Baltimore authorities, community leaders, and citizens alike were all able to end 2011 on a much needed low note last month. For the first time in nearly three decades, the homicide rate in Baltimore city decreased to 196 murders. While one life lost is one too many, the drop in crime has been a major win for the city, helped along in large part by the community organizations that refuse to give up on their neighborhoods.
Residents of communities that have been labeled the most dangerous areas of Baltimore City, such as McElderry Park, have seen an even more drastic drop in homicides and shootings. Two time president of the McElderry Park Community Association, Ernest Smith, believes that many important developments set in place by groups like the MPCA were strong deterrents to the crime that for years held residents of his area captive.
“We believe that we are a community of change- it’s beginning to happen and we’re working to help save our community as part of our revitalization plan,” said Smith.
Implementing neighborhood walk-throughs, collaborating with 311 for quicker response times to trash and blight complaints, and partnering with schools, churches, and organizations such as Habitat for Humanities and Safe Streets Baltimore, have all been instrumental steps in bringing McElderry Park back to the vibrant community it once was.
Community led and driven, the McElderry Park revitalization plan, which focused on the area from Washington St. to Linwood Avenue and Fayette St. to Monument St., was funded by the France-Merrick Foundation in 2006 and also played an important aspect of the community’s comeback.
“McElderry Park, in 2004 had just over 100 homicides,” said Smith, who took over the MPCA the same year. Now, just seven years later, the community accounted for less than 4 of the 196 homicides in 2011. Handing over his position as president to Glenn Ross this year, Smith firmly believes the MPCA will continue building their positive reputation in years to come.
“Community based crime fighting tactics are the best way to reduce crime in Baltimore City,” said the Rev. C.D. Witherspoon. “Persons who are in these neighborhoods on a ground level working hard on a daily basis not only address crime but prevent crime before it arises.” Violent crimes in Baltimore City reached their peak in the 1990s, when years like 1993 saw as a record 353 bodies hit the morgue with homicide charted as the cause of death.
Recording the second lowest point in homicides since 1977, Baltimore city saw a 12 percent reduction in the number of murders within city limits. Aside from the homicide rate just falling, reports from Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III also state a 13 percent decline in the number of murders committed with firearms.
With the city working at a success rate of 46 percent when it comes to solving homicides, Baltimore saw non-fatal shootings take a 9 percent drop, as violent crime as a whole went down 6 percent in 2011, which is a 43 percent decrease since 2000.
“I would like to personally thank Commissioner Bealefeld, the men and women of the Baltimore Police Department, and our federal and state partners for their strong and sustained efforts to reduce crime in Baltimore,” said Mayor Rawlings-Blake in a press release. “It is not a time to celebrate, but it is also not a time to be cynical.
Baltimore is making real progress. We can be a safer City by acknowledging the progress, building on it and by doing more.”
