“You are under arrest.” These four words could have been Baltimore?s slogan in 2005, as roughly 100,000 arrests ? an average of 274 a day ? were made by city police. So far, the pace shows no signs of slowing this year. And this isn?t all about murders, rapes and carjackings. Spit on a sidewalk, drink a beer in public or drive without a license plate, and there?s a chance you could end up in handcuffs at central booking.
From tourists in town for an Orioles game or Inner Harbor visit to lifelong residents, people are facing charges that other cities would either ignore or terminate with a simple fine.
Not here.
Baltimore has a higher arrest rate per capita than New York, Philadelphia or Washington, yet still has a higher murder rate, although police argue that crime has declined in the city for the past six years.
Police experts say the high arrest rate is a misapplication of the “Broken Window” theory as a means to curb crime. The theory outlined in a 1982 article by criminologists James Q. Wilson and George Kellin and endorsed by nearly every police chief in the nation links petty “nuisance crimes,” like loitering, to serious crimes. Minor crimes, the theory suggests, are like broken windows on a building ? a sign that the community is in disrepair. Fix the windows, and the building improves. Stop the minor crimes, and serious crimes will decrease. Or at least that?s the theory.
Putting this controversial theory into practice often is credited for reductions in violent crime, but often carries a steep price in complaints and lawsuits. The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People recently joined forces to sue the police department on behalf of plaintiffs they claim were wrongfully arrested. Complaints to the city?s civilian review board, the agency charged with investigating police abuses, has doubled this year, with 137 complaints filed halfway through 2006, compared to 76 filed last year.
Adding to the costs of defending the lawsuit are the millions of dollars lost to processing costs. Last year, city state?s attorneys refused to prosecute 25,000 cases. They are declining to pursue about 1,000 cases per month this year.
“It puts a lot of strain on our people,” said City State?s Attorney Patricia Jessamy of the case load. “We have the same number of people doing three times the work. I don?t think justice is served in a community where everybody is arrested. We can have effective policing that protects the public without all these arrests.”
Matt Jablow, spokesman for the police department, said that arrests get too much attention. “Less than 10 percent of the more than one million calls for service we get every year result in an arrest,” he said.
Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm makes no apologies. He insists there is no policy driving officers to make arrests. “Our job is to solve problems in the community,” he said.
But thousands of those who have been arrested say they don?t see themselves as the problem.
Here are a few of their stories:
His son doesn?t want him to leave
Ed Brown is a hard-working family man. His job as a clerk at the Alamo car rental agency at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport is demanding, but it pays the bills. His biggest problem is convincing his 6-year-old son, Malik, that he will come home safely.
“He doesn?t want me to leave because he thinks the police are going to take me,” said Brown, who lives in East Baltimore. He said his son?s fear started after Brown was arrested during a family outing.
“We were on the way back from visiting my brother in the hospital, and my cousin was pulled over for going through a yellow light,” Brown said. “I stopped to tell the officer the light was yellow. The next I thing I know I?m pulled over, too.”
Brown said he and his 17-year-old stepson were handcuffed and sitting on the curb while Malik and his 11-year-old daughter were removed from his car.
“A bunch of officers dragged my kids out of the car,” he said.
Brown, who was arrested for failure to follow the officer?s instructions, said being dragged away in handcuffs to central booking while his children watched in horror was humiliating but not as painful as witnessing the effect it had on Malik.
“My son was crying, he was so scared. He had to watch me be taken away.”
The police report said Brown was charged with disorderly conduct and failure to obey for “shouting” at the officer, but Brown said he was just asking questions.
Now, leaving the house for Brown every morning means that he has to convince Malik that he will return safely.
“[My kids] want to look up to cops as being protective,” Brown said. “Now when they see them they?re just scared.”
Prosecutors declined to pursue the case.
Good cookout gone bad
Good music, cold beer and a grill. Add some good friends, and you have a Baltimore Memorial Day tradition ? a long-weekend cookout. The catch is, it may be illegal.
Marcus Hines, Gary McDaniels and Edward Goins learned that the hard way. After being told by police to turn down the music, the trio found themselves handcuffed and arrested for drinking beer in the backyard at a neighborhood event.
“We were just trying to enjoy ourselves for a cookout, then the police came into the backyard and slapped the beer out of our hands,” Hines said.
Hines said police entered the backyard without provocation. The police report said Hines had been observed “drinking one 12-oz. bottle of Corona.”
“The humiliation is something I have never experienced,” said Hines who said the trio spent about eight hours in central booking.
“The sad part for me is that, after 38 years, I now have a police record,” said the rental store manager. “I?ve been photographed and fingerprinting. It?s terrible. We were just enjoying ourselves, and we end up in jail.”
Prosecutors declined to pursue the case.
A dream cut short
Eric Smith dreamed of becoming a Secret Service agent. With a master?s degree in human services, Smith felt confident his application would be approved. But he said he was rejected because he was arrested for trespassing.
“They told me I had to take care of the arrest. Until then I can?t go forward in the process,” he said.
Smith?s nightmare started after an argument with his girlfriend. Locked out of his apartment, Smith called the police. The office responded and told him to leave, but he wanted to get his belongings. Smith was then arrested for trespassing and transported to central booking.
“How do I trespass in a place where I pay rent?,” Smith asked.
Smith filed a complaint with the city?s civilian review board to have the arrest removed from his record, and is awaiting a decision.
“It should be expunged,” he said. “It was an illegal arrest. Having a record has cost me a great opportunity.”
Prosecutors declined to pursue the case but the arrest remains a stain on his record.
?The scariest experience of my life?
When former Johns Hopkins University student Blake Trettien, an intern at the Enterprise Foundation, stepped out onto his porch a year ago, he didn?t know he was going to end up in central booking for 33 hours.
“It was the scariest experience of my life,” he said.
The 24-year-old law student said he was investigating what he called a “commotion” outside his Charles Village apartment when a police officer, who was arresting one of his friends, became hostile when Trettien asked a question.
“He started cursing at me,” Trettien said.
Turning to walk back inside his apartment, Trettien said he was suddenly handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car. “I turned around and walked away, and I got handcuffs on me and thrown into jail.”
After spending 33 hours in central booking, he was released without explanation.
“When they released me, they handed me a little packet that was supposed to explain my charges, but then told me I couldn?t keep it,” he said.
Trettien filed a complaint with the civilian review board in September 2005, but didn?t hear back from an investigator until last week.
Trettien, though, decided to act on his own, using his experience as motivation to write a research paper for Johns Hopkins on police policies in Baltimore. “It definitely inspired me,” he said.
The paper, “Order-Maintenance Policing in Baltimore: The Failure of ?Broken Windows? as a Police Strategy,” criticized the city?s arrest policy as flawed. Trettien said the strategy of arresting people for quality-of-life crimes to deter violent criminals has not worked in Baltimore.
“When people feel police are acting unjustly, they are less willing to work with them,” he said.
Trettien said it applies to him as well.
“When I see police, I tense up,” he said.
Prosecutors declined to pursue the case.
A father?s nightmare
Nick Kalathas admits that he is a bit overprotective of his daughter Colleen.
“She?s a beautiful girl,” he said.
That?s why when the Navy reserve captain got a panicked call from Colleen that her boyfriend was being arrested in East Baltimore and she was stranded in the city, he demanded to speak with the arresting officer.
“I couldn?t believe they would leave her out on the street, but I was in Philadelphia on duty and there wasn?t anything I could do,” Kalathas said.
Colleen Kalathas? boyfriend, Josh Capella, said the police pulled him over because his window was broken.
“They took the keys out the ignition, grabbed me by my arm and pulled me out of the car to search for drugs,” the Bel Camp resident said.
Kalathas said the officer “was yelling at them from the time he walked up to the car.
Capella?s car was impounded even though no drugs were found. The charge? Impending an officer?s investigation and failure to produce a registration card for his car. He spent about 13 hours in central booking.
Still, Nick Kalathas spent 10 minutes unsuccessfully trying to convince the officer not to leave his daughter on the street. Finally the officer agreed to drive his daughter to the nearest district headquarters.
“It was terrifying. I didn?t want my daughter left out on the street,” he said.
The couple said minutes before they were arrested, they were pulled over in Baltimore County.
“The officer told me everything was cool,” Capella said. “We didn?t have a problem until we drove into the city,” he said.
Capella spent $3,000 on attorney fees. He was acquitted of not following a lawful order, but convicted of the registration offense.
Baltimore police respond
The Examiner asked the Baltimore Police Department to respond to this story. Here is their response:
“Community residents constantly ask us to do more, not less, about solving problems in their neighborhoods. Also, less than 10 percent of the more than one million calls for service we get every year (500,000 of which are for quality of life crimes) result in an arrest. Further, both crime and arrests are down this year compared to last year at the same time. Finally, I think most reasonable people would agree that it is impossible to draw conclusions about any of the department?s policies from five cases, which represent 0.00005 percent of our arrests in a typical year.”
? Matt Jablow, police spokesman
Arrest rate per resident in 2005
» Baltimore City: One arrest per six residents
» Washington: One arrest per 11 residents
» Philadelphia: One arrest per 21 residents
» New York City: One arrest per 28 residents
Murder Rates per Capita, 2005
» Baltimore City: 42 killings per 100,000 residents
» Washington, D.C.: 36 killings per 100,000 residents
» Philadelphia: 25 killings per 100,000 residents
» New York City: 7 killings per 100,000 residents
? Sources: Baltimore City State?s Attorney, Philadelphia Police Department, New York Division of Criminal Justice Web site, Criminal Justice Information System, FBI, U.S. Census Bureau, FBI Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report 2005
