Some wary of plan to redo police districts
As Baltimore officials enter the final stages of redrawing police district boundaries for the first time in a half-century, residents in some neighborhoods are displeased with the proposed changes, arguing they could hurt property values and exacerbate challenges in already disenfranchised communities.
Residents of Belair Edison and Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello — two neighborhoods that would move from the Northeastern District to the Eastern District under the latest proposal — expressed their concerns Thursday during a City Council committee hearing.
Being transferred into a police district with higher crime rates could mean fewer law enforcement resources in their neighborhoods, including proactive policing, critics argued. They said the stakes are high in a city where deadly gun violence has become a near-daily occurrence and population loss remains a challenge.
“Wealthier, more affluent whiter communities got their preference and poor, challenged Black communities did not,” said Mark Washington, president of the Coldstream Homestead Montebello Community Development Corporation. “The optics of that look horrible.”
The redistricting process, which began last year, was required under state legislation passed in 2019 that directs Baltimore Police to reevaluate the boundaries after each decennial U.S. census. The current boundaries for the department’s nine districts have remained roughly the same since 1959 despite major shifts in population and crime trends.
The discussion Thursday focused on the latest draft map, which reflects a series of changes from the previous iteration based on feedback from residents and council members.
Washington said he believes redistricting is necessary, but “while you can agree something needs to be done, that doesn’t mean you agree with how it was done.” He questioned why Ednor Gardens-Lakeside and Mayfield will remain in the Northeastern District while his nearby neighborhood has to move.
In response to concerns expressed during the hearing, Police Commissioner Michael Harrison reiterated his arguments in favor of redistricting generally: that it will create a more equitable framework for policing across Baltimore, allow the department to operate more efficiently despite manpower shortages, and mend divisions in neighborhoods currently split between multiple districts.
“We will not make every community happy … but we have worked hard to make things equitable and balanced,” he said. “I understand change can be hard. That’s why this process hasn’t taken place in over half a century.”
After the hearing, which lasted about three hours Thursday afternoon, members of the city council’s Rules and Legislative Oversight Committee voted to send the latest redistricting plan to the full council for discussion and possible approval in the coming weeks.
Harrison said the department relied on data analysis to develop the map, including reducing the size of the sprawling Northeastern District. Most committee members praised the plan for its attention to neighborhood boundaries and efforts to eliminate problematic convergence areas — for example the “tri-district area” where the Western, Southwestern and Southern districts come together. That area, which has been plagued by frequent gun violence, will merge into the Southwestern District, including Carrollton Ridge, Union Square and Poppleton.
Meanwhile, the Western District, which currently covers the smallest geographic area at under 3 square miles, would expand to include the Reservoir Hill, Bolton Hill and Upton neighborhoods west of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and the Central District would shift eastward and extend from Fells Point north to East Biddle Street.
The first draft of the map made Greenmount Avenue the eastern boundary of the Northern District, but the department changed that after residents and elected officials argued it would break up a major business corridor.
On Thursday, department leaders presented a chart showing workload and population distribution among the nine districts. They said the data clearly demonstrated the need to shrink the Northeastern District, which is currently the largest — geographically, by population and workload.
Harrison said the department settled on Belair-Edison and Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello because they had to move neighborhoods with high call volumes to reduce the workload issue.
“It was one of those things where we had no choice,” he said.
Councilwoman Odette Ramos, whose council district includes Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello, said she was upset about the move because neighborhood leaders have worked hard to improve their community. She pushed Harrison to promise the neighborhood won’t experience a decrease in law enforcement resources after the change, which he did.
Harrison said staffing levels for each district will reflect their new workloads once the boundaries have been redrawn.
The redistricting process falls under a staffing plan required by the federal consent decree overseeing department operations. The decree was imposed in 2017 after a Justice Department investigation found a pattern of unconstitutional policing, particularly within communities of color.
While supportive of redistricting in theory, some residents don’t want their districts to change.
Rita Crews, president of the Belair-Edison Community Association, said she feels safer thanks to her longtime relationship with Northeast District officers.
“We spent many years building a loving relationship with them and we don’t want to lose their protection,” she said.
Harrison said he already instructed all district commanders to work toward a smooth transition by personally introducing community leaders to their new command staff and officers. “Concerned officers are concerned officers, whether they’re on one side of the street or the other,” he said.
Residents also said they’re worried property values would fall because of the longstanding public perception that the Eastern District is a high-crime area.
In closing remarks before the vote, committee Chair Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer thanked residents for their comments and reminded them that changing districts doesn’t mean your house is physically moving. He said the negative perceptions of certain districts will hopefully diminish when the boundaries are routinely reevaluated.
“That’s what this is setting out to solve. It’s not going to be perfect but it’s certainly a start,” he said. “I hope we can bring this same model of resource distribution to other agencies.”