Earlier this month, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon held a news conference in a wood-paneled room on the second floor of City Hall to announce the expansion of a federally funded, community-based program intended to reduce homicides and shootings.
Hours after the event, Troy Richardson, a 30-year-old Baltimore County man, was gunned down in the middle of the day near Park Heights Avenue in West Baltimore. His killing was the city's 194th this year.
And on a day in late July that City Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr.'s campaign launched a series of television commercials dealing with crime, police were called to Southwest Baltimore where, they say, a man had killed his wife and then rushed downstairs to repeatedly shoot his 13-year-old stepson.
As in past political seasons, crime has become a defining issue in Baltimore's Sept. 11 primary election - with the homicide count on pace to exceed 300 by the end of the year for the first time since 1999. But while the eight Democratic candidates running for mayor have talked about crime on the campaign trail, it is not clear whether any of them have a solution that will produce results quickly.
Dixon says she is working to re-establish trust with residents by focusing attention on the city's most violent criminals and increasing foot patrols. Mitchell wants to hire 400 more police and offer a 15 percent raise to officers. Schools administrator Andrey Bundley hopes to organize thousands of volunteers to descend on neighborhoods en masse, and Del. Jill P. Carter would create an advisory panel of residents, officers and ex-police commissioners.
Voters who participated in a poll conducted for The Sun earlier this summer made it clear that they believe crime is the most important issue facing the city. For Dave Briggs, chairman of the safety committee of a neighborhood group in Waverly, the answer is more police.
"Hire many cops instantly and provide the appropriate incentives to actually get them to fill the positions," Briggs said. "I just want my cops. I want cops and I want decent schools, and everything else is on the table."
Baltimore has enough money in its budget to hire 140 more police today - the police union says the number is higher - and yet the city has been unable to recruit new officers at a pace consistent with retirements and resignations. Mitchell says he believes a 15 percent pay raise would help, but it is unclear how he would fund that; it is also unclear whether it would be enough to make a difference.
Dixon wants to increase this year's recruitment goal from 240 to 300 new officers but has not said precisely how that higher goal would be met. Carter has talked about retaining officers by expanding a deferred retirement program - known as DROP - that allows police to bank and then collect their pensions for three years while they are still on the job.
Homicide rate rises
There have been 202 homicides in Baltimore this year, a 14 percent increase over the 176 that had taken place by this time in 2006. Nonfatal shootings also are up about 24 percent. Police say there has been a recent slowdown in the pace of homicides and shootings, but the reason is not clear.
The city recorded 353 homicides at its peak in 1993. Between 1993 and 1999 there was a 13 percent decrease, though the number consistently exceeded 300.
Gov. Martin O'Malley, then on the City Council, won his race for mayor in 1999 on a promise to reduce the number of homicides to 175. Though that never happened, there was a 15 percent reduction in homicides between 1999 and 2000.
Then in 2003, the number of killings began creeping back up. From 2002 to 2003 there was a 7 percent jump and in 2004 the number of homicides increased another 2 percent. The count dropped 3 percent in 2005 but then increased by an equal percentage the next year.
At times, Dixon's administration has struggled to communicate its strategy of attacking the homicide problem. It is relying on a number of federal programs, which, while effective, do not affect the vast majority of residents. Her campaign, meanwhile, is not promising any new initiatives, but vows to continue the approach she started in January.
Dixon has called for police to rebuild their tattered reputation in many of the city's hardest-hit neighborhoods, where homicides and drug-dealing remain entrenched and a culture of witness intimidation keeps many from cooperating with police. This year, the department has introduced a foot patrol initiative and an adopt-a-block program.
A police spokesman said 65 officers are walking a beat every day. About 30 of those details are covered by recent graduates of the police academy (which had walked patrols under the prior administration). The spokesman said there are 27 blocks that have been "adopted" and that officers walk those streets for an hour a day five times a week.
Dixon has talked about targeting enforcement on the most violent offenders. Police say they are identifying those criminals through the GunStat initiative - which identifies people who have used illegal guns - and a list of known gang members. Police said they are beginning to pay closer attention to residents who have recently been acquitted of murder and other violent charges.
"Since taking office in January I've taken a different approach. ... The key is that the Police Department has a responsibility, and that is to go after our most violent offenders," Dixon said. "But the bottom line is, short term, we've got to stay very focused, and our police officers have a responsibility to gain trust back in the community."
Mitchell's approach is easier to grasp, but may be equally hard to obtain. Hiring 400 new police would cost about $20 million in salaries and benefits, and a 15 percent pay raise for officers, lieutenants and sergeants could cost another $20 million. He says the plan could be paid for with money once spent on overtime that would no longer be needed if the department were fully staffed. The city spent about $20 million more in overtime last year than it had budgeted, meaning overtime could pay for the new police but not for the raises, too.
Mitchell, who has been endorsed by the city police union, has said he could find the rest of the money by eliminating waste in city government. He has offered few specifics about where that waste exists.
"We need more police officers on our streets," Mitchell said at a recent candidates forum. "The problem is we lack leadership and we lack direction, not just from City Hall, but also from the Police Department."
Ralph B. Taylor, a criminal justice professor at Temple University, said the most important thing a mayor does on crime is hiring a talented police commissioner. Many of the initiatives that get tossed around at election time are questionable, he said.
More police
Taylor said recent studies have found benefit to the adopt-a-block model - even if a relatively small number of blocks are involved - as long as they are set up in drug areas and are maintained: "It's not only moving the bad guys away, but it's also getting at one of the real core issues, which is community police relations."
Taylor also said hiring more police will reduce crime in the long run, but he said cities need to hire a lot of officers to have an effect and that can take years.
In addition to creating an advisory panel, Carter - who has spent several nights talking with residents on drug corners as part of her campaign - has also said her administration would "call for a state of emergency" on crime and has vowed to deploy more officers at night. Bundley has talked about hiring "gang-redirection experts" that would offer city services to gang members.
Baltimore Circuit Court Clerk Frank M. Conaway Sr. has vowed to review the leadership in the Police Department, but has also suggested making it harder for the accused to postpone their trials and increasing bail amounts.
Socialist A. Robert Kaufman has suggested one of the most novel crime plans: Legalization of drugs. Kaufman has vowed to set up a red light district where drugs and prostitution would be legal, and has also said that addicts should be permitted access to whatever they are addicted to from clinics.
"It's the war on drugs that creates criminals out of addicts," Kaufman said. "Addiction should be treated as a public health issue, not a criminal issue."
Tomorrow: Education issues in the campaign for mayor
john.fritze@baltsun.com
Sun reporter Gus G. Sentementes contributed to this article.