Baltimore gets grant to fight "bad guys with guns"
Baltimore officials announced this morning a grant to fight "bad guys with guns," the city police commissioner's central crime fighting strategy. The Sun's Justin Fenton Julie Scharper covered the event and will have an update.
Meanwhile, here is the statement from the mayor:
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld, III, and Congressman C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger joined representatives from Johns Hopkins University to announce a highly competitive grant award to aid in Baltimore’s fight against gun violence. The $300,000 Smart Policing Grant, one of only six awarded in the nation, will fund Baltimore Police Department’s (BPD) gun suppression efforts and establish the agency’s enforcement program as a national model of best policing practices.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance Smart Policing Grant will assist BPD’s Violent Crime Impact Section in arresting and convicting violent gun offenders through partnerships with state and federal prosecutors and the U.S. Attorney’s EXILE program.
“Reducing gun violence is our number-one public safety priority,” said Mayor Rawlings-Blake. “This year, the BPD has arrested more than 700 individuals on illegal gun possession charges and seized nearly 1,800 illegal guns from city streets. With this additional support from our federal partners, we will continue to enhance our gun suppression strategies.”
“The men and women of the Baltimore Police Department have done a tremendous job putting intense, sustained pressure on criminals using illegal guns,” said Commissioner Bealefeld. “Year-to-date, non-fatal shootings are down 10% and overall gun crime is down 15%.”
For more details:
“We have an obligation to keep our neighborhoods safe. We must give law enforcement the tools they need to protect our families and our communities. This program will get guns off our streets and help reduce violent crime,” said Congressman C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), a Member of the House Appropriations Committee.
The funding will also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of BPD’s strategy in reducing gun violence. The evaluation will be led by Dr. Daniel Webster with the Center of Gun Policy and Research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “I am excited to partner with the Baltimore Police Department to provide a scientifically rigorous evaluation of these innovative initiatives,” said Dr. Webster.
About the BJA Smart Policing Grant:
This 2010 grant announcement seeks to build upon data-driven, evidence-based policing by encouraging state and local law enforcement agencies to develop effective, economical, and innovative responses to precipitous or extraordinary increases in crime, or in a type or types of crime within their jurisdictions. This program is funded under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program. The JAG Program (42 U.S.C. 3751(a)) is the primary provider of federal criminal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions.
Categories: Breaking news, City Hall, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Top brass
Comments
My impression is that if a bad guy wants a gun, it is not going to be a problem for him to get one. Is it realistic for police to expect to get enough guns off the street to make an actual difference in their availability?
Posted by: Steve | October 13, 2010 11:38 AM
Perhaps if drugs were legal and hence not sold on street corners by violent gangs that need guns to settle disputes instead of courts and lawyers then maybe there would be a lot less gun violence. Just a thought.
Posted by: JAS | October 13, 2010 11:49 AM
Dear Citizens of Baltimore City,
If you want to stop gun violence - YOU HAVE TO STOP IT!!
The hard working men and women of the Baltimore City Police Department know only too well that it will take all of us to stop gun violence.
Visit you local police station. Talk to the officers - find out what you can do to "partner up" with the police to stop gun violence, gangs, drugs and crime in your neighborhoods.
YOU - that's right YOU Citizens of Baltimore City have been sitting on the sidelines long enough.
It's time you did your part.
And please - for those of you that think it takes money to stop crime - well - as a citizen of Baltimore City and a person who is doing their part...
I consider a small portion of our population couch potatoes and do nothings. That's right -you will criticize but a basically cowards!!!
Prove me wrong the lazy cowardly citizens of our city.
Think about it Citizens.
Time is running out for you but for the criminals. They have all the time in the world.
Posted by: Concerned Citizen | October 13, 2010 12:08 PM
Its a good thing that criminals follow laws just like us law abiding citizens. Then we could make laws to make the world a safer place.
Oh wait.
Also, 463 registered gun offenders, 3% are non-complaint with registration requirements = 14 people with illegal guns? Just in baltimore city and not the county?
Posted by: Peter | October 13, 2010 12:09 PM
This is a good program to combat the gun violence we hear about each day. Now that GB is taking charge of the SAO in the near future, the hard work of the police will not be overlooked with programs such as this.
Posted by: Bill | October 13, 2010 1:50 PM
@ Concerned Citizen: I agree to an extent with your statement but the honest cops in the police force need to do the same and weed out the corrupt amongst their ranks. A multi - billion dollar per year cash business (drugs) could not exist without the implicit/explicit cooperation of police and politicians; the latter extending all too close to the White House. Also consider this: (a) The Real culprits are the users; if no one used drugs than no drug biz/violence etc. (b) There is money in problems; no problems = no reason to take too much of our hard earned money via taxes. (c) The widely held belief that the problem is one of low socioeconomic status is flat out wrong. The bulk of the users are middle class - upper class job holding citizens. Start locking up wealthy users?: Not gonna ever happen but That is where a big part of the solution lies. I fought like an animal against Kurt Schmoke's proposed legalization but he was right. Prohibition did not work but made millionaires (see: Kennedy, Joseph P.) as well as some lengthy political legacy's (John F., Robert F., Edward M., Patrick J.) = 64 years in office.
I would welcome your response.
Posted by: Concerned Also | October 13, 2010 2:23 PM
It is too late for me, my son was killed and robbed in Baltimore in February and he did not live there. Just visiting a friend, I don't think he knew that crime was that bad there, neither did I. I would not have sent him to Morgan State University, if I had known about the murders there. They kill people just for the fun of it. The sad thing about it they never have any suspect and don't look like they are trying to solve these murders.I hope no one has to go through what I am going through. He was my heart and soul.
Posted by: Janet | October 13, 2010 2:33 PM