seen at far right in Baltimore Sun's Karl Ferron's photo talking with former Maj. John Bailey and an official from the parking authority) told them he wanted to go last so he could listen to their concerns. His club, in the basement of the very building in which they were meeting, has been called the source and cause of neighborhood violence for months. Up until recently, the club routinely held teen-themed nights that attracted hundreds of underaged kids who when they left mixed with adult patrons of other clubs where alcohol is served.

"We also are concerned with people's safey," Wood said. The crowed booed and hissed. They weren't interested in his explanations but turned their anger on public officials, including the mayor, and demanded to know when a Circuit Court judge would rule on the club's appeal of a liquor board ruling yanking his license. The board allowed Wood to remain open pending his appeal; the judge has had the case for a month and is expected to rule any day.

"Why a month?" more than one person yelled.

"I'm probably the most unliked person in the room today," Wood said, which might have been the understatement of the evening. "If we have to, we can make changes."

Residents said it was too little too late. They complained of assaults, of kids terrorizing their neighborhood, of unprovoked attacks and intimidation, of being too scared to walk their dogs at night. I write more about those concerns in Thursday's paper. Baltimore's police commissioner walked the harbor area last weekend.

Mayor Sheila Dixon said that the liquor board "needs to be brought to the table" to hear the complaints and an assistant to City Councilman William H. Cole IV said police should have the power to close clubs for being a public nuisance, just as the health department can close restaurants and clubs for violating health standards.

Dixon called Mount Vernon "a jewel. We want people to live here. We want people to live here and work here in a safe enviroment."

Residents said that will only happen once Suite Ultralounge is shut for good.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (30)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

Baltimore police have arrested a man in the stabbing deaths of Allisha Royster and Lydia Steed, who were found dead last week in their bed in their Northeast Baltimore house. It was a brutal murder made worse in that their bodies were not discovered for several days until two neighbors broke in to investigate a smell. The couple's poodle was standing near the bed looking at the bodies.

Neighbors had told me that the couple had recently taken in a stripper and then evicted her during a loud argument. They speculated that the stripper's boyfriend had returned, a story bolstered by what I heard from the property manager, that the couple had planned to move out and back to Boston within days.

Police charging documents don't get into that but do say the couple was killed during a robbery allegedly committed by a person they knew. Stolen were the couple's Dodge Neon, jewelry, televisions and an HP laptop computer (which police said was pawned two days after the women were stabbed at a shop on East Monument Street).

Police said in the court documents that witnesses placed the suspect on The Block three days after the bodies had been discovered and that he stated, "They're gone." The documents add, "The defenant had threatened the victims in the months prior to the murder, and that the victim's feared the defendant enough to 'ban' him from their home."

That story certainly fits what the neighbors told me. For more on city murders, see our homicide map.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

After a blitz of media reports that crime is out of control in the downtown area, Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III not only hit the streets this past weekend (left), he eased back on his defensive stance that stats show crime is down and therefore people's fears are overblown.

It's been a telling difference. Earlier this month, he went to the harbor on a sunny afternoon and played tourist-in-chief, practically begging people to come and enjoy the waterfront attractions. And people should. But while assaults may have been down by 40 at that time, people still felt scared. Both were right. Crime is down, but the type of crime people were experiencing downtown and in adjacent neighborhoods had changed.

People were being assaulted in apparent random attacks. Several people in Federal Hill were hit but nothing was taken; two people in Mount Vernon were attacked, and again nothing was taken. A visiting police officer from New Jersey and his girlfriend were jumped on Pratt Street. Put that together with the disturbance at the harbor a few months ago in which two people were stabbed (a dispute over a girl) and a double shooting outside a club at the Belvedere (a dispute from the bar that spilled onto the street) and it adds up to mayhem.

Bealefeld's show of force downtown and his replacement of the district commander shows he understands that people's fears are just as important as the crime numbers. Much of it is perception -- it takes one stolen pocketbook to ruin an otherwise uneventful visit for a family, and they leave town not thinking they were one in a hundred but that Baltimore just like all the TV shows they've watched.

I spent time with Bealefeld at the Harbor early Saturday and with other police monitoring the survillance cameras at the command center on Howard Street. Police panned over crowds (Lt. Matt Johnson left, watches a monitor) and focused in on potential troublemakers, but even the packs of youths that people fear so much didn't do anything but simply walk around.

Bealefeld was articulate, stern and compassionate, like when he dispersed a group of young men playing baskeball at Federal Hill court after midnight. Two slayings last year in the neighborhood forced police to enforce the closure times of parks, and the commissioner very nicely explained that to the group. "Looks like you guys are playing ball. Glancing around, I don't see any 40 ounces. It look like you guys are really playing ball. I don't want to jump on you guys but I just can't have anybody plaing ball on the courts after dark. ... Help me, I need to get the message out that the harbor is a nice place to come, especially in the summertime when it's hot. ... So thanks, sorry guys."

Perhaps in other times the young men could stay. They weren't loud, they weren't drinking and the courts near the American Visionary Arts Museum are away from homes. But it was after midnight and police have been uniform in enforcing the closures. To a 16-year-old Bealefeld encountered at 1:30 in the morning on The Block: "Look, it's not optional," he said of the curfew. "You hae to be home by midnight." The kid protested he wasn't doing anything wrong. "Yea, you are doing something wrong. You are not where you are supposed to be."

Below is a map of police cameras:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The Baltimore Sun's federal court reporter, Tricia Bishop, has an interesting story today on jury bias and how stereotypes can often be wrong.

I was particularly interested in one section in which the jury in the Patrick Byers -- the man who ordered a hit on a witness -- was analyzed and found that a juror candidate who grew up in the same tough neighborhood as the defendant was harsher than her fellow jurors.

She faced the same hardship but she didn't grow up to kill anybody.

The article focuses on the federal court, but I bring this up because we so often talk about how tough it is to win a conviction in Baltimore Circuit Court because of mistrust of police and that many jurors come from the same neighborhoods as the defendants. But they also come from the same neighborhoods as many of the victims, and could just as easily know the mother of the guy who was shot as the guy who did the shooting.

Tricia points out that jury biases have been around for decades and she provides an interesting list. I'd be interested to hear what you think.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Earlier this month, Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III came to the Inner Harbor to proclaim it safe and to urge people to visit the tourist attraction. He recited numbers -- assaults were down, even as people complained of more random attacks and more out-of-control kids than in year's past.

This morning on the Ed Norris show -- a former top cop interviewing another top cop on the radio -- Bealefeld finally admitted that perception might count more than stats. He also admitted what I had heard from the now former commander of the Central District, that the cops at the harbor were walking around but not doing much else. That commander ousted many long-time officers assigned there and replaced them with others.

"I think there are some real problems," Bealefeld told Norris, a more candid admission than he gave to television cameras a few weeks ago. "Certainly there are some gangs that have dome down there, but that's not new. I think there are some juvenile issues to be concerned with. But's it's a whole spectrum of problems."

Of the cops at the harbor, Bealefeld said they need to confront juveniles and talk to them, especially if they're out there at night after everything has closed. "They didn't do that out of the box," the commissioner said, noting that "perception has snowballed" that crime is out of control. "I'm not going to recite a bunch of stats about the Inner Harbor. I cannot ignore the incredible importance and significance to the entire region of Baltimore's Inner Harbor. We have to turn people's perception back around on the Harbor."

Bealefeld is batting perception and it's good that he gets that. People who are robbed aren't interested in goverment officials telling them crime is down. At the same time, Bealefeld said he goes to the Harbor a lot and has heard from business owners that they feel safer now than ever before and that he recently met a visitor who comes every year with his yacht and his grandchild. "He told me, 'I think it's the safest place in the world.' He travels the world. He doesn't have to come to Baltimore's Inner Harbor."

Eric from Baltimore asked Bealefeld whether he's confident in the accuracy of his crime stats and if crime really is down. The commissioner noted a good number, nonfatal shootings down 71 from this time last year (homicides are up slightly this year). He attributed it to having cops focus not so much on seizing guns but on arresting people with guns -- his campaign is called "bad guys with guns."

Bealefeld said he goes after cops who ignore crime, saying he's handed out 30-day suspensions to officers "who tank reports" (he ousted a commander last week after a robbery report wasn't taken). He said commanders get a daily alert on "all significant calls for service in the past 24 hours" allowing the bosses to track 911 calls through to completion. "Someone calls 911 and says, 'I got robbed.' Then we can see what the cop did. ... Why would we do that if we were tanking the number?"

Bealefeld addressed one issue that is out of his control -- the state Medical Examiner classifies many deaths as undetermined, raising questions that he's indefinitely holding off calling them murders to keep the city's numbers low. The ME has told me he rules that way in many drug overdose cases -- unlike his colleagues in many states who rule them accidental.

The commissioner said his dedicated group of homicide detectives work hard, "I don't think their agenda is to do anything less than justice. No body will tell you that Fred Bealefeld comes to roll call and tells them to bury bodies in Leakin Park."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods, Top brass
        

We talk a lot about the missing outrage over human life in Baltimore, about how no one cares or have simply given up on the killings and shootings and other violence. I mean, someone even stole teddy bears at a memorial to the city's dead.

So should we be surprised when a reward for a person who kills a dog -- by pouring gasoline on it and setting it on fire -- climbs to $26,000, more than for most human victims of homicide? In the dog case, the city cop who put out the flames (the pit bull later died) got on TV and in the newspaper, the mayor held a news conference to honor her and notes poured in from all over the country.

Jill Rosen, who writes the Unleashed pet blog, has posted a story on whether the city's outrage is misplaced. She interviews a mom who lost her son in a shooting and talks to experts. I'd love to hear back on what you think.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

I just returned from Biddison Lane in Northeast Baltimore's Waltherson neighborhood where the bodies of two women were found early Wednesday. The bodies had been inside since at least this weekend, and an upstairs neighbor told me she called police after she went inside the house and found the bodies on the bed.

She went in because of the continued smell. "At first I thought it was trash," she said.

The couple remains unidentified though the neighbors described them as a married female couple that had recently gone to Boston to get married. They owned a small white poodle that one neighbor said she found when she went into the house on Wednesday evening and discovered the two bodies on a bed. "The dog was just standing there, watching," the woman told me.

Baltimore police have released few details, including how the couple died and their names. They rented the first floor a semi-detached brick house just off Belair Road and had lived there for a little more than a year. Neighbors said they had worked as security guards but at the time of their deaths were unemployed.

The neighbors are planning a candlelight vigil for 7 p.m. Friday at the house. They said one of the front windows was open and that a side window leading the basement, with access to the first floor, appeared to have been forced open; it was adjar when I looked at it about an hour ago. A window air conditioner was on in the bedroom where the bodies had been found.

I'll provide updates as they become available.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Judging from today's published letters on the Baltimore Sun's Opinion Page, the new fight over take-home cars has touched a nerve. I talked with Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III at length on Wednesday afternoon and he defended the program.

The mayor, however, expressed concerns that many cars were being taken not just out of the city but out of state. The numbers once again raise questions about why so many cops don't live in Baltimore. One resident, Paul Day, said in a letter that a cop recently asked him why he lived in the city after his bike had been stolen.

Comments like this don't instill confidence in the very residents we're trying to keep, and demonstrate a disdain by cops for the very citizens they are hired to protect. In our chat, Bealefeld noted correctly that requiring cops to live in the city, in addition to a possible legal challenge, raises a bunch of other questions. For good reason, cops try to avoid having officers patrol neighborhoods in which they live or grew up, to avoid putting the cop in the awkward position of locking up a neighbor or dealing with friends who chose to be criminals.

That said, of the 149 police officials who have take-home cars, 107 live in Maryland but outside the city. Another 22 commute from Pennsylvania and one each from Delaware and Virginia. Only 18 live in Baltimore.

What I'm guessing is that the mayor will pull the plug on out-of-state take-home cars. And while she and Bealefeld agree that they would prefer city cops live in the city, that's probably not going to happen anytime soon. Other police jurisdictions give officers take-home cruisers, in part to keep a marked vehicle parked in neighborhoods, but also as an incentive for cops to live in that county.

Of course, the complaint there, such as in Montgomery County, is that cops can't afford to live in the place they work. In Baltimore, cops don't want to raise a family in the city. Critics say that if they don't live here, they don't care to police it right, and comments like the one the reader heard from the officer don't help the situation at all.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

With the arrest of a suspected gang member -- Dead Man Inc. -- Anne Arundel County police have acknowledged that a gang dispute was at the heart of an attack in the May death of 14-year-old Christopher Jones.

The suspect, seen here, was identified as Jonathan Richard Myers, 22, charged with several arson counts and reckless endangerment.

While there is no evidence that Christopher was in a gang -- in fact his parents took him out of one school and put him in another to get him away from gangs that were harassing him -- it appears he was attacked anyway. Police say he was beaten while riding his bicycle and then fell and hit his head. Authorities have charged two in his death.

What is most disturbing about this case is that two rival gangs, whose members started out playing sports together, split and became criminal enterprises, may have been involved in Christoper's death, only to have that be avenged by yet another group, Dead Man Inc., a white-hate group that started in Maryland prisons and is now nationwide.

The History Channel's Gangland recently profiled the group in chilling detail. Anne Arundel Police said one member, who apparently has tried to get out of the gang, and others firebombed an Odenton townhouse they thought was owned by people connected to Christopher's death. Police say they got the wrong house.

It takes a long time for authorities to admit they have gangs, but this case solidifies it in Anne Arundel County. It's even more frightening that the gangs -- the New Threat and the Eastside Diamonds -- are now warring over a kid who wasn't even a part of them. And just when does a neighborhood group become a full-fledged gang?

Here is the statement from Anne Arundel County Police:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Many jobs come with perks, and for city employees, one of the most sought-after is getting a car to take home. It is an expense that some on the City Council are trying to curb, and one that lawmakers and officials have for years complained about, as Anne Linskey's story points out today.

She got the list of positions, mileage and fuel costs, which doesn't tell the entire story because it is for trips back and forth between the homes of these city officials and their work. The agency with the most take-home cars -- either the biggest abuser or the biggest benefactor, depending on your perspective: city police (even though they've reduced their number by 40 since last year).

And most cops don't live in Baltimore, so we're talking some grand commutes here. The calculations are based on mileage from a home address to Baltimore and Charles streets, each way, for 22 work days a month.

It's quite telling to learn how many police and civilian police officials that rate high enough to have take-home cars, costing taxpayers an estimated $262,138 a year, live outside the city. In fact, only 18 cops live in Baltimore; 105 live outside the city, 22 more live in Pennsylvania and one each in Virginia and Delaware.

The department's chief spokesman lives in Alexandria, Va. One commander lives in Dover, Del (an estimated commute of 174 miles that cost an estimated $,454 a year). Detectives in Internal Affairs commute from the city and points beyond.

The question is whether the take-home cars are a perk or a necessity. The police spokesman defended it as a necessity in Annie Linskey's story saying commanders need to respond quickly to emergencies and inquires from their bosses. Surely, a district commander needs a car. But how many times does the technical services chief for the communications section of the Administrative Division have to speed to an emergency from home? (Ok, when 911 goes down, I want it fixed fast, but that's got to be such a rare occurrance that I'd gladly pay extra for him to use his personal car). Does the major in charge of administration have to have a take-home car?

This was an issue back when Martin O'Malley first took over City Hall and many commanders lost their department vehicles. Back then, the mayor, not a City Councilman, was doing the culling, so cops and others were tripping over themselves to give up their cars. And then-Commissioner Edward T. Norris pulled the car from the car from the director of planning and research. "He's a daytime guy," the chief said.

Other suburban agencies, such as Anne Arundel, Montgomery and Prince George's give all officers vehicles to take home, though some restrict it to officers who live in the jurisdiction or require that the cars never leave the county. It's a perk some departments can afford, and neighbors love it to see a marked cruiser parked on the street or in a driveway.

Baltimore cannot afford such luxury, and with so many cops living outside the city lines, it wouldn't make much sense. Patrol cars are recycled shift after shift, most going 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

And who can forget back in 2001 when a dispute over a take-home car embroiled the police department, led to the deputy police commissioner conducting an unauthorized sting on a police major that involved using a pass key to take his car from his driveway and call a stolen car report into the Maryland State Police. It cost several jobs.

This issue is nothing new:

Back in 2000, the city's new mayor, Martin O'Malley, went on a tear to get agencies to give up unnecessary take-home cars. I remember that even his aides had trouble convincing department heads to come clean.

When they did, they reduced take-home police cars from 133 to 72 (it's now back to 148) and Public Works from 61 to 29. O'Malley complained that the cars had become less a perk and seen more a "contractual perk." The city sold off its eight-passenger golf cart, a robin's-egg-blue 1967 Cadillac DeVille parade convertible and an 18-passenger van.

Back then, Sean Malone, then the police department's chief legal counsel, turned down keys to a 1998 Chevrolet Cavalier, even though he need to drive to Annapolis on some days to handle appeals. "I don't respond to emergencies," he told me then.

The major of planning in research had to give up his 2000 Chevy Lumina -- "he's a daytime guy," the commissioner said then -- and I was glad to see that the position is not on this new list.

Of course, it's not only cops who get take-home cars. The Fire Department has 30; nine for fire officals who live in the city. The longest commute belongs to the Homeland Security chief, 154.8 miles back and forth from Caroline County. The Sheriff's Departmenthas 39 take-home cars, 31 for deputies who live in the city and eight who live in Baltimore County.

Other agencies have a total 29 take-home cars combined; the longest commute in that category belongs to a public works official in the waste-water department, who drives a 2007 Chevrolet Trailblazer 112.4 miles round-trip to Charles County.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Top brass
        

The pit bull named Phoenix who was doused with gasoline and set on fire may have been involved in a dogfighting ring. Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III told the Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton that the fighting operation may be at the core of the case.

On Tuesday, police announced the arrest of two juveniles but released few other details. The dog had to be put down but the case has gone national.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Sunday's column on various ways to beautify boarded rowhouses makes me think of one of my first stories I did in Israel when I covered the Middle East -- the Israeli Army hired a public relations firm to beautify the battle scenes.

The company urged soldiers to paint weapons that shot rubber bullets, to differentiate between live rounds, and to clean up debris left behind after firefights. It doesn't make the battles less severe or less deadly, but looks better on television.

That's what Baltimore did five years ago when the housing department hired a company called Creative Camouflage to glue pictures of windows and doors to boards covering entrances on thousands of vacant rowhouses. Only a few got done and now the city appears to be backing off its enthusiasm for the project.

I spent some time out in the city photographing various ways to board up houses and some neat decorations. Here are a few examples. The first is from Creative Camouflage, showing what they can do; next to that is a scene from a boarded house on East North Avenue; to the right is a house that Creative Camouflage did five years ago, showing how neglect has taken over; then there is an example of simply bricking up a house permanently; then there's a painted scene of a boy and girl I saw in Wyman Park.

Below the pics, Bill Coleman of Creative Camouflage responds.

From Bill Coleman:

The article about my Camouflage was pretty good, but there are a couple of things I think need a little clarification. You spoke with Ms Sheron Porter, whom I am not familiar, she told you we only submitted 2 invoices in the last to years. The reason was, we only received one request for Camouflage on a property during the last three years. We can only do work that is requested, so we are basically out of work until they make a request.
 
I had hoped there would have been more interest from the city, to provide more work requests, in order for us to work steady. As it is, the people who work for me only manage to have work for a week or two, in the course of months.
 
The way I originally envisioned the business, was a win-win for everyone. We offered temporary relief for the city, as your story stated. This would benefit the residents, the city government, and the people I hire to do the work.
 
You also mentioned Bob Murrow, from public works. I have never had any contact with him, I didn't even know that the program was shifted to that department. I would dispute Mr. Murrow's assesment. The Camouflage is very effective for 3 to 5 years, which was the original intention, and the cost is very reasonable compared to other alternatives. My cost for the printing alone was $2.50 per square foot. We actually made no money, and even over the long term, had we been given steady work, we would have made no profit, and barely made expenses.
 
You also said Aisquith Street was torn and falling off. These were the very first, and were experimental. Immediately after the original installation on Aisquith, we improved the product, to last longer, and remain un-faded. The fact that the City has made no changes is very sad, because we gave them five years of covered up houses, in order for them to take some sort of action.    
 
I do thank you very much for the article. It was nice to see someone noticed.
 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Neighborhoods
        

Baltimore police cancelled their news conference today on the dog burning case but did confirm to police reporter Justin Fenton that two juveniles had been arrested in the case.

No other details have been divulged. It may be that the cops have more to do investigating the case, which has drawn attention from around the country and has a reward attached to tips leading to arrests and convictions now topping $26,000.

I'll provide more details as more information becomes available.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Baltimore police have charged two juveniles with setting the pit bull on fire last week. We're awaiting a news conference to learn more details, and to find out whether anyone will share in the $23,000 reward money.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Baltimore police are announcing a "major development" in the case of the pit bull that was burned last month when someone poured gasoline on it and set it on fire. I can only guess that the cops have made an arrest.

This case got nationwide attention. Last week, the police commissioner and mayor honored the officer (Officer Syreeta Teel is congratulated by Commissioner Frederic H. Bealefeld at left) who came across the dog burning on Presbury Street in West Baltimore and put out the flames with her sweater. Unfortunately, the dog had to be put down several days later. A reward climbed to $23,000.

Stay tuned for updates throughout the day.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking crime, Heroes
        

The ousting on Friday of the commander of Baltimore's Central District (Maj. John Bailey, left) following a spate of crime, some of it random attacks, and the bad handling of an assault on a nanny in Bolton Hill, shows the department is serious about confronting problems.

Though it's somewhat confounding that police for weeks have said crime is down in the Inner Harbor and downtown, with the commissioner playing tourist-in-chief during an appearance last week at the harbor to urge people to come and shop, while at the same time flooding the area with cops and removing a top commander.

Bailey, who appeared in a column I wrote a couple weeks ago on the downtown scene and was pictured talking with a city councilman outside the Belvedere Hotel, where a club has given residents and police problems, has been replaced.

It was, according to a report by Baltimore Sun police reporter Justin Fenton, an attack on a nanny in Bolton Hill that closed the coffin on Bailey. His officers responded to a call that the nanny, from China, was choked, beaten, separated from her baby and then had her iPod stolen, but wrote it up as a "police information." The department then told The Sun they had recorded the incident as a larceny, only to upgrade it to an assault and robbery after the newspaper inquired.

The department said officers had trouble understanding the victim; the victim said she was given a choice -- a report could be filed or the officer's could search for suspects. That this occurred barely a half hour after Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III complained to television cameras that citizens don't believe him when he says crime is down, that he's accused of "fuzzy math" when crime stats are concerned, didn't help Bailey's future.

The officers who responded to the call either purposely downgraded the call, by not reporting it all, or they were too lazy to properly investigate. Either way, Bealefeld doesn't tolerate such inaction, and that's a good thing. Mayor Sheila Dixon told me on Friday, "The officer and his supervisor need to be held accountable for the way they handled the Bolton Hill incident."

Hiding crime doesn't make it go away, and the department can't fight crime if it doesn't know it occurred. There are lots of great police officers out there -- we met on on Friday, Syreeta Teel, who rescued the pit bull that was set on fire in West Baltimore last month. The commissioner, his command staff and the mayor joined in to celebrate her work.

Too bad they had to turn around a few hours later and deal with a problem.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods, Top brass
        

A Mid-town venture capital firm announced in an e-mail to the mayor last week that it was moving out of Baltimore because of crime. The mayor expressed doubts that was the true reason, but either way it's an economic loss for the city at a time when people are fearing a series of random attacks from Federal Hill to Bolton Hill.

While city leaders scramble to downplay the incidents and repeat stastics that crime is down, they are moving up to 50 cops, including undercover detectives, to the Inner Harbor and downtown areas.

Mayor Sheila Dixon, talking with me on Friday, noted that a recent reported attack on a youth at the Inner Harbor turned out to be staged as a gang initiation ceremony. The kids are from Federal Hill's Digital Harbor school, and while the scenario shows that this attack wasn't random, it doesn't do much to alleviate concerns that gangs are not downtown.

Here is the e-mail from New Enterprise Associates' general counsel, Louis Citron:

Dear Mayor Dixon,
 
My name is Louis Citron and I am the General Counsel at New Enterprise Associates.  We are a venture capital firm located at 1119 St. Paul Street and have been located in the mid town/Belvedere hotel area for nearly 30 years.  We have approximately 35 employees located at this office.  I also live in Roland Park.
 
We would like you to know that New Enterprise Associates has decided to move its Baltimore city office to Timonium.  We calculated that our decision will cost the merchants in this neighborhood at least $200,000 per year in revenue as we are terminating, among others, our cleaning service and security guard, and will no longer be paying for parking spaces in the local garages, and no longer buying our lunches from local restaurants and the Maryland Club.
 
Our decision was a result of the high level of crime in our neighborhood.  Over the last several years, many of our cars have been broken into resulting in very expensive repairs, our employees have been robbed at gun point, drug needles and used condoms have been left on our front stoop, and psychotic homeless people have menaced our employees and threatened to kill them.  We have voiced our frustrations to the local community leaders and police, but the environment has only worsened.  The recent local beatings by roving teenagers during the day in this neighborhood, the raucous club in the basement of the Belvedere, and other gang violence throughout the city reinforces the appropriateness of New Enterprise Associates’ decision to move in order to protect its employees.
 
At this point, our decision is set in motion and cannot be reversed.  However, we sincerely hope that you and the city council are able to rectify these problems as we are certain other businesses also will leave the city over time.  Further, now that I no longer work in the city, I might move my family out of the city too if violence and crime continue to increase in the Roland Park area.  I pay too much in taxes now to live in fear and to have sewer lines back up on a regular basis into my home.
 
We wish you and the city only the best of luck in addressing these issues and hope that you are successful.  It is in no one’s interest to see Baltimore be viewed by the nation as a crime ridden and violent city that is totally out of control.
 
I would be happy to further discuss at your convenience.

A day after that e-mail was sent, on Thursday, the Downtown Partnership, the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association and the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore sent out a statement about crime:

Over the past month, a series of reports have made people uneasy about the level of safety in Downtown Baltimore.  In truth, statistics show that both violent crime and property crime have decreased Downtown by 40% over the last nine years and that Downtown is still one of the safest areas in Baltimore. 
 
On any typical day, there are at least 160,000 residents, visitors, and employees in Downtown Baltimore, going about their business without incident or interruption.  The residential base continues to grow every year, outpacing most other cities and placing Baltimore 7th in the country in terms of the number of residents in a downtown area. Just in the last month, there has been an abundance of conventions, graduations, and business meetings – virtually all of which turned out to be positive experiences.
 
However, positive statistics can be no match for the power of perception.  As a result, we would like to inform the metropolitan community about the steps that are being taken in response to recent events. 
 
Most of the problems that have occurred involve disorderly behavior by groups of young people who are traveling between school and home, or occur very late at night after bars and clubs shut down.  No particular group is being targeted and, typically, the interactions do not involve violence, only some form of intimidation.  When violent acts do take place, most often they occur between people who know each other. 
 
Any act of intimidation or violence is intolerable.  That's why, as Downtown advocates, we are working with the Police Department to increase coverage in the affected areas.  The department has quadrupled the number of officers deployed in Downtown and the Inner Harbor, including foot and mounted patrols, and additional steps, such as undercover operations, are being taken. 
 
Additionally, our organizations are working closely with Federal and State law enforcement, as well as with private security, through programs like the Downtown Safety Coalition.  There is an extensive network of surveillance and traffic cameras that allow more strategic placements of police officers and provide an extra tool to assist with prosecution.  And, of course, there are 50 uniformed Downtown Baltimore Guides and 12 Waterfront Partnership Guides on the streets and along the harbor providing extra eyes for the police and a reassuring presence to pedestrians. 
 
Mayor Sheila Dixon and Police Commissioner Bealefeld, along with committed business leaders, property owners, residents, and non-profit organizations, are united and working toward the same goal:  to curtail future incidents in Downtown Baltimore.  The reason is simple -- Downtown's jobs, investment, tax revenue, and visibility are vitally important to the entire region. 
 
Like any community, we have come together around the current disturbances and are focused on ways to avert future incidents.  Through it all, though, it is important to remember that the typical Downtown experience continues to be memorable, positive, and safe.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

Flanked by per parents, her boss, the police commissioner and the mayor, Baltimore Police Officer Syreeta Teel was honored this afternoon for her work in saving a pit bull that had been doused with gasoline and set on fire last month on the city's Westside.

Mayor Sheila Dixon talked about the "overwhelming response" to the fate of the dog, nicknamed Phoeinix, who had to be put down despite Teel's quick work to put out the fire and get the dog to help. An award, through private donations, has reached $23,500. "We are very committed to finding this individual," Dixon said, though police wouldn't comment on leads.

It was nice to see a city cop honored and Teel stood at attention in her dress blues as Dixon stood by her side and read a certificate thanking her for her work. Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld pointed to the officer's parents, Thurman and Deborah Evon Teel, and said it was they, not the department, who best trained the officer.

"Officer Teel didn't need us to teach her to be a good person," the commissioner said. "Officer Teel didn't need the city of Baltimore to teach her to be a humane person."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Heroes
        

Many readers have sent me e-mails and notes congratulating the Baltimore police officer, Syreeta Teel of the Western District, for trying to save the pit pull Phoenix that was set on fire last month. she recounted her efforts to me earlier this week and noted how people stood around and watched and not only failed to help but refused to assist in the investigation.

The reward has now climed to more than $23,000, and those of you who wanted to see Teel recognized are geting their wish -- Mayor Sheila Dixon is to honor Teel at City Hall this afternoon and announce a new award leading to an arrest and a conviction.

Here are some of what readers have to say about Teel:

Donna Brown:

I still feel the pain for that poor innocent animal, Phoenix. She truly is my hero. I really want to join you and all who have praised the the bravery of officer Syreeta Teel. I love and admire her greatly their is a  special place in heaven for her. I hope she knows how many people are thinking of her. I pray they find the two legged animal that killed Phoenix and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.

Bob Batz:

I want to Thank You for your article on Officer Teel. It makes a huge difference when you are recognized for your actions. She needs to be recognized for this. It was truly above and beyond the call of duty. Thank you again,

Lynn Brown:

Thank you very much for the article you did on Office Syreeta Teel.  I was horrified, as were my friends and family, at the terrible news of the little dog who was set on fire.  My deep gratitude goes to Office Teel who did everything she could to rescue this poor animal.  I am praying they find the monster who did this and prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law. Thank you for giving Office Teel  praise.  She certainly deserves it and if possible, please keep us updated through your column on the progress made in the arrest of this monster.

On Thursday, I spent the morning with an animal control officer who deals with this sort of abuse every day, and to get a look at just how we're treating our pets. It was a quiet day, but the officer, Ricky Martin, chased down an errant dog, seized a black lab the owner didn't want any more (he told me couldn't afford it) and rescued a dog at a downtown office building.

"It's heart wrenching what you see out here," Martin told me as we drove to a house on Patterson Park Avenue to investigate a complaint that two pit bulls had attacked two smaller dogs. Here is some video:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

It's now official. Baltimore Sun police reporter Justin Fenton just got a call back from the Detroit Police Department, and they've adjusted the stats they sent to the FBI: instead of 306 murders, as they had reported, the real number is 339.

That puts detroit's per-capita murder rate at 37.5 per 100,000. Baltimore, with a rate of 36.9, falls from number 1 to number 2 for cities with populations above 500,000.

Not that this means anything to the victims or makes the city any more safe, but certainly a relief for those who view statistics with reverence.  

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Detroit, not Baltimore, might be the No. 1 city when it comes to per-capita murder. The Detroit Free-Press is reporting that the city under-reported its murder count to the FBI, which published the numbers earlier this week.

Instead of 306 slayings in Detroit in 2008, it might be 423, the prosecutor's office told the news organization. If that's the case, that would push Baltimore to the No. 2 slot.

Baltimore had 234 slayings last year, giving it a per-capita rate of 37 per 100,000 residents, the highest in the country for cities above 500,000 in population. Detroit's, using the 306 number, had a rate of 34. That would change depending on what the new figures show.

Worthy: Detroit homicide drop doesn't add up

More than 100 left off books, she says

BY SUZETTE HACKNEY
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Contrary to FBI statistics, more than 100 Detroit homicides were left off the books last year, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said Wednesday.

Worthy said the Detroit Police Department underreported that 306 people were killed in 2008. She said the homicide number is actually 423, though she would not disclose how she arrived at that figure.

"I have no interest in trying to make the city look bad," Worthy said Wednesday. "We have resource problems, and in order to adequately allocate our resources, I need to have an accurate depiction of the crime occurring in the city."

Click here to read the complete article

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Monday's attack on a nanny in Bolton Hill is scary for many reasons -- it happened in broad daylight, a woman was approached by two men, one of whom put her in a choke hold, the other separated her from the 8-month-old girl she was watching and rifled through the baby carriage, and the police response was questionable.

I spoke with the victim, Siwei Yao, on Tuesday and wrote about her experience in today's paper. The Chineses national has only been in this country for six months, and what struck me was when I asked her what she told her friends and family back home about what had happened.

It was that her neighbors flocked to the home after the attack, offered to help her and invited her to joint their group as they took babies for walks. That wouldn't happen in China, the 25-year nanny told me, and that, was the message she sent home.

Last night, the baby's father, Travis Hardaway, sent me this summary of events. It's long, but I think important to hear from people directly impacted by crime:

The broad daylight mugging of our au pair who was pushing my daughter Christine in the stroller for an afternoon walk a half a block away from our house, and the events which have since followed have given me a remarkable insight into a real peril that Baltimore as a city faces. We are all well aware that even though there have been improvements in the quality of life in the city overall and that Baltimore’s murder rate dropped substantially, crimes of all kind are still a major problem (the city moved from no. 3 to no. 1 in homicides despite the drop) and we still have an under funded educational system, and are allowing a self perpetuating cycle of violence to continue in the poor parts of the city. The fact that two young males would not have the moral compass to see what’s wrong with holding up a woman pushing a stroller and allowing her to lay unconscious on the ground while they searched her and the stroller and then just leaving them there in that condition was unthinkable to me. It is true that there was no physical harm done and we aren’t talking about murder, but these are young kids and who knows what they will become capable of doing as they continue to “grow up”.

Then there was the problem of the response to the problem. The police took the 911 call and got a description of the suspects over the phone. Two officers appeared at our door 90 minutes later and said that they had been out searching for the two men who fit the description. They asked our au pair if she would like to have a police report filed or should the officers just continue to look for the suspects. Our au pair Ms. Yao, unaware of what filing a police report entailed, said that losing her iPod was not a big deal, but the fact that she no longer felt safe walking outside with our baby on a sunny afternoon was a big deal. She said that she would rather they go and find the people who did this than fill out a report. By the end of the day, although we didn’t know it at the time, the officers had written the mugging up as a larceny. They did tell us that they were going to be “on this full force” when they came by our house for the second time that day around 5PM. We were assured that they were going to have cars searching and patrolling the area and my feeling was that they were taking this seriously, but when I asked them about why a report wasn’t being filed there was some serious back pedaling going on. I was initially told that a report couldn’t be opened on this because it had already been closed out. They did eventually give us a citizen’s complaint form, but it was not a police report.

That evening, my wife posted a description of the event to the Bolton Hill Yahoo group. Within a very short amount of time amazing things began to happen. First, there has been a steady influx of calls and email from supportive neighbors that has reassured us that we belong to a strong, supportive and resilient community. It has helped us feel positive and been a wonderful show of support.

Then we got several emails and a phone call from Peter Hermann, a Crime columnist/internet blogger for the Baltimore Sun, asking to speak with us about our experience. We agreed on Tuesday morning to an interview on Wednesday morning at 10AM and, unbeknown to us, Mr. Hermann started making phone calls. Shortly there after, we received two phone calls from higher-ranking concerned offices from the Police department. How are we doing? Is everybody in the family ok? How did we perceive the Police department’s handling of the incident? They gave us reassurances that everything was going to be taken care of and left us with phone numbers and names of Majors and Commanders we could talk to if we had any questions. I’ve never felt so important!

Three higher-ranking officers showed up at our door later that day to re-interview Ms. Yao and make sure that “everything is done right”. She replied that she had already told this story to the Police at which point they assured us that they weren’t those Police. They were extremely professional taking very detailed notes. During the process I overheard one of the officers saying that the first report wasn’t written up correctly and had been reported as a larceny; they then reclassified the event as an unarmed assault and robbery. I was told that they may not have gotten it right the first time but they would get it right. I was very impressed with their dedication to correcting the paperwork although I’m not sure they obtained any new information regarding criminals. If they had three officers at our house spending almost an hour getting this report right, one can only wonder how many more there must have been combing the streets for Ms. Yao’s perpetrators and iPod!

Mr. Hermann arrived this morning at 10AM and conducted his interview. I thanked him for drawing so much attention to the event because I feel that the more attention this incident gets, the stronger the positive outcome will be for the safety neighborhood. At the end of the interview I asked him what would happen now. He said that he is going to write a story describing the event and the response to it. I am convinced from our discussion that the Baltimore Police department is very worried that there will be backlash from the inexperience the officers displayed in their initial response to the mugging. I also believe that the Police department is worried that Mr. Hermann’s investigation will be used as evidence to support the growing suspicion that the Police department is padding it’s statistics to conceal the lack of progress in controlling crime. I think that were it not for the posting on the Internet and Mr. Herman’s role as an investigative journalist, this would probably have been left as a larceny and no one would have been the wiser.

Can you really blame the Police department for trying to make things look as rosy as possible when they are woefully under funded compared to Police departments in other major cities and the problems they face? They are being asked to do the impossible. Overall, my experience with the Baltimore Police department has been very positive. Several years back I was mugged and my scooter was forcibly taken from me while I was riding in a part of town I was unfamiliar with. The officer who first responded took a description and assured me he’d have my scooter back by nightfall and have the guy in cuffs. He was right, he knew the kid and his knowledge of the neighborhood and the collaborative effort of the rest of the Police department put my assailant in jail for 2 years with eight years probation to celebrate his first crime as an adult. He had an extensive sheet dating back to his 15th birthday. For the 9 break-ins that have occurred on properties I was renovating between 2001 and 2007 the Police usually responded in an appropriate manner (of course I never did get any of those tools back). Even in the current case I feel that the Police were generally doing the best that they could. Excepting of course the waste of man-hours being spent trying to placate us when I’d rather hear about progress controlling crime in our neighborhood.

I’m worried that Baltimore city does not have enough tax revenue to hire the necessary number of officers and pay them a fair wage for their service. I’m worried that the Police department is overwhelmed with the crime problem and that high level officers fear losing their jobs and careers because they know that they are loosing ground on the crime problem in this city through no fault of their own and have to resort to fabricated numbers because of political pressures. I worry that the city and state government have no more money to give the police department so they look the other way and accept these for as long as possible hoping to avoid a backlash from their constituents. I worry that the Baltimore Sun will diminish in capacity to the point where it can no longer function as a proper watch guard against corruption in both our government and community. I worry that Baltimore will loose it’s voice and presence as a major city in this country. Then the irony of the slogans on our city benches will be complete. What happens to Baltimore if the tax base starts contracting and the police department goes along with it? We are already a major of entry into the country for heroin and all the problems that go with it.

Overall I’m not a fan of dystopic visions of the future unless you are talking about science fiction. I do feel that the strength of our community is strong and no one is talking about picking up and moving. The police are continuing to investigate and I feel that this particular event, the mugging of a woman with a baby in broad daylight, is very uncommon and not likely to happen again. Ms Yao feels relatively safe about walking outside during the day. She says that when she came to the United States, she had the misconception (common in China) that Americans are very individualistic and therefore selfish. She says that when told her friends, they expected that the American police would be very competent and efficient while the neighbors and community members would be largely uninterested. She was very impressed with the strong solidarity of our local community. She also said that in China it would be unthinkable that a newspaper would not print exactly what the government wanted. I am only now becoming aware of the importance of The Baltimore Sun’s role in our community and that without it we would all be poorer. The fact that the revenue base for newspapers is not tied in a fiscal way to the real value that they provide is a problem that I hope gets solved.

The city of Baltimore has problems that are too big for it to fix on its own. An unlimited police budget by itself will not make the people who are committing these crimes any less desperate. We do however need more and better-trained police. We also need accurate reporting of statistics from the police department so citizens can adequately assess the size of the problem and generate the political will to fix things. We all feel the negative results of the look the other way attitude that has allowed the economy to become a train wreck. It is also unfortunate that the general perception in Baltimore is that the social programs have been largely ineffective and some them have contributed to dysfunctional parts of our social fabric and have in effect created a welfare state. This city needs is a substantial investment in the social and educational systems that are trying to support the children in our cities. We need to give the children and soon to be young adults a framework and support structure for getting out of their predicament. This is a problem that could be addressed by our president, who lives a city a stone throw away from us and is sitting on a giant pile of cash trying to figure out how best to spend it in order to stimulate the economy.

Of course there are many people who don’t feel that it is not the role of the federal government to be solving state and city problems (I’d like to point out that those people are now part owners of GM). Maryland is a small state and Baltimore is a big problem. If the crime and safety problems of Baltimore could be brought under control and we could give viable career alternatives to the spotters and runners and dealers and users, many of whom are inner-city children, the would no longer need this level of help. Throwing cash at a problem is generally not a good solution to a problem, but giving water to someone who is dying of thirst is. I argue that money spent increasing the quality of life and safety of citizens is a great use of stimulus money. I want to be safe from terrorists, but I want to be safe from muggers too. Being a safer city would be a huge boost to Baltimore’s economy and would ultimately allow us to need fewer police and community service members and support a larger more harmonious population. So what do you say Mr. Obama, could you lend your neighbor a cup of sugar?

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Breaking crime, Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

Just as we learn Baltimore has the highest per-capita murder rate in the country (among cities with a population exceeding 500,000), the police chief in New Orleans is publicly disputing his city's ranking (the highest per capita rate in the country, taking into account cities with populations above 100,000).

Here's a sample from a story that just moved on the Times-Picayune:

A day after the FBI released national crime data that showed New Orleans is still the nation's most murderous city, Police Superintendent Warren Riley took issue with the ranking and noted significant progress has been made in quelling crime.
"We know we have a crime problem, " Riley acknowledged Tuesday, but the severity of it "depends on what headlines you read."

In an afternoon news conference at police headquarters, Riley challenged the precision of any kind of per-capita crime ranking.

"We don't necessarily believe them to be accurate, " Riley said of the ranking. "I think even the FBI cautions everyone against using these rankings due to the variables involved."

Riley said geography, demographics and a "number of other things" can influence rankings, which he labeled "not an exact science."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

It's getting to the point I almost feel sorry for city leaders. They just finished crowing about a drop in crime and a 20-year low in homicides (234 in 2008) only to wake up to this headline in the Baltimore Sun: "City is No. 1 in homicides."

The Sun's police reporter, Justin Fenton, did the math based on rate for cities with a population of more than a half-million. We're third, behind New Orleans and St. Louis, when you count cities with more than 100,000 people. Baltimore has always been at or near the top in this category, in part because the number of killings remained relatively constant while our population sank. See The Sun's map of homicides for more information on this year's killings.

That's no longer the case, but even with a drop in killings, we're still ahead of other cities. We can debate all day how to compare jurisidictions. Is it fair to compare Baltimore to Detroit, or to Washington, or to Boston? Each city has its own problems and variables. And numbers aren't always reliable. Detroit, for example, reported 344 killings in 2008 but submitted only 306 to the FBI. The former number would put Detroit ahead of Baltimore.

This city has been transfixed on homicide numbers for years. I can remember in the 1990s waiting for No. 300 to drop, then the breaking point for the city, as if 299 was something to celebrate and 300 meant the city was doomed. Former mayor and now governor, Martin O'Malley, promised to reduced the number to 175 -- last year was the closest we came and we're still at the top of the nation's death list.

Here's the real question: does it matter that we're number one, or two? Murder is a problem in Baltimore -- has been for years -- and the race against the climbing body count may makes us feel good when the numbers come in low and bad when they come in high, but there's still too much shooting and killing in our city.

But the numbers don't make residents feel safe and make it more difficult for cops to point to numbers and say we're safer now then we have been for a long time. Now, the 20 percent low in killings in 2008 will forever be coupled with the city's Number 1 ranking.

Is the city less safe today than it was on Tuesday? Does it mean cops have failed?

No on both questions. But it's another factor that feeds our fear. And what the current Dixon administration is going through, the frustrations are not new. Back in 1999, when the body count hit 300 for the 10th consecutive year -- enough names to fill eight pages in a city telephone book -- one police commander told me:

"It's a disappointment, but it's also a call to action," said Acting Police Commissioner Bert L. Shirey. "Statistics are meaningless when you think that each number on that sheet is someone whose family suffered a tragedy."

And O'Malley complained that the "300" number -- the symbolic threshhold of whether the city was "safe" or "unsafe" was unfair. He too was trying to tout a 30 percent drop in crime even as homicides continued at the same pace:

"We have this ghoulish fascination with waiting around for the 300th body to hit the pavement," O'Malley told a crowd at Harford Road and The Alameda. "What we should be concentrating on is solving the first murder of the year 2000. We can't have murderers on the street if we expect to reduce the violence and the carnage."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

I last wrote about an experiment at Johns Hopkins University in which 93 sound sensors were set up to detect gunshots. The location is then projected onto a computer screen in the security office. Washington D.C. police have a similar program -- Baltimore's is called SECURES Gunshot Detection System -- and laud it as a great tool for responding quickly to gunfire.

Baltimore police have been skeptical but the free Hopkins trial allows them to test the system. I've questioned it's location in a relatively safe area of town -- from November to December of last year, only two noises registered as possible gunshot and one of those was a firecracker.

I asked Hopkins for an update from spokeswoman Tracey A. Reeves and she told me: "It’s still too early to make a case for or against the SECURES system or whether it should or will be expanded. But we can say that  anytime you have a tool that can help you with investigations and provide another layer of security, it’s worthwhile.”

Here are some details:

Fortunately for Johns Hopkins University, we just don’t have a lot of shootings in the area. We’re fortunate in that way. If we do have them, this is what the gunshot detection system is  - another level of protection for our students, faculty and staff.

Below is  the latest information on the SECURES gunshot detection system is up and operating. Since January, the system has triggered six “red starburst” events, which is another way of saying possible or probably gunshots. They are as follows:

March 8^th , 11:38pm - - 2800 blk Guilford Ave - A neighbor had also called reported hearing two gunshots.

March 28^th , 1:21am – 3000 blk St. Paul Street - Campus Officer happened to be on scene and reported fireworks.

March 28^th, 7:27pm -    Barclay and 28^th Street –  Nothing found at scene and unable to locate any witnesses.

March 28^th, 7:29pm  – 400 blk Illchester Street  - Same as above.

April 11^th 1:11am -– 2600 blk N. Barclay Street – neighbor also called and reported a male was yelling for help and was seeing running toward Lorraine Ave. Male was not located.

April 27^th  5:12pm– 300 blk E. 28^th Street – Nothing found at scene and unable to locate any witnesses

You can summarize that the two incidents had probably occurred and the “potential victims” were fortunate not to be shot. One incident was a “false positive” due to fireworks. The other three are probable based on the number of sensors triggered but are not substantiated by BPD or witnesses.  

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Mapping crime, Neighborhoods