We've heard from the city police commissioner that there was virtually no crime during the heaviest of this month's snowfall, but just how quiet was it during that snowy week overall? We were able to get statistics from the department, and it shows that the drop was an astounding 71 percent compared to the same seven-day period last year. Of course, some of these are likely skewed because during the snow storm police were only responding to "priority" calls, potentially putting incidents such as property crime deep on the back burner. With that said, these are the statistics we have, and for the week ending Feb. 13:
-There was only one non-fatal shooting that week and one homicide, compared with three non-fatal shootings and four homicides during the same week last year.
-There were 22 robberies, down from 59
-There were 44 aggravated assaults, down from 92, including just 16 domestic violence complaints compared with 29 such complaints last year (which sorta debunks that whole "cabin fever" theory)
-Property crime was non-existent, with 34 burglary reports compared with 141 during the same week last year. And there were only 46 larceny reports taken, compared with 270 last year. That's a drop of 83 percent, including a 90 percent drop in car-break-ins (I guess it takes a lot of effort to break into a car with four feet of snow on top of it. I didn't even clear off my own car for days, just to ride in it.)
-And auto thefts were down 55 percent, falling from 102 last year to 46 this year.
Of course, we've written in this space that snow doesn't stop crime, and that holds true: people were still shot, stabbed, raped, and assaulted in Baltimore. But it happened with a lot less frequency.
The crime declines continued into the next week. For the week ending on Feb. 20, there were 45 percent less crimes reported compared with the same week last year. Nearly every category of crime dropped about 50 percent or more except for auto theft. The snow helped white-out crime, but for the year, incidents of violence continue to drop, according to department statistics.
The most watched statistic, murders, are down nearly 40 percent as of today, with 22 killings this year compared with 35 at this time last year. We'll continue to post crime updates from the official police data here as we get it.