The city’s war on ‘trigger pullers’

Statistics show mixed results over the past year, to police commissioner’s chagrin

Last summer, in the deadliest year for gun violence in Baltimore history, theninterim Police Commissioner Kevin Davis created an around-the-clock “war room” where he said police, prosecutors and federal law enforcement partners would coordinate to get violent criminals off the city’s streets.

Police specifically focused on apprehending “trigger pullers” and seizing illegal guns, believing that would result in a decline in shootings — which were responsible for nearly 90 percent of the city’s homicides in 2015.

One year later, the results are mixed, said Davis, now Baltimore’s permanent top cop.

As of Thursday, homicides were down just 7 percent this year compared with the same period last year, which means the pace of killing remains well above where it was before it skyrocketed following the unrest in Baltimore. Nonfatal shootings were up 7 percent compared with last year, though total violent crime was slightly down.

“We’re way too high with the murders, the nonfatal shootings,” Davis said.

“The question is, why hasn’t the pace of violence slowed more than it has? I wake up and I go to bed thinking about that same question.”

Davis said there have been 822 gun arrests so far this year, an increase of 46 percent compared with last year.

“At any other time, in any other police department, with any other police chief, if he were to be told or she were to be told that halfway through the calendar year, [police were] making 46 percent more gun arrests, I think the natural question would be, ‘Well how does that relate to our reduction in violence? It’s got to be huge,’ ” he said. But “it hasn’t correlated.”

Davis believes one reason is that those arrested for guns in the city aren’t landing in prison for long periods of time.

Possession of an illegal gun in Baltimore is a misdemeanor rather than a felony, which Davis unsuccessfully tried to change during the last General Assembly session.

Of the 822 people arrested for illegal gun possession this year, 52 have been found guilty in court, six have been found not guilty, and charges were dropped for 91. Charges remain pending against the others.

The 52 people found guilty of illegal gun possession, Davis said, were sentenced to serve 186 years in prison — but with 121 of those years suspended. That means 52 people with illegal guns were put behind bars for a total of 65 years — just over a year per person, on average.

“That, quite frankly, is a problem,” Davis said.

“There’s no deterrent, there’s no consequence. The naked possession of a firearm in Baltimore is a misdemeanor. The bad guys know it, and they take advantage of it.”