A story I wrote on Thursday about a convicted cop killer who a judge is freeing from prison in two years, reducing his original life plus 15 year sentence, brought an e-mail from a former police officer who was there at the time.

The shooting occurred in 1970 when three members of the Black Panther party opened fired on two officers who were sitting in their patrol car writing a report in West Baltimore.

Skip Panowitz wrote:

I will never forget this night. I was there, albeit after the fact. I was a young, "rookie" officer in the central district. I was leaving home for work on the 12-8 shift when the news flash came on the TV.

Officer Sager worked the post adjacent to mine on the shift before mine.I knew him. It was an eerie night. These officers were doing nothing more than sitting in a patrol car reviewing an incident report. It was a senseless, cold blooded killing, an ambush.

The night was spent looking over your shoulder wondering if you would be the next target. There were no one man patrol units that night-we worked at least in pairs. The suspects, including Johnson, were apprehended later that night.

My fellow officers and I were disappointed in the sentence as we thought that the death penalty was in order for all of them. I wish I had known about the hearing yesterday, as I would have been there to give my support for what it is worth. The young officers of today, and this judge, just don't have a clue. A lot of time has passed in almost 40 years, but that doesn't change the facts: Johnson is still here, and Sager is not, because of the act of Johnson & his associates. A life sentence should mean just that - Life in prison.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Posted by Julie Scharper at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Check back here at 2 p.m. for a live chat with the Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton, the lead city police reporter who will discuss the outbreak of violence that includes a dozen people shot at a cookout on Sunday.

Justin is one of five reporters who document in today's paper the history of two violent drug gangs that police say are responsible for many killings and shootings over the past year in East and Southeast Baltimore.

His story mentioned an appliance store on North Gay street that federal authories said was linked to the drug groups. One of the owners called Justin this morning and here is what he said:

One of the owners of the Allen & Family Appliance store on North Gay Street, which was featured prominently in today’s article about a long-running drug feud, called me this morning to dispute any allegations that his business is connected to criminal activity. The store was the setting for a quadruple shooting last May, in which two people were killed. Detectives followed a blood trail inside the store and found ammunition and a handgun. Two of the people who were struck, a confidential informant told an ATF agent, had orchestrated the kidnapping of a rival drug dealer’s brothers, according to documents filed in federal court.

Paul Ray, who said he is a co-owner of the store, said neither he nor those who run the store are connected to drug dealing or violence. “We’re just trying to make a living here,” he said. Ray acknowledged that police are likely monitoring people coming in and out of the store, “and they’ll see what we’re about – we’re hard working and not involved in that stuff.”

When I went to the store Wednesday to try to locate a family member willing to discuss the allegations, I was told no one was available. What I saw was about a half dozen young kids, hosing down refrigerators and dunking rags into soapy water to scrub used washing machines that they sell for $99. Everything about the place was modest, hardly the setting where drug kingpins would have counted $500,000 in ransom money; a typical small East Baltimore business trying to make ends meet.

Ray complained that the article was the second bit of bad publicity for the area in recent weeks. Last month, a company published a list of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the country and listed the intersection right where his store sits, at North Avenue and Bel Air Road, as the fifth most dangerous location in the country. The company explained to me a convoluted way that they came to determine this distinction. Still, police stats and the Baltimore Sun’s homicide map indeed confirm that it’s at least one of the more dangerous places in the city, if not the country.

I couldn’t look up Ray in the public court record database (there was a few people with that name and I wasn’t sure which was him), but it’s true that neither he or the store’s other co-owner, Torrance Allen, who is listed as the license holder for the company are believed to be associates involved with the gang, at least according to the sources I’ve consulted. Allen has a drug conviction in which he received 20 years in prison, with 12 years of that sentence suspended, but that was in 1991.

Ray said that they’re going to continue with business as usual.

“We still got washers and dryers,” Ray said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

In the midst of reporting the 18 shootings that occurred Sunday in Baltimore, a colleague sent me a story I had written in 2000 and all but forgotten:

Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley's pledge to reclaim 10 drug-infested areas within six months of taking office has been largely fulfilled, police said yesterday, with crime down and fewer people complaining about dealers and addicts. Homicides and shootings also dropped on streets surrounding the designated drug markets, which police say shows they are not simply shuffling the drug trade from one block to another. "The liberation of Baltimore's neighborhoods has begun," O'Malley said yesterday while standing at North Rose Street and Ashland Avenue, ground zero for a band of frustrated residents who have confronted dealers.

Rose and Ashland is two blocks from Lakewood and Ashland, where a gunman opened fire on a backyard cookout and wounded a dozen people, the start of a wave of violence that ran into early Monday. So much for the liberation.

As my colleagues on the crime beat point out in today's paper in vivid and chilling detail, the story of what happened in the intervening years is familiar but complicated. It starts with warring drug families, who apparently worked well together until one group engineered a home invasion and kidnapped two members of the other group.

That's where law enforcement and the suspected criminals they are supposed to arrest got tangled in a still unexplained web. The cops treated the kidnapping seriously, perhaps more seriously than the abductors had thought, by putting up Amber alerts and flooding the area with police. But suspicions quickly grew when the family of the victims refused to cooperate, and police quickly suspected one rival drug gang had targeted another.

A backroom deal was made which guaranteed the safe return of the kidnapped brothers, who were paraded to a police station in Baltimore County to prove they were indeed unharmed, and then all would be quietly forgotten. No criminal charges. No apparent investigation. What was unsaid then but revealed in court documents published in today's Baltimore Sun -- a $500,000 ransom was paid out.

Even if police decided not to arrest anyone in the kidnappings, they now had a roadmap of two violent drug gangs in the city. The feds took over and court documents show they had made progress, arresting a couple people on gun charges after a shooting outside an Eastside store, finding a gun and even coming up with the names of the suspects who orchestrated the kidnappings.

But nothing was ever done. While law enforcement slept, the two gangs went at it, leaving behind a years worth of killings and shootings that at first appeared to be routine random violence we are all so used to but now shows a calculated drug war that somehow was left alone as body after body fell in East and Southeast Baltimore.

Now we have Baltimore's police commissioner and mayor questioning the pace of the federal probe. But there are even more questions to answer. One of the victims of the cookout shooting was a member of Operation Safe Streets, an innovative program that uses ex-offenders to mediate gang disputes to prevent violence. It was hailed a success for its first year when no murders took place in a violent city neighborhood, and the counselor being at the party is indeed part of his job. But why didn't police know about the party? And now that the counselor is a witness, and a victim, he has an obligation to step forward and tell police what he knows. The program works under a city agency, the health department, and we can't have cops pleading with people to help them while allowing someone under another city agency to keep quiet.

Operation Safe Streets works because the gang leaders who don't trust the cops do trust the workers. If a counselor goes to the cops, the gangs won't cooperate. So we sacrifice information for quiet. But it's not quiet anymore, and serious questions needs to be answered from the program's administrators as to what they knew about the party, the dispute and the gunmen.

Questions also have to be asked about how and why Baltimore County Police allowed kidnappers to go free without pursuing criminal charges? Even if at the time the deal was sound because no one was giving up any information at all, cops can't simply sit back and allow two drug groups to exchange money for prisoners and then say case closed and walk away. The case was indeed closed in the county, where the kidnappings occurred, but far from closed as members retaliated in deadly precision on city streets.

Now we're all left to pick up the pieces.
   

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime, Confronting crime
        

Operation Safe Streets is one of those programs copied from somewhere else that has merit but also raises questions. Mediators, many once from the street, thus giving them credibility, mediate disputes between rival drug dealers and gangs to stop them from shooting at each other.

But what happens, as did Sunday night, when one of the mediators gets shot while attending a backyard cookout targeted by a gunman who shot 12 people and once again thrust the city into a new debate over violence.

Was the victim at the party to work sources or did he know something was about to go down? And if he did know violence might break out, should he have notified his superiors and thus law enforcement? The whole  idea behind the program is to stop violence without involving the cops, which are mistrusted by suspects, victims, witnesses and just about everybody else.

That creates an uneasy relationship in that the Safe Streets advisors know a lot about what's going on but are essentially off-limits to cops and detectives trying to gather intelligence. They can't do  their jobs if they run to the cops but the cops can't do theirs if they don't have information.

So you sacrifice arrests for quiet.

It's all fine until the quiet goes away.

And then you have the city's police commissioner questioning why his cops didn't know about the cookout, held on the anniversary of the shooting deaths of two gang members. These are dates someone in the police community should be aware of. Someone at Safe Streets knew but that wasn't enough this time.

Safe Streets has been successful -- they went more than a year without a homicide in the neighborhood next to where the cookout shooting occurred, though there were several shootings within a block of the boundaries. That didn't hold into this year and now the whole place as exploded.

Can Safe Streets and the cops hold it together?

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

Over the past 16 years covering city cops and violence (with a five year break) I've seen a parade of  mayors and police commissioners standing grim-faced in front of television cameras and talking about violence.

On Monday, though, Sheila Dixon and Frederick H. Bealefeld were done with the excuses. (photo at left by Amy Davis is the aftermath of a cookout on Ashland Avenue where 12 people were shot).

They were angry and frustrated but refused to show it. They didn't want to talk about programs or vigils or stop snitching ("That's crap," the mayor sternly warned. "You have innocent people shot and could've been worse," she said.

How true and how sad. At least 18 people shot (see full coverage) in one half of the city in one night and, with only two dead, it could've been worse. And so the mayor and her top cop didn't want to talk about Operation Safe Streets, or about another cop walk, or the focus on violent offenders, or even lecture people about coming forward.

To underscore just how violent and brazen some can be in Baltimore, Bealefeld said that at one double homicide scene, on Conkling Street, a police commander stopped a man from barging through the crime scene tape. The cop arrested the man and then found a loaded .44 caliber handgun lying on the front seat of his car. He had driven to a crime scene full of cops with a gun in plain view.

Talking about the violence, Bealefeld and Dixon were stoic, reserved, almost subdued. Bealefeld rightly noted that people don't want to hear about what the city already does but wants to know what the city will do. The gut reaction is always more cops and the mayor, in introducing that subject, said, "Of course" they would boost resources in the area. But Bealefeld went a few steps further: 37 uniformed foot patrol officers, two overlapping shifts in the neighborhood where 12 people got shot at a backyard cookout on Ashland Avenue, 20 more detectives as part of the Violent Crime Initiative, an additional SWAT platoon.

But Bealefeld also complained that an investigation that started 15 months ago, after the younger brothers of one of the targets in yesterday's shootings were kidnapped, sparking a wave of retaliatory violence, had somehow languished. And the cookout shooting was on the anniversary of the deaths of two main players in the bloody saga, something the commissioner said his intelligence officers should've known.

"This was a very well planned and thought out event," Bealefeld said. "The timing of this is not lost on us. The targets are not lost on us. And we are certainly going to Monday morning quarterback every aspect of police operations connected to this incident, as we should do. We should be evaluating our connections to this community so we have good information about community events and whether there are memorials or large cookouts. We're going to hold people accountable for that and push harder to make sure we have coverage. We're going to be evaluating our effectiveness as it relates to some of these specific organizations and individuals that are operating in East Baltimore, and in Southeast (above, Dixon talks with the media in a photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor).

"I can tell you our investigative efforts are continuing. I can tell you standing on the scene of 12 people shot last night, I can safely speak for the top levels of command in the police department, we are concerned about the pace and progress of some of these investigations, and we're going to do everything we can to speed those efforts along and to put these guys out of business just as expeditiously as possible."

Bealefeld did note that people in the community, including the shooter's friends, had to know what was about to take place. "There was a lot of work that went into that hit," he said.

But Dixon was clearly fed up: "There is no reason for me to stand here and rant and rave like a maniac. I am disturbed. It comes to a point where there's no personal responsibility. People have to begin to make choices. I don't know all the details of this incident, but you can see there's a pattern. Folks are going to have to set what they're going to accept and not accept in their homes and in their communities. I don't want to hear excuses."

She continued: "People have to be outraged. You know, standing on a corner and having a candlelight vigil, that's fine and good. But what happens now to those families in the midst of what happened? What are they going to do for those children so they don't get exposed? ... I don't want innocent bystanders to be involved. If they want to take it out between themselves, fine and good, but that shouldn't impact our communities."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Baltimore police are having a 12:30 p.m. news conference to provide updates on the spate of shootings over on Sunday. At left are some new pictures from the Baltimore Sun's Jed Kirschbaum from the scene on Ashland Avenue where 12 people were shot.

Police are having a news conference this afternoon but we've learned some details. The Baltimore Sun's police reporter, Justin Fenton, is reporting the 12 people shot were at a memorial cookout for the Blackwell family. Last year, two Blackwell teens were kidnapped from a Baltimore County home and held by a rival group. The teens were released after a deal was brokered, but no criminal charges were filed. Here is some background:

According to law enforcement sources, at least two of the shooting incidents appeared to be connected. One of the victims at the cookout shooting was Steven Blackwell, 25, whose younger brothers were abducted last April in what police said was part of an escalating feud between rival drug organizations. Police sources at the time told The Baltimore Sun that the abductions may have set off a wave of as many as five retaliatory homicides over the course of three months last summer.

Sunday's cookout was to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the fatal shootings of Quinton Hogan, 23, who police believe was connected with the Blackwells, and Donell Rogers, 21. They were fatally shot July 25, 2008, shortly after Hogan appeared in District Court. Blackwell showed up to pay his respects, and was among those struck Sunday night, sources said. He received a gunshot to the forearm, the sources said.

The last time this many people had been shot in once incident was 2001 when 11 people were hit, one fatally, on Memorial Day on East North Avenue. A leader of the gang -- the "Hot Boyz" responsible for that shooting was sentenced to 35 years in federal prison in 2003. During his hearing, U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz compared violence on the streets to efforts being made to reduce violence in Iraq.

"We've got to work together to make the city a place where freedom can thrive and people can live happy," the judge said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

A number of years ago, multiple shootings at street corners in Baltimore fairly common. A teen armed with a gun and bad aim would simply spray the corner hoping to hit his target, and get a few more in the process.

But nothing ever happened like the spate of shootings last night in East Baltimore, where a dozen people were shot at a backyard party on Ashland Avenue, followed by a double fatal shooting two hours later on Fayette Street, followed by yet another double shooting on East Baltimore Street (here is a map).

Baltimore police were quiet at the scene and we don't know many details yet. Some might be related, others not (the one on East Baltimore Street was well away from the other two) and the place where a dozen were wounded is only a couple blocks from where a 17-year-old was shot and killed a week ago.

Police might have a few people in custody and they have a bullet-riddled car whose driver pulled up to the emergency room at Johns Hopkins. Police and paramedics must have been taxed to the limit (there was at least one othe shooting elsewhere in Baltimore, bringing the total for one night to 17).

I'll update as much as possible throughout the day.

It was a busy Twitter night for city cops. Here's how they put the initial information out through the night (most recent at top):

SHOOTING: Reported at Baltimore & Bond Male shot. Police investigating http://nixle.us/7QJR
about 8 hours ago from API

UPDATE: Shooting @ Fayette & Conkling now a double homicide
about 8 hours ago from web

UPDATE: N. Lakewood/Ashland Ave - 12 people shot & wounded following barbecue. None of the injuries so far appeared to be life-threatening.
about 8 hours ago from web

Shooting, 2846 Harford RD, adult male shot in leg
about 9 hours ago from TwitterBerry

DOUBLE SHOOTING: Fayette/Conklin Sts, 2 adult male victims. Police investigating
about 10 hours ago from TwitterBerry

UPDATE: N. Lakewood/Ashland Ave - 7 people shot, all transported to area hospitals. Police investigating and working crime scene. about 10 hours ago from TwitterBerry

MULTIPLE SHOOTING: N. Lakewood/Ashland Ave - multiple people shot; update to follow. Police en route. about 11 hours ago from TwitterBerry  

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

The Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3, which represents active duty and retired city cops, has jumped into the national debate over the arrest of a black Harvard professor by Cambridge cops investigating a break-in at the scholar's home. President Obama criticized the arrest, sparking an even more furious debate over cops and racial profiling. At left, in an Associated Press photo, Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert C. Haas addresses the media over the arrest.

Robert F. Cherry, the president of the Baltimore's FOP, wrote on the union's website:

"The President should have been guided by advice not to interfere in a local incident, especially an incident that at this time does not appear to be racially motivated. If the alleged suspect who was forcing his way into the dwelling was white, do we really think the Cambridge police officers would have just driven by the location and coded the call? Absolutely not. Law enforcement officers across this country work tirelessly each day and night to protect the citizens of this Country and they should be commended for their commitment to duty and not chastised for responding to calls, obtaining the facts, and doing their job."

We certainly don't know all the facts yet and on Thursday the sergeant who made the arrest, James Crowley, fired back, saying it was the homeowner's fault he got arrested. That homeowner, Henry Louis Gates Jr., is one of the country's leading scholars on race issues.

To me, the case hinges on nuance. Gates returned from a trip, found himself locked out of his house and with the help of a friend broke in. A concerned neighbor called 911 and police came. By then, Gates was inside, and the officer must ascertain whether this man owns the house or had broken into it in a burglary.

What transpired next is in dispute. Gates says he showed the officer a driver's license to prove he lived there and the officer berated him. The officer says Gates showed him a Harvard ID that did not list his home address, and further attempts to prove his residency was met with a combative argument that ended in his arrest.

The officer needs to make sure everything is ok in the home and the homeowner should realize that the officer is doing his job and be appreciative that both a neighbor cared to call and that the police responded promptly.

Was the officer argumentative and rude, prompting Gates to go off? Or did Gates get offended when the officer pressed for more personal details? A simple miscommunication might be at the root of what is now a national debate.

I'd love to hear from cops and residents of Baltimore on their experiences along these lines.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (21)
        

Maryland State Police announced this afternoon the arrests of a husband and wife on charges that they burglarized more than a dozen homes in Carroll County.

Police also recovered many stolen items but are having a difficult time locating the owners of some of them. These include, state police said, "currency issued by the Japanese during their occupation of the Philippines in World War II and a silver U.S. coin from 1877.

Police urge the owner of these items to call the Westminster Barracks Criminal Investigation Section at 410-386-3000.

Here is more information from the Maryland State Police: 

A husband and wife have been arrested and charged in connection with multiple burglaries in Carroll County that have involved thousands of dollars worth of stolen cash and property.

The man is identified as Jerome M. Herron, 41, of the unit-block of Carroll Street, Westminster, Md. Troopers charged Herron on a warrant today with 11 counts of first degree burglary, two counts of third degree burglary, seven counts of malicious destruction of property, 12 counts of theft, four counts of conspiracy to commit theft, four counts of conspiracy to commit burglary, and one count of credit card theft.  The charges were served on Jerome Herron at the Carroll County Detention Center, where he has been held since his arrest on July 3, 2009. 

The woman is identified as Tina B. Herron, 34, of the same address as her husband. She is charged with six counts each of first degree burglary, third degree burglary, fourth degree theft, theft, and conspiracy to commit theft. She is also charged with one count each of malicious destruction of property, participating in a theft scheme, possession of marijuana, and possession with intent to distribute a controlled dangerous substance. She was arrested at her home on the evening of July 21, 2009 and is currently being held in the Carroll County Detention Center on $7,500 bond.

Tina Herron is charged in connection with six burglaries committed in Carroll County in October of 2008 and May of 2009.  Jerome Herron is charged in connection with 14 burglaries committed in Carroll County from April through July of this year.

Troopers had taken burglary reports and were conducting follow up investigations on one burglary in October of last year, and other burglaries committed in April, May, June and July of this year.  The residential burglaries occurred in the areas of Westminster, Sykesville, Upperco, Taneytown, Finksburg, Woodbine, and Mt. Airy.

Troopers in the Westminster Barracks Criminal Investigation Section found similarities among several of the burglaries. They developed witness information about a red and silver pickup in the area of some of the burglaries and a physical description of a suspect. 

On July 3, 2009, Jerome Herron was arrested by state troopers at about 9:00 p.m. after they responded to a call for a burglary in progress in the 5900-block of Snowdens Run Road, Sykesville, and found Herron nearby. Herron was operating a 1988 red and silver Ford F-150 pickup truck registered to his wife, Tina.

Further investigation by troopers led to evidence connecting Jerome Herron and his wife to the other burglaries they are charged with. The homes were entered after a window was broken, a sliding door pried loose, or through an unlocked door. Jewelry, power tools, cash, prescription drugs, guns, iPods, video game systems, and binoculars were among the items taken in the burglaries.

The investigation revealed some of the items were sold for cash and some were converted to the use of the couple. Troopers have recovered some of the stolen items and returned them to their owners.  The search for additional stolen property continues.

Troopers are still attempting to identify the owners of some of the recovered stolen property.  This includes currency issued by the Japanese during their occupation of the Philippines in World War II and a silver U.S. coin from 1877. The owner(s) of these items or anyone who has questions or information about the burglaries or stolen property involved is encouraged to call the Westminster Barracks Criminal Investigation Section at 410-386-3000.

This investigation is continuing. Additional charges are possible.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Police by nature love to be in control, so it's just plain entertaining to watch as Baltimore's finest ventures out into the very uncontrolled world of social networking. Their Facebook page is impressive, with frequent updates, photos, announcements of breaking shootings and arrests, and of course, lively discussions.

Sometimes too lively.

As with many Internet talk forums, a routine posting by the police about an officer who shot a would-be robber at a bus stop early today led to a discussion on gun and gun control and quickly became a bar room brawl involving at least one man who identified himself as a police officer and a community activist from South Baltimore's Pigtown neighborhood.

Now, it's the activist who wants people to have guns and the cop that doesn't (the discussion included yesterday's vote in Congress striking down an attempt to allow one with a concealed gun permit in one state from taking the gun into another state).

And I'm all for encouraging a good throw-down and think it's very important to include the men and women who protect us every day in a discussion about crime, and they shouldn't be punished (in fact, they should be encouraged to talk) for speaking out.

But we get nowhere when the disucssion move away from civil discourse and into a profane, name-calling rant, as this one does. And whether they like it or not, police officers have even a greater obligation (and challenge) to keep the discussion professional. The topic is too important to become nothing more than a food fight. I can't even repeat some of the comments that show up on the Baltimore Police Department's official Facebook page, and the language is truely unbecoming a man of the badge. If this person is indeed an officer and can get this worked up over a discussion on guns, I worry what he might do on the street in a real confrontation.

Anthony Guglielmi, the city police spokesman, told the Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton: "The purpose of the Facebook page is to provide the community an indepth look into the BPD. We do not condone profanity, do not condone threats. Those comments will be removed."

He said the page and comments are read daily by members of public affairs staff. Guglielmi also wa checking to see if the poster was indeed a police officer, at least a current one. Our records showing him making an arrest this month and he has his own Facebook page that shows him and a link to the Baltimore Police Department's Facebook page.

The discussion got down to whether every citizens should carry a weapon. Earlier today, an off-duty cop was robbed at gunpoint as he waited a bus station to go home after his shift. He was in plain clothes, but as all police do, had his weapon. He shot one of the would-be robbers in the arm.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

A Baltimore police officer on his way home from work this morning shot one of three men who authorities say tried to rob him at bus stop in South Baltimore's Cherry Hill neighborhood. One man is in custody, the wounded suspect is undergoing surgery (he was hit in the forearm) and cops are searching for a third.

More details will emerge later today; I'm trying to figure out if the Southern District officer was still wearing his uniform when he was mugged at the stop in the 200 block of Cherry Hill Road.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

I tried to reach George F. Spicka (left, in a 2006 photo) on Wednesday after the state apologized for officers who arrested him three years ago and charged him with e-mailing a bomb threat to BWI Airport. The charges were quickly dropped after police learned the e-mail came from a town in Italy and not from Spicka's home in Gwynn Oak. Maryland Transportation Authority police had apparently linked Spicka to the e-mail because of similar e-mail addresses -- the threat was sent from "George Orwell" and Spicka's e-mail was "georgetheother."

In a story we did back in 2006 that contained an interview from Spicka, we said he acknowledged that he might've sent some emails about Maryland politics using his Orwell-named account. That made police suspicious (though the emails were strongly worded and political in nature, they contained nothing close to threats).

Spicka e-mailed me this morning to clarify:

Just a point of clarification - "Spicka, in an interview with TheBaltimore Sun after his arrest in 2006, did say that he had posted political opinions on the Internet under Orwell's name as a tribute to the author."  We examined all 324 of my postings on the Internet forum where I used George - the Other as my handle, from the time I started posting until the day of my arrest.  Even though I wrote about George Orwell in 31 of those messages, I never once used Orwell's name as my own. George - the Other was my tribute to Orwell, who is one of my favorite authors, especially his essays.
 
This fact came out during the deposition and if the case had gone to trial. would have been used to highlight the gross misconduct and perjury on the part of the arresting detectives.
 
It is understandable how the author of the 2006 Baltimore Sun article, Josh Mitchell, might have misquoted me.  I hadn't slept for hours and was terrible upset by what had just happened.  There is no way to understand the complete degradation I suffered unless you go through it yourself.  I was just babbling on and on during our interview and was even crying at times.
 
If I have any official comment, it's that I'm terribly disappointed that the State is not prosecuting these detectives for their multiple instances of misconduct and perjury, and for their beliefs, as demonstrated by their actions, that they think that they are above the laws that the rest of us are bound to.  Instead they are loose in our society, to rain their misconduct upon other unsuspecting citizens.  Plus they serve as an example to others of like disposition, that they can get away with these crimes.
 
Sincerely,
 
George F. Spicka

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

No, it doesn't appear that Baltimore's police commissioner is sending the military to take over city streets. But he does want to recruit veterans of the armed services. An announcement is planned for later today.

Here's the police statement:

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld and Major General Adolph McQueen, (U.S. Army Military Police Command) will sign a formal memorandum of understanding between the Baltimore Police Department and the United States Department of Defense, Department of the Army to establish an exclusive recruitment and employment relationship for members of the US Army and US Army reserve. The Baltimore Police Department is the first jurisdiction in the state of Maryland to formally partner with the Department of Defense.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Commentators to the Crime Beat blog and to the Baltimore Sun's Talk Forum overwhelmingly support city cops for locking up three kids, agest 7, 8 and 11, for stealing a wagon, a scooter and bicycle parts.

The children's parents thought the treatment too harsh, but most readers and television viewers thought the punishment was either just right or not harsh enough. Baltimore Police defended handcuffing the youths and sending them to detention (no criminal charges were filed) though the mayor said that because the offedners' parents were home, she might have written the reports in the house and let the children stay there.

Seems to me we need to go back to basics. You hear time and again from older community residents, both here and across the country, that in their day when children misbehaved, they could count on being disciplined by their neighbors, then dragged home to be disciplined again by their parents. Word of your childhood transgressions typically reached home before you did.

Before a recent community walk in Southwest Baltimore's Carrollton Ridge neighborhood, in response to a 5-year-old girl caught in the crossfire and critically wounded, association leader Connie Fowler, who has lived there 46 years, lamented at the loss of old-fashion values. "If my son was caught doing something, the person corrected him and came to us to say something. You can't do that here today. If you correct a child, the parents are ready to beat you up. So I don't say anything to the parents. Most of the kids around here are raising themselves."

I know, today is different than yesterday. We can no longer trust each other enough to let children have the run of the neighborhood, confident that the entire neigbhorhood helps raise the neighborhood children. Now we have to screen friends and the parents of friends, worried that a child molester or a drug dealer might lurk around the corner. Perhaps in Connie Fowler's day, these kids who stole the bikes would've been dealt with by the residents and there would've been no need to get police involved.

Here is an e-mail I got this morning from a resident of Medfield, where the young offenders live:

I live in Medfield and have see the two boys that were arrested roaming the neighborhood on a daily basis.  They, along with a large number of other neighborhood kids, are always unsupervised and are left to entertain themselves. They jump neighbors fences, bully other kids, tease neighbors dogs, place empty trash cans in the middle of the street, litter, skateboard in the middle of the street and challenge cars to try to pass them. Until yesterday’s piece of news, calling the police was useless. City police response time to a 911 call, let alone a call to 311, is outrageously long. By the time the police arrive the kids are long gone and if the kids find out you called the police, the harassment begins. Please don’t misunderstand, the parents are to blame in this situation.  These kids need some focus and discipline in their lives. They need adults that care about what they are doing, where they are going, who they are hanging with.  They need their parents attention otherwise they will end up like many of the teens in the neighborhood – another young victim of the drug/alcohol scene.

Here is a sampling of comments:

Why was an 8 year old child unsupervised for a period of time that allowed him to commit a crime? That's bad enough, but what if a far worse crime had been committed against him while he was not being properly supervised? For example: rape, kidnapping, or God forbid, murder. People need to protect their children.. WHERE WERE THE PARENTS/GUARDIANS?

You break the law, commit the crime, you are arrested. It drives me nuts to think that those jokers are suing the city for their son breaking the law. I don't care what age the kid was, maybe he wontt do it again.

If I had been caught stealing when I was that age, my mom would have insisted the cops put me in handcuffs. I would also have begged to stay at the police station knowing what faced me when I got home.

Jim: If the kids weren't stealing they wouldn't have to be put in handcuffs simple as that.  Maybe their parents should of been watching them? They are only 7 and 8.

I'm glad they arrested these kids. They didn't actually charge them with anything but maybe putting the fear of God in them was enough to give each of them the lesson of a lifetime. I sure hope this experience sticks with them for a very long time!

Sigmalady: I think putting handcuffs on them and taking them to the police station would have been enough scare for children that small. Locking them up in a cell is excessive. But I bet they won't steal again.

The parents should do a bit better job parenting rather than complaining about the police. If they taught their kids stealing was wrong they wouldn't be in this situation. Ages 7-11 and stealing bikes...that's just bad parenting and supervision. Arresting the kids is warranted because you know the parents (after reacting like this) wouldn't do a thing about it.

So let me get this straight. The three youths stole bikes, got arrested for it, and the parents are upset...that they got arrested. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Baltimore.

After reading about the parents reaction to their kids being detained for "stealing" the bikes, I truly believe the police locked up the wrong family members .... good grief. Leadership starts and apparently in this case, ends at the top.

Why is this news? Seems to me, it 's only because these kids are 7 and 8 years old. If the parents aren't willing to do some parenting, then I am glad that the BCPD is willing to step up and attempt (key word ) to teach these kids right and wrong. If 2 hours in a holding cell will keep them from getting 2 months or 2 years housed in a detention facility down the road, then I'm all for it!! The parents need to save their outrage and turn it where it is directed--at themselves--for allowing their 7 and 8 year old kids to steal stuff.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

There's not a lot of sympathy out there for the three kids, ages 7, 8 and 11, who were put in handcuffs in North Baltimore on Friday after their neighbor called police on them for stealing bicycle parts from his yard.

I talked with 8-year-old Ayiza Massey's mother, Toya Goodson, who said her son readily admits to taking a scooter from a block away from his house on Falls Road in Medfield. She said her son joined older kids and quickly admitted he was wrong.

She questions whether it was necessary or right to place such young children in handcuffs, put them in the back of a police wagon and send them to jail, where they spent two hours in custody before they were released without charges to their parents.

Goodson said she has punished her son by grounding him and making him apologize in person to the man and in writing. "I'm not raising my son to steal," she told me. "But he's still a child and we've all done things that we thought we culd get away with. Our jobs as parents is to teach them. I have no problem with disciplinary action. But I think this could've been handled differently."

Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi disagreed. He told me that police have little discretion especially when a group of kids have admitted to theft and the victim demands action. "He got a taste of the criminal justice system," Guglielmi said. "At the end of the day, the police officer didn't do anything wrong and I think these kids learned a valuable lesson."

Two years ago, Mayor Sheila Dixon criticized the arrest of a 7-year-old boy who had been sitting on a dirt bike. The city officer saw him riding along the sidewalk, but Guglielmi said that case was different because the arrest was made by a sergeant who responded to the house after the boy's mother had complained about police conduct, raising the possibility that the arrest was retaliatory.

"Things leading up to that arrest were very different," Gugliemi said.

The parents of the child arrested in that incident have filed a $40 million lawsuit against the city that is still pending.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Three boys, ages 7, 8 and 11, were arrested after a neighbor spied them stealing bicycle parts from Northeast Baltimore's Medfield community, according to a report on WBAL-TV last night. Their parents complained cops put them in handcuffs, into a wagon and to jail.

They weren't charged but were put into a program; they were held about two hours, the television station said.

Baltimore police defended the arrests. I know that handcuffs are usually required when an arrest is made both for the safety of the officers and the suspect. I'm all for teaching these kids a lesson, but is it necessary to put someone this young in handcuffs?

Back in 2007, Mayor Sheila Dixon apologized for police officers who arrested and handcuffed a 7-year-old boy who had been seen riding a motorized dirt bike. She said then that officers had "better options" than to handcuffing and detaining such a small child. The mayor called it "a bad choice."

But police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told WBAL: "We are just going to hold people accountable for their actions -- whether it's a 7-year-old who's taken property or not. If it was your property, you would want some justice for that."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

Today's Washington Post has an interesting article on how crime in many big cities is plummeting, perplexing officials who are trying to figure out why. Baltimore, however, while experiencing a crime drop, still is ahead in murder this year compared to last. The latest slaying was Sunday night in East Baltimore. Our shootings are down, but homicides are up; see Sun murder map.

The story by Allison Klein explores new high-tech strategies. In Baltimore, police still do Comstat, in which commanders gather weekly to analyze crime trends and can look at patterns of when and where shootings and other crime occur. This allows the cops to deploy and alter strategies as needed.

But New York, which pioneered the Comstat method, cops send a "mobile data van" to every slaying filled with police who can monitor 911 calls in the neighborhood, quickly identify people on parole and probation and work up a neighborhood profile that not only helps them catch the killer, but also enables commanders to understand what is going on and maybe prevent more violence from occuring (at left, The Sun's Glenn Fawcett captures a shooting scene from January).

Shootings are not usually random, but have rational that if detectives can understand they can not only make more arrests but get a handle on crime in neighborhoods. Understanding the motives, patterns and players can only help. New York City has brought its murders down drastically over the years, but of course they have nearly 40,000 cops and can mobilize hudreds at a moments notice.

While they flood the zone after a murder, those of us in Baltimore are still struggling to keep teens on home detention, and realized after a recent shooting of a 5-year-old girl that even with all the technology, if a teen really wants to escape detection of a GPS unit, he can easily separate himself from the device and we won't have any idea where he's gone.

The latest numbers from Baltimore (ending July 4) show major crime down 7 percent, including a nearly 30 percent drop in shootings (105 so far this year, compared to 116 at this time last year) along with a 10 percent drop in robberies, a 7 percent drop in assaults and a 5 percent drop in burglaries. Homicides are up about 10 percent, but assaults with guns are down 26 percent, robbies with guns are down 21 percent.

Meanwhile, according to department figures, arrests in murder cases are up 44 percent, in rapes 23 percent and in assaults 20 percent.  

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

It was, unfortunately, another busy weekend on Baltimore's mean streets, with two police officers shot while dealing with one of the most dangerous calls they can get -- domestic violence.

In this case, one of the officer used the victim's cell phone to contact the suspect and convince him to return to the scene, only to end up getting shot. Then, police said the same suspect opened fire on the backup officer. As Julie Bykowitz points out today, the suspect had a history of arrest and domestic complaints (at left, The Sun's Kim Hairston captures the police car with shattered windows from bullets being towed away).

One of the wounded officers managed to shoot the suspect, identified as Shawn Sinclair, 34, and he's awaiting formal charges at Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Officer Jerome Shaurette, 44, remains at the same hospital recovering from bullet wounds to the chest, abdomen and left arm. Officer Curtis McMillion, 42, was struck in the buttocks and released from the hospital Saturday night. At left, Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III thanks Shock Trauma Doctor Richard Dutton for treating his officers (photo was taken by The Sun's Jed Kirschbaum).

Just as we're learning painful details of how a 17-year-old escaped serious sanctions on a string of juvenile charges before he allegedly shot and critically wounded a 5-year-old girl, raising questions about how we monitor juvenile offenders, now we've got a man out on a string of adult charges that include allegations of domestic abuse, before he allegedly shot two city police officers.

The scenario is nothing new. That's the unfortunate part.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

The mysterious raid on July 8 of the Fells Point bar cheerleaders was an unsuccessful search for four high-powered weapons that police say had been bought by the owner and may have been sent to the Phillipines.

The Baltimore County police report and search warrant application describes the guns as FN 5.7 mm, high-powered weapons that fire bullets capable of piericing body armor and made by a company in Belgium, FN Herstal. The repot says the owner of a Cockeysville gun shop got suspicious when a foreign national visiting on a visa came in with the bar owner to buy two of the weapons, followed by the bar owner's wife who came in later to buy two more.

What followed is an intriguing police drama in which agents watched the transaction be completed and followed a trail that led them to an airplane in Guam, luggage, a shipping containter rerouted to Baltimorre and then finally the search of the bar.

Agents never found the weapon and now it appears the bar owner and his wife have fled back to the Phillipines. Now the Baltimore liquor board may file a violation notice and hold a hearing even as it appears the bar has reopened upon getting its liquor license back from the cops.

Nobody has been arrested.

Here is the police report:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

When we last left this story, the Baltimore liquor board had to dismiss a case against a Fells Point bar because the city police officer didn't show up to testify. The charges involved a fight and underaged drinking in Carl Reefer's Bar and Grille on Broadway.

A city sheriff's deputy told the board that he had sent the summons, but there was apparently a mixup that unfortunately is all too common. The officer, Fredericko E. Dickens, was in field training in the Southeast District when he responded to the bar in February. He was later transferred to the Southwest District, and the summons got lost somewhere inbetween.

The issue frustrated police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, in part because the police commissioner has made a huge deal of late of cracking down on problem bars and holding owners responsible. That is difficult when cases go south for simply not showing up in court.

"We have to get a better system," Guglielmi told me, noting that "the paper system we have in place now isn't doing it." He thinks electronic notification might work better, for the right now, we rely on the mail, and that can't seem to keep up with the way officers move around.

Twice since moving to Fort Avenue in South Baltimore, I've gotten court summons for police officers in the Southwest District, because I share the same numbered address as the Southwestern Police District on Font Avenue, even though its a zip code away.

And Guglielmi himself said he received a summons to testify in a case involving a man the commissioner had arrested (the spokesman was with him at the time) but the paperwork didn't arrive at his office in police headquarters until a month after the hearing had ended (the trial is still scheduled for August). He still keeps the document in his desk in case someone asks why he failed to appear at the trial.

And just moments after I spoke with Guglielmi, another case at the liquor board went south because a city officer wasn't there. This time, it involved allegations of prostitution at the Jewel Box on The Block. Detective Fletcher L. Jackson of the vice unit wasn't available to testify and, as liquor board chairman Stephan Fogleman noted, "Reluctantly we have no choice but to dismiss the charges."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

You would think with the Baltimore police commissioner's crack down on troubled bars, padlocking some and calling on them to be more responsible, that his cops would actually show up to testify at a liquor board hearing when an establishment gets into trouble.

But the liquor board was forced to drop a case against Carl Reefer's Bar and Grille this afternoon when the city officer, Fredericko E. Dickens, didn't show up at the hearing. The officer had responded to the bar in the 700 block of South Broadway in Fells Point to help other officers breaking up a fight on Feb. 21, about 1:15 a.m.

Dickens' police report says that the fight ended outside the bar that ended with the arrest of one of those involved, who was too young to drink, the officer then checked all the patrons' IDs. The owner then shut the bar down.

One of the better known attorneys in town, Peter Prevas, was on hand to defend the bar and told the board he had a good argument to make. But all of that was moot because Dickens wasn't there. A city Sheriff's deputy testified that he personally served a summons on the officer.

Prevas, noting the missing cop, moved to dismiss the charges, and Liquor Board Chairman Stephan Fogleman said, "The board has no choice but to grant the motion."

Other cops managed to show up for their hearings -- two Maryland State Police cadets who conducted as sting on Inner Harbor restaurants and three sheriff deputies all made it to the hearing just fine.

The bar could've been fine in the thousands of dollars. Instead. it gets another break, and the next time there's a fight or neighbors complain, this potential offense won't be part of its official history.

I'll add comments from the Baltimore Police Department's chief spokesman when I get them.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

I spent the morning with a group of federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms  and Explosives who were mentoring children about resisting gangs. They've spent a week at New Psalmist Baptist Church on Old Frederick Road as part of a program called Gang Resistance Education and Training, which first started in the early 1990s.

The idea to teach kids in the 6th through 8th grades how to resist peer pressure and how to avoid fights that could lead to violence. They take the kids through various lessons and act out scenarios. At left, ATF Agent Jeffrey Matthews works out a scenario with Naomi, age 11.

One child asked what would happen if he convinced a friend to stay out of a gang, but the gang returned to kill him. Another said an older youth asked him to join the Bloods because he wore a red shirt to school one day, and his friend said 'yes' when a rival Crips asked him to join because was wearing blue.

These agents have their work cut out for them.

The Rev. Julian Rivera then led the kids in a session about jealously and had them read the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. I asked the reverend if it's sad that kids so young need these lessons. He answered, "Some of these kids have worse stories than Cain and Abel."

ATF agents said they've been asked to bring the program to children even younger, some in the 2nd grade. That's pretty said.

I'll have more about this in Friday's paper.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Baltimore police this afternoon charged a man with fatally shooting a woman in Fells Point early Tuesday. A few hours after Josephine Lewatowski was shot outside a rowhouse on South Regester Street, just south of Eastern Avenue, a police surveillance camera captured a man putting a shotgun into the trunk of a car.

Police said the car had stolen license plates and was being sought in connection with the shooting. Police had arrested the man on gun charges and then later charged him in the killing. A motive remains unknown.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

It took two weeks, but Anne Arundel County's police chief, James Teare Sr. finally released the names of three officers involved in two shootings last month. The Baltimore Sun's Andrea Siegel details the cases in today's newspaper.

In January, I took Baltimore police to task for changing its policy of quickly releasing the names of police who shoot people, arguing it undermined promises to run an open, transparent and accountable department and prevented the public from learning crucial details of the officers, their past history and the outcomes of the investigation into the shootings. Baltimore police are still reviewing their new policy.

So we wanted to hold Anne Arundel County to the same standard -- officials had told us when we compared the policies of various departments that they release the names within 12 to 24 hours. But when we sought the names in the two most recent shootings, we were told there is no timetable and the  names might not be released until the investigation is complete.

But Teare called me Tuesday afternoon to clarify. There is no timetable, but the chief conceded that two weeks is too long to wait to learn the names of officers who fire their guns. He blamed the delays on the unusual circumstances of dealing with back-to-back-to-back police shootings that also delayed some of the steps the department takes before making names of its officers public.

"It was beyond my normal expectations,” the chief said. “There is no reason for me not to release that information. We are public servants. We are paid by the public and the public should be knowledgeable about what’s going on in the department, especially when deadly force is involved.”

County police spokesman Justin Mulcahy then sent out news releases with the names of the officers — Dwayne Raidford, who had already been named in court charging documents, along with Lt. Harry Peterson, a 20-year veteran, and Officer Walter weeney, who has been on the force four years.

It's refreshing to learn that Teare gets that the names are important, and I hope to city reveals its decision on whether to revamp its own policy.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Police shootings
        

Today's story on jaywalking (it's a subject that's been bothering me for quite some time) brought this response from a reader Patti Jakusz:

Since moving here from Milwaukee in '92, I have been ranting about jaywalkers, sometimes to the point of apoplexy. I worked downtown for 13 yrs and every day I saw people walk out into the street before ever looking up to see if a car was approaching (god forbid they would ever look at the traffic sign.)  Even if they do stop, they stay in the street, preventing cars from moving into the turn lane.  If you honk at them, they get defiant.  I've  even seen one pair get violent and kick the car that honked at them. Thank you for bringing this to light.  Some people don't even realize they're breaking the law. I really hope the police do start handing out tickets.

I noted that in many cases, bad drivers force people to jaywalk by blocking intersection or make it dangerous for pedestrians by failing to yield while making right-hand turns. But just today on my drive back from Towson, a woman walked in front of my car, forcing me to stop on York Road, and made me miss my light.

She looked at me like I had done something wrong. I had to stop at the red light, but apparently she couldn't have waited another 30 seconds to cross the street legally. I don't want to encourage cops to ticket everybody, but we need to work together so we can all get where we're going safely and on time.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

A woman who was shot in the head early Tuesday in Fells Point has died and police have a possible suspect in custody. This one of a several slayings and shootings in Baltimore over the past few days, and the one in the touristy waterfront area had the neighborhood talking.

For more details, read Justin Fenton's story.

I had gone down to Fells Point but could not find anyone with an idea of who the woman was. At that time, she was still alive and police had not released her name. But several people around Register Street and Eastern Avenue speculated by throwing out names. None seemed to match.

The woman victim has a long record and police located a person of interest based on video taken from surveillance cameras. We still don't know a motive, but details I'm sure will come fast. The video showed a man removing a shotgun from his car and putting it in his trunk. No charges have been filed in connection with the death.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Steve Herlth in Southwest Baltimore, whom I met on a police community ride-along, is one of the expert organizers of community crime walks, called Citizens On Patrol. Earlier this month, about 100 people swarmed over Carrollton Ridge after a child was hit and critically wounded by a stray bullet. The mayor and practically everyone in City Hall, as well as residents from across the city, turned out.

But the real test is what comes after the walks and then who shows up when there's no tragedy to mobilize and outrage a community. I was heartened to get this e-mail from Steve last night, and a picture, though grainy, of a good deed by residents who combined the walks with a trash detail, and the helpful hand of a city police officer:

Hi Friends, 

It has been a while since I wrote one of these Walk Status Reports, as you know, we have fun and communication between the communities is getting better all the time. However, tonight was a little better than usual.

Hunting Ridge came out with a plan tonight. Their walkers were armed with trash bags, what in the world are they going to do. Well, as soon as we got started, it became obvious. They started picking up trash as they walked. Well, that was cool all by itself, but the walk leader who I will name Dana, has a young child in the stroller.  She cannot pick up trash and push the stroller. Who came to the rescue?  The picture is worth a thousand words.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime, Heroes, Neighborhoods
        

Today's crime news includes the usual -- one dead, two wounded in three city shootings -- and the odd. We learn that storing a body in a freezer and not reporting the death to authorities is perfectly legal (along with crossing a street against the light after 7 p.m. and before 7 a.m. in the city), and of yet another trial delay in the case of a cult whose members are charged with killing a child because they want to represent themselves.

Police say the cult members starved a 2-year-old boy because he refused to say amen after meals, then put his body in a suitcase and took it to Philadelphia. The defendants are rufusing to cooperate in attempts to get them evaluated for a possible insanity defense.

The case in Anne Arundel County involving the body is equally strange -- an 83-year-old woman dies and her relatives put her body in the freezer. We're awaiting a cause of death as lawmakers scramble to make that a crime.

At least we have some good news out of Arundel -- the police chief released the names of officers in two recent police-involved shootings (I'll have more on the subject on Sunday). And on Friday, I'll chat with an old gang in North Baltimore's Pen Lucy neighborhood who says he was part of a dispute in 1966 that started three decades of violence.

One of the shootings early Tuesday occurred on Register Street in Fells Point, just below Eastern Avenue. The street is narrow, almost an alley street, barely wide enough for one car, and the shooting occurred outside a green door of a cramped rowhouse. All that was left when I arrived yesterday morning was discarded yellow crime scene tape. The door to the apartment was adjar but no one was home.

Neighbors were trying to learn the identity of the victim, who was critically wounded in the head, but names they came up with didn't pan out. Some speculated it was one of the many homeless, but relatives were quickly found. When we learn an identification, I'll let you know.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

A 38-year-old man was killed last night in Pen Lucy, another act of violence linked to a community that had seemed to emerge from the brink of years of bloodshed. The shooing occcurred shortly after 7 p.m. at Old York and Dunbarton roads, on a playground across the street from a garden memorializing the neighborhood's dead.

Robert Nowlin, a longtime community activist in the North Baltimore neighborhood, told me this morning he didn't think the shooting was related to gang violence. "I think it's an isolated incident, although unfortunate," he said.

Police didn't have much information or a name of the victim. Pen Lucy was for years a battleground between the Old York and Cator Avenue Boys and the McCabe Avenue Boys. Police and community leaders have said those two groups have for the most part been eradicated, though their names have surfaced recently in a federal drug indictment and in police charging documents in an arrest in a killing near McCabe Avenue turf.

Yesterday, I posted a piece by a man who was one of the founding members of the warring groups, who gave a chilling account of how they began in the mid-1960s and attributed years of animosity and bloodshed to a dance and a fight over a girl.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The Maryland State Fire Marshal announced that authorities arrested a Fallston man and charged him buying fireworks in Pennsylvania and preparing to set them off in Maryland. Here's a photo provided by that office of the seized fireworks:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

With talk of a revival of the Old York and Cator Avenue Boys and the McCabe Avenue Boys in the North Baltimore area, I got this e-mail this morning from a many who says he was there when it all started. At left, in a photo from the Baltimore Sun's Chiaki Kawajiri, is a scene from Pen Lucy in 2000.

And of course it started with a fight over a girl.

The gangs fought it out on city streets for years, culminating in the 1990s with a spate of shootings. Now, police and neighborhood leaders say the groups are all but gone, and talks of them returning are nothing more than young wannabees using the names of the storied groups.

Here is a bit of history from one reader:

It was with great interest that I read your Crime scenes article in the Baltimore Sun on Friday July 10th 2009 about the resurgent gangs in Pen Lucy. That story was very near and dear to my heart as I was one of the original Old York and Cator Avenue Road boys and was involved in the first physical altercation that started the rivalry between the Old York Road and Cater Boys and the McCabe Avenue boys. I used to live at the corner of Old York and Willow Ave. Even before the Old York and Cator gang the original gang was the Willow Ave Boys. I am now a 56 year old professional black business man long removed from the mean streets of the Old York Road area. I feel that you may find the recounting of that rivalry interesting reading.
‘
The rivalry started back in 1966 as back then and even now that area around Old York Road among the blacks was called “Wilson Park” and not Pen Lucy. What made that area so unique was back then it was a black enclave in an island surrounded by white neighbors. Waverly was to the south, Woodbourne avenue to the north, and Northwood to the West and Homeland to the East.

The black neighborhood was comprised of about 10 streets such as Cold Spring Lane, Willow Ave, Richwood, Radnor, Midwood, Wrenwood and 43th street. All of us black guys that lived in Wilson Park used to ban together to fight the white gangs mainly from Waverly to the south and Woodbourne avenue to the north.

I could remember some very fierce battles that we had with the white gangs from those neighborhoods especially the Waverly boys. In fact back then Cator Avenue one of the border streets from the black Wilson Park area and the White Waverly area which started at 39th street.  Once in particular we had a large running street fight with the Waverly white boys that involved about 40 guys. It started with a big street fight around Old York and Cator and the Waverly Boys pushed us all the way down to Old York Road and Willow which was about 6 blocks north and we held ground at Willow because that was our main street and we were not going to give that street up and we also got reinforcements from some of our other guys that were hanging out on willow ave and were not involved in the original fight, when they pushed us that far.

Shortly after that big fight we worked out a truce with the Waverly Boys and things calmed down on the south side. We then turned our attention to fighting with the white guys to the north and west in Woodbourne and Northwood. This was in the 1964 to 1965 period. Then in 1966 more blacks started to move in the area around Cator Avenue and Woodbourne Avenue and even into Northwood. That was during the days of the racial steering where the white flight started to the Baltimore county suburbs.

After we had dealt with the white gangs we then turned towards fighting each other and initially we had the black Willow Ave Boys that were south of Cold Spring Lane and the Richwood Boys that were North of Cold Spring Lane and Cold Spring was the border and we would take turns crossing into each others territory for battles.

In 1966 the original altercation that started the rivalry between the Old York and Cator Boys and the McCabe Boys occurred. Originally there were 3 founding members of the McCabe boys. The leader of that group was a very well know tough guy in the area that any black youth that grew up in the Wilson Park  area in the mid to late 60’s would remember his name as he terrorized many a young man in his day.

Those 3 founding members originally lived in 43th street which was a few blocks south of Willow Ave. On one particular Saturday night two very attractive sisters that lived on 43th gave a party and invited some of the willow boys of which I was one and she also invited the three 43th street boys that were the original McCabe boys.

At the party I asked one of the sisters to dance at the same time one of the 43rd street boys asked her to dance. Words exchanged between us and before you know it he threw a punch at me and I threw a punch at him and a fight started in the house. The parents then told us to leave and take the fight outside. Which we did. At that point there was bad blood between the willow boys and the 43th street boys.

Shortly after that the three 43th street boys families moved to McCabe Avenue where blacks were now starting to move in. Those 3 guys started the McCabe boys. From then on we had a running battle of street fights that mainly occurred when we were at the same parties or when we ventured in each others neighbors hoods.

The fights started out mainly as fist fights and knives and bats but no guns initially. BUT on one night in 1967 there was a big street fight that occurred between the Old York Road Boys and the McCabe Boys on Willow ave. There was a party in the Willow Avenue area and the McCabe boys and McCabe girls came to the party and the fight originally was between the willow girls and the McCabe girls and then the boys got involved.

There was a street fight and then one of the willow boys said that he was going to get his rifle and he went home and got it. I will never forget seeing him walking right down the middle of Willow Ave with the rifle in his hand and he walked up to the McCabe boys and aimed the rifle and they started running and they ran into a alley and her ran behind him and then stood and took aim and fired the rifle in rapid shots and he shot 3 of them as they were running, none fatally to my remembrance but he did shot them.

From then on things got more heated between the groups. As time went on more blacks moved into the Cator avenue area and the center of the Willow Ave gang moved to the Cator area and that gang became known as the Old York Road and Cator boys. Since I lived on Willow ave it was easier for me to walk down to Cator Avenue and hang out on their corners out of eye sight of my parents on Willow ave. and the rest of the Willow boys used to go down to that area.

In the 70’s , 80’s, and 90’s it kept up as the younger kids kept the rivalry going when us old heads moved on. After I graduated from high school I went into the military and did not keep track of what was going on as I never came back to the neighborhood to life. But my sister still lives in the family house on Old York Road and Willow ave. after my parents passed so I go back on holidays from time to time. I am not proud of the fight that I got in but as a young man coming up on the street of Baltimore you had to defend yourself if you wanted to survive. I just had no idea that the initial altercation that I had would lead to a decade’s long rivalry that became fatal and is still going on to this day.

To me one of the main factors that keeps the Baltimore homicide rate high and will continue to do so is the concept of retaliation in the streets of Baltimore that is supported by street gang rivalry such as the old York road and McCabe boys. I am sure that you will find dozens of similar street rivalries in every neighborhood in Baltimore with similar origins like ours that started out as a simple fist fight and then sides and boundaries were drawn and the violence and mayhem escalated especially when the street gangs turned to drug gangs and money and business was at stake as well as the rivarlies.

I bet most of the young men have no clue as to why there are those rivalries. In the80’s and 90’s the crack epidemic and the introduction of drugs turned the up to then street gangs into business enterprises and drug turf equated to corners and corners equated to money so the level of violence increased. 

I am a big fan of the David Simon former sun reporter “Wire” HBO series and I read the book “The Corner” and saw that HBO mini series. I even remember hearing of Charles Dutton back in those days as he was one of the green mount ave boys around North Ave and we used to have our runs in with those guys as well from time to time. I feel that a mini series about the “Old York Road and Cator Boys and McCabe boys” detailing the decades long fighting that continues to this day would be a interesting story.

Once again great job on your piece and I hope that the police are correct and that the fatal rivalry is not going to another vicious cycle of retaliation and death.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

North Baltimore's Pen Lucy neighborhood has always intrigued me. It's one of those places off the beaten-path (York Road), next to the upscale Guilford community (separated by a wall) and away from the traditional drug neighborhoods in on the east and west sides. Yet is has always been one of the most volatile spots on the city map.

Stories going back to the early 1990s documet fights and shootings associated with two neighborhood groups, which evolved into gangs, called the Old York and Cator Avenue Boys and the McCabe Avenue Boys (a memorial to the neighborhood's dead is at left).

One of the early leaders, involved in a shooting in 1992 that left two people dead, became, according to police, the leader of a notorious prison gang that was recently brought up on federal charges (the very one that smuggled crab meat into their cells and recruited corrections officers to the payroll). Another recent stabbing near McCabe Avenue turf has raised questions of whether the old gangs are returning.

One of the long-time activists, Robert Nowlin, has always been outspoken. He's a blind man who recently lost his son to a car accident in Georgia last year shortly after he had returned from two tours in Iraq as part of the Army. Nowlin told me this week that the neighborhood is better now but he's frustrated by what he sees as police shackled by the mayor and unable to clamp down the way they should.

Still, I saw a different Pen Lucy then I remember, back in the mid-1990s when a South Korean merchant was killed in his store (though for some reason his name is not on the memorial), back when a young man who just got out of jail for a shooting was himself shot by friends of the man he had wounded. "It's the same people over and over again," the major of the Northern District told me in 2000. Now some of those same names are popping up in bigger and bolder crimes (the federal drug indictment, not to mention a man convicted last year of killing a police officer was a member of the old Pen Lucy gangs).

A makeshift memorial honoring the neighborhood's dead is gone, replaced by a more tasteful monument in a park that lists the names of the shooting victims. The neighborhood still looks shabby and dangerous, even if the violence is down. But it's a start.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

A man was fatally shot in the head Wednesday in Northwest Baltimore (picture at left by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor), another man was shot and killed on Divison Street Wednesday nigth and a third person was killed in a shooting on McElderry Street in East Baltimore early today.

The East Baltimore shooting is where Operation Safe Streets works. That's a group of street mediators who meet regularly with gangs and other violent groups in order to stop violence before it happens. They've been successful in keeping shooting down.

Then, just after 11 a.m., an adult male was shot in the shoulder on Park Heights Avenue, in front of the I Can't We Can drug rahab building. Activist and radio show host Anthony McCarthy, live live tweets as the police investigated:

Man just shot in the back by thugs outside our office door at ICWC on Park Heights Ave, police here in a flash! (They are always around!)

Wow! Police everywhere! They are handcuffing a lot of guys who were standing around watching! I guess they are trying to get witnesses!

There are at least three blue light cameras in this blocks of this shooting! Seems to me CCTV will help in giving cops info!

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

It was a show of force and another wake up call.

A routine community cop walk (pictures here by the Baltimore Sun's Gene Sweeney Jr.), scheduled a year ago, attracted more than a 100 participants from several city neighborhoods Wednesday night. The place: Carrollton Ridge in Southwest Baltimore. The reason: the shooting last week of Raven Wyatt, a 5-year-old girl caught in the crossfire of a dispute and the latest symbol of Baltimore's violence.

Here's what a tragedy brings: the mayor, the police commissioner, the fire chief, the heads of public works, recreation and health. The NAACP and the Guardian Angels showed. When the chief trash enforcer spotted three abandoned trash bags, he immediately called it in and got someone to take them away. When a 5-year-old boy expressed interest in a summer rec program, the director was there to sign him up. When a woman complained about police response, the commissioner was there to listen.

The head of the Carrollton Ridge association, Connie Fowler, repeated to everyone who would listen that this was a scheduled walk, planned before the little girl was shot and remains clinging to life at Johns Hopkins, and that while she was grateful for the outpouring, she would like to see this showing on every excursion. A walk without a tragedy as a backdrop draws perhaps seven people from her community and a smattering of others from beyond.

I thinks it's great that so many people showed for the walk and managed to shut down streets as they paraded through, talking to residents and kids who spilled from cramped rowhouses to snap pictures of the mayor. City officials signed up dozens of people to go to rec centers or help at the community association meetings, but it remains to be seen whether the people follow through.

The community walks are great and the mayor and her department heads can't be at each one, and I don't begrudge them for coming out after a little girl is shot. And to be fair, the mayor and police commissioner go on a lot of walks that don't draw media attention. The groundwork invested, now it's time for residents to stand up and take their community back.

Just 20 minutes before Mayor Sheila Dixon pulled up to the rec center at Pulaski and Ashton streets, city cops boxed in a car just up the street and searched it and its occupants for drugs. The idea is to get people involved, and as Jack Baker, a community leader from South Baltimore told the crowd, "We want this community to heal."

At a table, children from the rec center displayed get-well cards to Raven. "Get well soon," one said. "Feel better Raven," said another. "Everyone is praying for your total healing," said a third.

Away from the neighborhood, questions are still being asked about how the suspect, a 17-year-old with a long juvenile record who officials say cut off his home monitoring bracelet to join a gun fight, was allowed to serve his sentence at home instead of behind bars.

"No one wants to accept responsibility," said the city NAACP's vice president, Josephy Armstead. "That boy should never have been on the street."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

In an earlier post, I called for state juvenile officials to be more forthcoming about how a 17-year-old who was home detention despite a lengthy criminal record, cut off his electronic home monitoring device and was charged with shooting a 5-year-old girl in Carrollton Ridge last week.

Today at the monthly Criminal Justice Coordinating Council meeting, the Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton reports that Mayor Sheila Dixon pressed Juvenile Services Secretary Donald DeVore for an explanation as to how the agency determines when a juvenile offender should be detained or placed on home monitoring. She said many juveniles have lengthy records, including gun violations, but are freed.

The question is particularly troublesome for city police and prosecutors who routinely get criticized for failing to quell violence and then bring those who are caught to proper justice. Now, both police and the State's Attorney's Office can grill someone else, and it appears they too want public accountability from the juvenile wards.

DeVore punted the question, saying he couldn’t talk about specific cases and would gladly brief the mayor in private on Lamont Davis case. Dixon responded that she hadn’t asked specifically about Davis, but wanted to know generally how the process works. Again, DeVore dodged, giving a broad response that didn’t address the crux of Dixon’s question.

“We are continuing to identify those youths we consider the most dangerous to wrap them with the tightest forms of supervision,” DeVore said.

Later, DeVore and his chief of staff Tammy Brown stepped into a sideroom to talk privately with Dixon and aides Sheryl Goldstein and Demaune Millard.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

As little Raven Wyatt (left) remains on life support at Johns Hopkins Hospital, clinging to life as her family and city prays for her to recover, community leaders in Southwest Baltimore's Carrollton Ridge plan for a community walk this evening.

The event had been long scheduled, but a 5-year-old getting shot in the head brings new urgency. The Baltimore branch of the NAACP plans to come and is pleading with men to make a stand. The mayor has put it on her weekly schedule, which will no doubt attract politicians, police commanders, housing officials and code enforcers -- all of whom should've been walking these streets long before Raven ended up in a hospital.

We need answers. We need to know why a 17-year-old with a long juvenile record was placed on home monitoring (he cut off his bracelet and joined a fight with another youth that ended in gunfire and a stray bullet in Raven's head. We know more about his record today and now hear from the governor's office demanding ansewrs from the Department of Juvenile Services.

But still, officials hide behind a cloak of secrecy. We know a bit about the suspect's record but not enough. His attorney tried to prevent his client from standing up in court (he was charged as an adult in Raven's shooting) and didn't bother to argue for bail, which meant no one read his juvenile history into the adult record. The juvenile court proceedings from the past are sealed and the state can't say much about why he was put on home monitoring in the first place.

Such secrecy should end once a juvenile graduates to the adult system. His background will come out eventually -- adult court shields little from public view -- but officials shouldn't be allowed to hide their actions in this case.

Raven deserves a full accounting. The walk kicks off at 6:30 tonight in Carrollton Ridge.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

I return from a short vacation to deal with yet another shooting of another innocent child -- a 5-year-old hit by a stray bullet in Southwest Baltimore, apparently during an argument between two teens who should've been behind bars in the first place.

First, as I pointed out last year, it seems that every child shooting comes with its own image -- the sister of  10-year-old boy killed in 1993 holding the cap he had been wearing, fingering the bullet holes on each side; two grapefruits left on rowhouse steps, which had been carried by a boy to an elderly neighbor when a bullet cut him down last year. Now, we have this haunting picture of Raven Wyatt's sandals left behind on the street after the attack.

The suspect, a 17-year-old, had been on home detention as a juvenile offender and apparently cut off his electronic home monitoring ankle bracelet to get back onto the street. We also learn that the intended target of the shooting also was in juvenile court to face charges, but a judge evicted reporters from the courtroom.

State juvenile officials say they were searching for the 17-year-old within 15 minutes of him cutting off his monitoring device, but that was plenty of time for a little girl to get shot. The status of the suspect and his intended victim will eventually come out, but too much remains shrouded in secrecy -- their backgrounds, why and how they remain on the street despite lengthy criminal records, and their complete criminal history. We are rightfully upset they were out, but we don't know the full circumstances, and the criminal justice system will argue that we shouldn't to protect their privacy.

This shooting occurred in the area covered by the Southwest Police District where I spent time with an officer during a community ride-along. We went out with a member of the neighborhood association who does community walks and watched officer speed from call to call and make several arrests.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

:: Guest post from Justin Fenton ::

Want to work in law enforcement?  

How about working as the third-highest-ranking member of the Baltimore Police Department, overseeing the homicide unit and crime lab? Well, job hunters, you’re in luck, as the department has posted an ad for chief of its Criminal Investigations Division on Craigslist.org.

The job is posted in the government jobs section of the site, and police officials say they have used the site before to try to reach as broad an audience as possible. Of course, chief of detectives is hardly a job that a broad range of people have the chops for, but the move is in step with the department’s vow to look both inside and outside of the agency to replace Col. John Bevilacqua, who retired earlier this year.

The job is one of the most high-profile in the department, overseeing the venerable homicide unit; district detectives, who investigate shootings, robberies and aggravated assaults; the special investigations section, which investigates child abuse, missing persons and sex offenses; and the crime lab.

Spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the department turned to the online classified web site to reach the "largest range of qualified people that we can" but also in hopes of finding someone who is tech savvy. "Part of being chief of detectives is that you’re up to the latest and greatest," noting that the Internet has become an increasingly more useful tool for police. He specifically cited Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. "All of that stuff is not reserved for high school teens anymore."  

(Aside: Does this mean that the next chief of CID better have on his resume that he’s seen "Chocolate Rain" on Youtube and is following Ashton Kutcher on Twitter?)

Some inside the department were surprised that the department hasn’t promoted someone in-house for the job. Col. Dean Palmere, who oversees the elite Violent Crimes Impact Division in East, West and Northwest Baltimore, has been pulling double-duty as acting CID chief.

"We want the best person for the job, whether he’s from here or from another city and bring the best practices," Guglielmi said.

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

Crime hasn't gone away but your blogger is taking a rare break. I'll be back Tuesday ready to roll with any and all issues.

Stay safe over the holidays!

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III (at left talking about a drug bust, in a picture by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor) went in front of the City Council Tuesday night to talk about how to best inform the public about crime through the Internet. The department through its new spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi, has been experimenting with Facebook, Twitter and Nixle, a texting program in which breaking crime and other news alerts can be sent to resident's cell phones and emails in their neighborhoods.

During his discussion, Bealefeld also talked about the still-under-review policy of when and how to name officers who discharge their weapons. Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton was at the hearing and here is his story:

The hearing was called by City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who wants the city to provide citywide text or email alerts about robberies, missing persons, auto theft and violent crimes (shootings, etc.). But she also wanted the department to talk transparency when it comes to police involved shootings, an issue that has simmered in recent months.

Rawlings-Blake pointed to Chicago, where an independent police oversight commission posts investigative reports of police-involved shootings on a web site. She held up one report that was 12 pages in length and went into detail about what investigators found when they looked into one particular shooting.

Rawlings-Blake wants Baltimore police to do something similar. Bealefeld noted that his staff looked into the Chicago commission and found it had 53 investigators, 11 supervisors and a budget of $7 million. But Rawlings-Blake noted that the commission and its budget are irrelevant - she said such reports are compiled in Baltimore already by homicide investigators and later, prosecutors, and that the only issue at play here was whether to post them on the Internet or not.

"If we're already doing it, is there some reason why redacted reports are not made available?" she asked.

Bealefeld said he endorsed the idea of posting them online but stopped short of saying the department would do it. He noted that many police-involved shootings become the basis for civil lawsuits.

"That's all possible. That's where we should head. I support doing that, but we need to make sure we're covering the legal bases," he said.

Bealefeld also gave an update on the city's policy regarding naming officers who shoot or kill citizens. The department sparked controversy earlier in the year when it said it would no longer identify the officers, ending a decades-long policy citing safety concerns for the officers. Several other large cities do not name officers who shoot or kill citizens, though others continue to do so, including most Maryland jurisdictions. The department was also unable to support the notion that any officers had faced threats after their names were disclosed following a shooting.

At the urging of Mayor Sheila Dixon, Bealefeld said he would re-consider the policy. On Tuesday evening at the council hearing he said that he had met with community leaders and sought their feedback on the policy, and asked them to gather opinions from their neighbors. He also consulted a group of leaders from the faith-based community. He said he received "considerable" feedback but is still contemplating the policy; in the meantime, disclosure of officer's names remain on a case-by-case basis. It's perhaps worth noting that there hasn't been a police shooting since Bealefeld said he would rethink the policy, after a flurry of such shootings to start the year.

Also, on the notion of crime alerts and providing statistics, Bealefeld said he was all about sharing information in new and better ways, but he had serious concerns and in some cases seemed downright paranoid about posting statistics or getting too specific.  Rawlings-Blake said many cities post daily or monthly crime numbers; the department has such data at its fingertips and is shared daily in police stations among commanders. But it has yet to post it online.

Bealefeld said the danger with posting statistics is that things change. He said the department "upgrades" five times as many crimes as it "downgrades," but he said all it takes is one crime being downgraded for the public to become convinced that the department is hiding crimes.

"This police department will not get any credit for" upgrading a crime. "If we change a dot on a map, it would be more damning than opposed to having" provided no information at all, he said. The comment was similar to those he made while discussing the department's use of Twitter, the social networking site, to disseminate breaking information about crime. He said that if police initially believe 6 people have been shot and later determine after an investigation that four people were shot, some will say the police department is "yet again manipulating data."

"We don't want to create problems for ourselves," he said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods, Police shootings, Top brass