How to reduce violent crime: Do everything possible
Baltimore suffers no shortage of reminders that it has a gun violence problem. From this week’s trial of the man accused of killing Safe Streets leader Dante Barksdale last year to the man found dead Sunday in his home in Better Waverly, rare are the days when the city’s nearly one-a-day homicide pace is interrupted. It is enough to make anyone, at least with an ounce of human compassion, scream — perhaps like the fictional TV anchorman Howard Beale from the 1976 movie “Network” who encouraged viewers to shout, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore.”
If only outrage could make things right. If only frustration could solve problems. If only grief alone could offer a solution.
Last week, some members of the Baltimore City Council reflected this deep-seated exasperation with their pointed criticism of Mayor Brandon Scott. In a letter, the six council members asked for a short-term crime “plan” from police and also warned that they are asking Police Commissioner Michael Harrison and others some tough questions about the progress (or lack thereof ) on efforts to stem the root causes of violence, how federal funds are being spent, about how well the city is coordinating crime fighting efforts with other law enforcement agencies, clearance rates, use of overtime by police and on and on. It was, by the normally somewhat tepid actions on the council, their version of a Howard Beale moment.
Now contrast that to another action that took place last week. That was Mayor Scott’s announcement of a plan for “SMART” policing that seeks to divert more non-emergency calls from uniformed officers to civilian employees. A car is broken into? A routine fender bender takes place? The goal would be not to dispatch officers, but to more often take reports by phone or computer or in the case of the non-emergency crash, dispatch a private contractor to the scene. This should free up officers for more important duties including neighborhood patrols, where their presence might deter crime. The plan makes a lot of sense, but here’s the problem: It also means city residents accustomed to these routine police services will have to adapt. To them, this may seem more a reduction in service or shirking of responsibility than an improved outcome.
This underscores what has been a central dilemma to the fight against violence. There are the strategies that have a feelgood component, like publicly blasting those who labor in the criminal justice system for past corruption, racial profiling and incompetence. And then there are the more difficult choices of finding ways to make the system work, like adequate staffing, greater transparency, improved training and, yes, where possible, using technology to increase productivity. This is not about doing one or the other. It’s about doing all of the above. We applaud council members who seek accountability from all city agencies, police included, but we also want the mayor to use limited resources as wisely as possible.
Some days it’s entirely appropriate to focus on the longterm strategies to address the underlying components of gun violence, including concentrated poverty and lack of job opportunities, racism, underperforming schools, widespread substance abuse, dysfunctional families and so on. And then there are also days when uniformed officers have to be there to keep order. The more success of the former, the less need for the latter, but that will not happen overnight. Those who somehow think it can are either deluded or equivocating.
Nobody deserves a blank check, not police, not Mayor Scott, not Commissioner Harrison, and not Gov. Larry Hogan whose name ought to be linked more frequently with Baltimore’s crime woes considering how they’ve tracked so poorly during his tenure in Annapolis. Governor Hogan has sometimes been helpful to the cause, recently agreeing to allocate state funds to fight crime, for example, and calling violent crime the top concern of all Marylanders. And yet when push comes to shove, the lame-duck Republican governor likes to play the partisan blame game, often criticizing Democrats in city and state government for not pursuing a lock-them-up-and-throwaway-the-key approach to crime, ignoring how the disproportionate imprisonment of Black Baltimoreans (often on drug charges) has worsened the problem and led to moments like the Freddie Gray unrest in 2015.
The path to a safer Baltimore is challenging, and it is certain to remain disputatious, but it is not without hope. Sometimes, small steps like both spending limited resources more wisely and holding the appropriate feet to the fire offer our best opportunity for progress.