Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said a special week-long deployment of more police officers showed that “when we have police officers in uniform on the streets of Baltimore, it does have an impact on the violence,” reports the Baltimore Sun. The deployments — ordered in response to six killings in less than 24 hours early last week — required all patrol officers to work 12-hour shifts, instead of their standard 10-hour shifts, and sent officers who don’t regularly work patrol out onto the street. Shortly after Davis announced the initiative, four people were shot in a quadruple shooting. After that, the pace of shootings stalled.
Since Wednesday morning, police have reported eight people shot in Baltimore. One was fatal. Violence in Baltimore often occurs in spurts, which limits the value of week-to-week comparisons. Still, the number of shootings and killings in the past week was well below the average so far this year, which is on pace to be the deadliest in the city’s history. Davis said the deployment was not sustainable over the long term, but it served its purpose of immediately bringing down shootings. “The only number I’m going to be satisfied with is zero,” he said. “But in terms of slowing the pace of violence, it seemed to accomplish that.”