Baltimore ranked 11th most dangerous city

Baltimore was ranked the 11th most dangerous city in the United States according to the 2010-2011 City Crime Rankings report published by the CQ Press on Nov. 21 this past year.

The report, which evaluated incidents of murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft throughout 400 cities, listed Baltimore’s crime index as 339, which was substantially over the national average of 100.

Yet despite its high crime index, Baltimore has actually experienced a decrease in crime recently.

“The past couple of years with Commissioner [Frederick] Bealefeld we’ve actually seen a drop in crime. We’re at a near 20-year low,” Detective Donny Moses of the Baltimore Police Public Affairs Office said.

The most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report released in 2009 saw a 4.6 percent decrease in total crime in Baltimore for that year.

This reflects, among other factors, a drop in both the amount of violent crimes and motor vehicle thefts reported in 2009, from 4,931 to 4,555 and 2,940 to 2,443, respectively.

Similarly, reported homicides have dropped consistently over the last four years from 282 in 2007 down to 223 in 2010.

Despite the overall decrease in crime, some Hopkins students still feel uncomfortable in Baltimore depending on both the area of the city and the time of day.

“My brother lives in Hampden and I rarely go see him because I don’t really feel safe walking through [Wyman] park at night,” freshman Audrey Zeldin said.

Because of this fear, many Hopkins students stay confined to the Homewood area where Campus Safety and Security concentrates their service.

According to the Johns Hopkins 2009 Annual Security Report, there are among other things 113 campus emergency phones, an escort van service, and 61 special police offers on various on and off-campus locations including North Charles Street, Saint Paul Street, University Parkway and Charles Village.

Yet crime still does occur at Hopkins.

As recently as March 19th, a Hopkins senior was confronted by an armed suspect as she was entering a private apartment building.

Hopkins students that do leave Homewood explore the more commercial areas                      of Baltimore.

“I’ve never felt unsafe in Baltimore — well, at Hopkins,” freshman Bridget Harkness said.

“I mean, I’ve been around Fells Point, the Inner Harbor, Towson, places like that.”

Yet although students only travel through parts of the city, Moses contends that crime is not concentrated in any one particular part of the city.

“[Crime] is pretty widespread between east and west, north and south,” Moses said.

The Baltimore Police Department has made several initiatives over the past couple of years to limit crime throughout the entire city, particularly focusing on gun control and drug abuse.

In 2009 alone, Baltimore police recovered or seized 92 guns and made 204 gun arrests.

Two additional major priorities for the Baltimore Police Department, according to Moses, have been on routine offenders and the growing problem of residivism.

“We’re focusing all of our attention on violent and routine offenders,” he said.

“By going after that specific group it actually helps us lower the violent crime rate in Baltimore. Gun carriers, aggravated assaults — a lot of those offenders are repeat offenders.”