Mayor releases radio ad on crime
On Monday, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake released her campaign's first paid advertisement, a radio commercial focused on crime that begins airing today. In the 60 second ad, she talks about the stabbing of her brother in 2002, and highlights her crime-fighting initiatives, such as her plan to hire officers and efforts to tighten gun laws in Annapolis. The ad appears to overstate the city's current crime picture, however, saying the murder rate is at its lowest point in 26 years though statistics show its at the lowest rate in 23 years.
(UPDATE: A campaign spokeswoman says the 26-year low is a reference to the total number of murders, which is indeed at its lowest point since 1985. She said the word "rate" was used as a colloquial term that voters would identify with. I argued that it's still misleading, though this is also not a gross distortion).
You can listen to the ad here, and here's the text:
“Crime is down in Baltimore. Murder is at its lowest rate in 26 years, but if you or a loved one has been a victim of violence, statistics do not matter. This is Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Like many of you, a family member of mine was a victim of violent crime. It is something you live with everyday of your life. My public safety plan will help make every neighborhood safer. We are locking up criminals with a history of violence. We are fighting for stronger state laws on illegal guns and this year we will hire more new police officers. Every step of the way, we are working with neighborhoods, community activists and religious leaders to make sure those policies protect all our citizens. It won't be easy, but we will never rest until all our neighborhoods are safe. This is Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. I need your help and your vote on September 13 so that every neighborhood in Baltimore is safer.”
Sworn into office 18 months ago, Rawlings-Blake has made public safety a top priority as Mayor. Despite having two years of budget deficits, the Rawlings-Blake Administration has fully funded the police department budget and implemented an aggressive plan to hire hundreds of new police officers. She’s also worked with elected officials and community leaders to push for stronger state laws for illegal guns and this year."
For more on the candidates' views on crime, click here for The Sun's story from Monday.
City murder rates over the years posted after the jump:
Year - Murders - Population - Murder rate
1985 - 213 - 761,601 - 27.967 - Lowest raw total prior to 2011
1986 - 240 - 761,416 - 31.52
1987 - 226 - 751,327 - 30.08
1988 - 234 - 748,284 - 31.272 - Lowest rate prior to 2011
1989 - 262 - 740,697 - 35.372
1990 - 305 - 735,632 - 41.461
1991 - 304 - 735,835 - 41.314
1992 - 335 - 731,227 - 45.813
1993 - 353 - 723,802 - 48.77
1994 - 321 - 713,248 - 45.005
1995 - 325 - 701,685 - 46.317
1996 - 331 - 688,542 - 48.073
1997 - 312 - 677,342 - 46.062
1998 - 313 - 667,479 - 46.893
1999 - 305 - 657,441 - 46.392
2000 - 261 - 648,615 - 40.24
2001 - 256 - 645,253 - 39.674
2002 - 253 - 645,253 - 39.21
2003 - 270 - 642,324 - 42.035
2004 - 276 - 641,004 - 43.057
2005 - 269 - 640,064 - 42.027
2006 - 276 - 640,961 - 43.06
2007 - 282 - 640,150 - 44.052
2008 - 234 - 638,091 - 36.672
2009 - 238 - 637,418 - 37.338
2010 - 223 - 639,929 - 34.848
Note: Population figures come from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting program and are estimates. Census figures may differ.
Comments
Mayor Rawlings Blake claims that people must vote for her in order to be safe. Baltimore City currently employs 610 police officers for every 100,000 residents, which is a higher ratio for a city its size than every other place in the country. We have plenty of police officers, and we have a higher homicide rate in 2011 than we had in 2010. More police officers won't put a dent in the homicide rate, but it will make a lot of new cop recruits who live in the suburbs very happy. City residents will be left with the bill to pay for 300 more officers when the city is broke.
This plan isn't going to work. For this reason we need to find somebody else to lead our city.
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The report that you cite re: officers per citizen was inaccurate, comparing the Baltimore police department's total employees to other cities' sworn officers. See here. http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/blog/2011/02/does_baltimore_have_too_many_p.html
Posted by: Cham | August 2, 2011 12:31 PM
I guess it shouldn't shock me that our government lives in a fantasy land. My guess is they have former Author Anderson and Enron employees doing their numbers.
from 2000 - 2010 the population decreased by 8686 people according to these numbers. Out of those 8k of people 2838 people were murdered. 32% of the people that no longer live in Baltimore City were murdered.
The Mayor is not doing anything to fight crime. The Mayor has forgotten one key element. True gun control means hitting your target the first time. Corrupt police officers and criminals with weapons. What about us honest people? At some point the people of Baltimore City will be tired of this crap and either leave or take the law into their own hands.
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It should be noted that the 2010 Census puts the population at 620,961 for 2010. However, for an apples-to-apples comparison, I'm sticking with what the FBI places it at in the current UCR. -JF
Posted by: Phillip | August 2, 2011 12:35 PM
Even with the population discrepancy, it's about 35.9/100,000. Still a decline from 2009.
Posted by: Able Baker | August 2, 2011 1:50 PM
SRB has no appreciable decrease in crime since *she* took office. Rawlings-Blake came to office technically in 2010 (since we're playing politics here specifics matter when one is laying claim to successes and failures), but, to her credit, or penalty, she's been in the mechanisms of City Hall for far too long for a change to NOT be appreciably HIGHER. And, in fact, "she" is on target to creep back up in the numbers (+4 already with what have traditionally been the "worst" months to come, with 2 months already with some of the HIGHEST counts per month in four years etc.). Not exactly a "win" by ANY stretch of the imagination. The down tick in rate in the last year is more creditable to an increase in population.
Point in fact is the city still struggles - and murders aren't the only thing remember too - it's people's *perceptions* of crime and fear of it that matter significantly, other violent crime as well. What about murder *clearance* rate? (Why do we here next to nothing about that? Getting away with it can matter significantly). One bright spot is the reduction in police arrests and making the arrests they do make stick. I'll give Bealefield that one. But on the whole, not imporessed with SRB. Her office, when you contact them has NOT ONCE, NOT EVEN ONE SINGLE TIME, EVER responded to a request for information, followup with a question, suggestion etc. She is cool to anything that implicates her in DOING SOMETHING and that is NOT a leader. It's a technocratic coward, frankly.
Finally, and this will seem pretty crass but too bad - she played it first: I do not need Ms. Rawlings-Blake deploying her experience in violence to say "See! I'm just like you!" That's really, really not fair to those people she is seeking to serve so supposedly altruistically. It's a political stunt and she should know better than to play the card in the first place.
Posted by: baltobikeboi | August 2, 2011 3:54 PM
The police plan in affect was left by Shelia, and not Rawling-Blake's making, we need a new plan, a change and more police is not the answer, she's not a people person, and it shows, she has to be careful where she speaks, her people skills are poor at best, she stoned faced and u can feel her coldness... she not best for B-more.
Posted by: Penny... | August 3, 2011 6:51 AM