Gov. Robert Ehrlich weighed in on the controversy over Baltimore?s arrest policy on Thursday, as he blasted Mayor Martin O?Malley?s administration for arresting thousands of what he said were innocent Baltimore residents.
“Mass arrests of innocent people, it?s unconstitutional in my view,” Ehrlich said in an interview on the WBAL Radio.
“When they?re kicking out one-third of the arrests,” Ehrlich said, referring to the office of City State?s Attorney Patricia Jessamy, “police are in bad position.”
O?Malley spokesman Steve Kearney hit back, though, saying that Ehrlich?s criticism was politically motivated. “Bob Ehrlich?s dishonest attacks on the police show how desperate he is,” Kearney said. “If someone was dealing drugs or urinating in an alley near his parents house, I?m sure he would want police to do something,” he said.
But Ehrlich?s position did garner support from city politicians, including State Del. Jill Carter, a Democrat and an outspoken critic of the city?s arrest policy.
“Bob Ehrlich is 100 percent correct,” she said. “Unwarranted arrests continue to occur.”
Carter, though, said Ehrlich should intervene. “He needs to support my efforts to bring this problem to the attention of the state prosecutor and the Department of Justice,” she said, citing letters that she has sent calling for state and federal investigation of the city?s alleged illegal arrests.
Baltimore police arrested nearly 1 million people in 2005. In 2006, the state?s attorney?s office has declined to charge on average more than 1,000 arrests per month. The NAACP and the ACLU have joined in a lawsuit against the city charging that police have made thousands of illegal arrests.
The Examiner has reported that while Baltimore has a higher arrest rate than comparable cities like New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C., nearly one arrest per six residents, its murder rate is also higher ? with roughly 42 killings per 100,000 residents.
Matt Jablow, spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department, responding to the governor?s comments, said arrests are down. “We do not arrest innocent people. We arrest people based on probable cause,” he said.
“Arrests are down 8.8 percent this year compared to the same time last year,” he said.
But Carter said the city?s persistently high murder rate is proof that police need to make fewer arrests.
“That?s why we need to change this policy,” Carter said. “It creates an us versus them mentality,” she said.
