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."