As state capitals go, Annapolis is historic, quaint, waterfront, and, apparently, deadly. The latter isn't good for the image or business or an incumbent mayor with possible challengers nipping at her heels.

The city's eight murders last year and a spate of break-ins in neighboring Eastport have had some residents alarmed and city officials looking for ways to beef up policing. But major crime in the state capital is actually down and police have arrested suspects in six of the unrelated murder cases; a seventh was deemed a matter of self-defense.

Nevertheless, state officials have responded with an aid packet worth about $500,000 because, well, they could. They've taken a page from Gov. Martin O'Malley's crime-reduction playbook from Baltimore and offered Mayor Ellen Moyer some of the preferred high-tech tools and needed assistance. They include security cameras that can be posted in areas of persistent crime and the ability to map crime so that the city police can target enforcement when there's a rash of burglaries or an uptick in serious assaults. At the same time, the state's parole and probation agency has identified repeat violent offenders in Annapolis (there are about 65 out of 1,200 statewide) for closer monitoring, and Annapolis police will launch monthly warrant sweeps soon.

Even U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein has pitched in, offering to take some violent gun offenders off the local prosecutor's docket.

All this for a city that has a compliment of other law enforcement in town: a State Police barracks, Maryland Natural Resources police at the city dock, the county sheriff's office, Department of General Services police who patrol state buildings and others.

The Capital City Safe Streets initiative was announced last week with a bevy of state officials in attendance, including Speaker of the House Michael E. Busch, who lives in Annapolis. It is being billed as a model for state-small city cooperation, but it's also providing some relief and political cover in a year before the city elections.