By Caitlin Froom
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Rapes in Baltimore are up almost 25% from this point last year and homicides have jumped by 3.7%, a police official told a City Council committee Wednesday.
Police Colonel Kevin Jones also reported that non-fatal shootings decreased from 531 incidents at this point in 2020 to 524 this year, a 1.3% drop. Likewise, Jones said commercial robberies are down by 20.5% while street robberies have decreased by 20%.
Speaking before the City Council Safety and Government Operations Committee, Jones said the department has attempted to reduce crime in troubled areas such as Broadway East in the Eastern District by increasing foot patrols and trying to engage with residents in the area.
But he said problems still persist because of territorial disputes over drug corners, fights over women, failed conflict resolution attempts by the city and other issues.
Overall, Jones said there have been 253 homicides in Baltimore this year compared to 244 at this point last year. He said there have been 246 rapes thus far, up from 197 at this point in 2020.
“Today, we were close to 260 homicides recorded for the year and we’re on pace to surpass the grim milestone of 300 murders for the seventh consecutive year in a row,” said Councilman Mark Conway, SD-District 4, the committee’s chair.
The testimony came during the committee’s quarterly oversight hearing to review crime statistics in the city and discuss crime-prevention plans.
Baltimore currently ranks as the fourth most dangerous city in America behind Memphis, Tennessee, St. Louis and Detroit.
Shantay Jackson, the city’s director of neighborhood safety and engagement said Baltimore was chosen by the White House to participate in the Violence Intervention Collaborative, a federal initiative designed to reduce gun violence.
Jones said the department uses analytics and data to formulate codes used by officers to identify the nature of crimes in certain areas of the city.
“They put this into the [department] dashboard to see where the districts are, how they are performing, [and] those that are underperforming,” Jones said. “Through the neighborhood policing plan, getting out there and…having those hard conversations and real conversations with those communities to understand what exactly are they looking for in reference to deliverables from this agency.”
The Baltimore Police Department is working on improving its system and relying heavily on the cooperation of the community to provide victims of crimes the resources they need to get help and advocate for crime prevention within the city, Jones said.
The Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement is also implementing a violence reduction strategy comprised of three pillars described by Jackson.
Pillar one focuses on public health, approach to society, and a community group violence reduction strategy. Pillar two focuses on community engagement and inter-agency coordination. Pillar three focuses on evaluation and accountability.
“As we think through the overall objectives associated with the Violence Prevention Program we know that the mayor’s committed to a 15% reduction in both homicides and non-fatal shootings,” Jones said.
The Violence Prevention Program is a strategy designed by the city government to reduce crimes with hopeful successes to reduce gun violence and create a safer environment for residents to live in.
“The rapid pace of violence that we experience is detrimental not only to long-term sustainability of this city but the families experiencing this violence every day,” Conway said. “If we don’t change course and inject some sense of urgency in how we’re addressing crime, more families will continue to leave the city, and those that remain will continue to live in unease and fear.”