Violent crime in Baltimore is down across the board, despite the largest national increase in such crime since 1991, according to a new FBI report.
Overall violent crime, including murder, robbery and aggravated assault, decreased in Baltimore by 3.6 percent, with reported cases of forcible rape dropping 11 percent since last year.
Baltimore City police spokesman Matt Jablow attributed the results to several new initiatives, including redistribution of officers, the implementation of cameras around the city and increased community outreach.
Baltimore?s numbers contrasted sharply with the U.S. as a whole, where overall violent crime rose by 2.5 percent, or about 1.4 million crimes.
The nationwide number of murders also rose 4.8 percent, the largest percentage increase in 15 years.
Murders in Baltimore dropped 2.5 percent.
Other large cities saw a drop in overall violent crime, including Dallas and New York, which decreased 4.4 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively.
The nearby District of Columbia saw a 5.2 percent increase in overall violent crime.
Burglary, larceny and property crime all dropped about 8 percent in Baltimore, while robbery and aggravated assault dropped 3.5 percent.
The FBI data, compiled from reports by more than 12,000 law enforcement agencies, does not contain overall crime numbers in any category nor does it offer any explanation for the changes.
The bureau?s final annual crime report comes out in the fall.
Criminal justice experts said the statistics reflect the nation?s complacency in fighting crime, a product of dramatic declines in the 1990s and the abandonment of effective programs that emphasized prevention, putting more police officers on the street and controlling the spread of guns.
“We see that budgets for policing are being slashed and the federal government has gotten out of that business,” said James Alan Fox, a criminal justice professor at Northeastern University in Boston.
“Funding for prevention at the federal level and many localities are down and the [National Rifle Association] has renewed strength.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
