Crime in Baltimore was down through the first quarter of 2018 compared to the same period last year, continuing a trend that began slowly in November, the Baltimore Sun reports. There were 60 killings in Baltimore in 2018 as of Monday, compared with 79 during the same period last year. Through March 24, homicides were down 27 percent from last year and non-fatal shootings were down 23 percent. The declines are only in comparison to 2017, the deadliest year on record. Crime remains above five-year averages, and gunfire marred the holiday weekend and continued Monday.
City Councilman Brandon Scott, chair of the council’s public safety committee, said he is “encouraged” by the fact that crime is down from last year — when the city saw historic levels of violence — but that alone doesn’t mark success. “A football coach is not going to say, ‘Oh, if we go from 0-15 to 2-13, that’s success,’ ” he said. “No. I’m looking for success compared to our historic lows, like in 2011. That’s going to be the baseline for me.” There were 197 homicides in Baltimore in 2011, the fewest of any year since 1978. Mayor Catherine Pugh said she also is “not satisfied” with the reductions in crime since last year, but believes the city is moving in the right direction. Police Commissioner Darryl De Sousa, who replaced Commissioner Kevin Davis after Pugh fired Davis in January, said the mayor’s violence reduction initiative, which targets city resources to violent neighborhoods, is making a difference. De Sousa also cited the special deployments in problem corridors and a massive warrant sweep with state and federal partners that led to hundreds of arrests from mid-January to mid-February as contributing to the declines in crime.