Pubdate: Sun, 24 May 2009 Source: Baltimore Sun (MD) Copyright: 2009 The Baltimore Sun Company Contact: http://www.baltimoresun.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37 Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/Stop+Snitching CITY'S CRIME PROBLEM Our view: Baltimore's police commissioner was right to say that the police alone can't solve it; in the end, it's up to all of us When Baltimore police roll into city neighborhoods known for serious drug violence, the first thing they often hear are shouts of "Five-O! Five-O!" from lookouts warning of their approach. The lookouts, mostly men in their 40s and 50s who are considered too old to play much of a role in the street-level drug trade, earn a meager subsistence on the periphery of the business. Younger, up-and-coming dealers pay them a pittance to keep watch, usually in the form of just enough heroin or crack cocaine to get them through another day. So when Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, who came up through the ranks and once walked those mean streets himself, considers how to manage Baltimore's endemic crime problem, he's got to be thinking of those middle-age guys on the street who, broke, unemployed and addicted, are as much victims of the city's violent drug trade as are the junkies who line up in the shadows to buy their daily fix. "The best thing I could possibly do to reduce crime in Baltimore would be to give all my officers two kinds of cards to hand out," the commissioner says. "One would name a drug treatment clinic people could enter that day; the other would tell them where to find a job. If I had those two cards, it would be amazing what this city would look like." Mr. Bealefeld made headlines last week when he told a radio talk show host that no matter how many cops he puts on the streets, the city won't be safe until everyone starts doing their part in combating crime: police, prosecutors, judges, educators, social workers, health officials, neighborhood residents and, perhaps most important, parents. The commissioner wasn't trying to pass the buck. From where he sits, the police are making progress against violent crime. But they can't do it alone. Here are some statistics: Overall, crime in the city is down 10 percent from this time last year. There have been 23 percent fewer nonfatal shootings, and homicides are practically level, with only four more cases than this time a year ago, when murders hit a 20-year low. Meanwhile, the department's focus on getting the most violent offenders and their guns is paying off: Police seized 1,038 guns since Jan. 1 and arrested 482 people on weapons charges, up 12 percent from 2008. Getting guns off the street is the key to reducing homicides. But the problem is huge, and Mr. Bealefeld says a gun task force that monitors people convicted of weapons charges still needs to do a better a job figuring out where the guns are coming from. Last year, officers seized 2,900 illegal guns in the city. That surely helped cut the number of homicides, but the figures are still daunting. What more can police do? Officers can engage communities more effectively to win residents' trust and cooperation; that's the only way to overcome the city's infamous "stop snitching" culture of witness intimidation. They can work with after-school initiatives aimed at gang violence mediation and support prisoner re-entry programs that help ex-inmates stay straight. They can coordinate with agencies that provide educational and recreational opportunities for young people, who are too often the victims of gun crimes, and they can refer addicts to treatment. But in the end, crime isn't just the police department's problem, and to really make a dent in it Mr. Bealefeld and his officers will need help from individuals and institutions across the city and state. Over the long term, solving Baltimore's chronic crime problem will take the work of many people, and it has to begin well before the yellow crime-scene tape goes up - because by then, it's usually too late. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom