Baltimore City Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld acknowledges his officers are arresting a “dramatic” number of suspects on minor drug charges this year, but the increase is not a break from the mayor?s strategy of targeting the city?s most violent offenders.
“There?s a need, and we?re trying to do it very strategically,” Bealefeld said of the 35 percent increase in misdemeanor drug arrests citywide.
Through the first three months of 2008, Baltimore City police have arrested 5,244 people on misdemeanor drug charges ? almost 1,400 more than the 3,874 locked up on such charges through the same time last year.
The increase in arrests is most dramatic in Northeast and Northwest Baltimore, where police track a 193 percent and 127 percent spike, respectively, in misdemeanor drug arrests.
Bealefeld said the increases were due to a persistent open-air drug market in the Park Heights area of Northwest Baltimore and an emergence of gangs along the Loch Raven corridor in Northeast Baltimore, where the commissioner has directed his federal High-Level Drug Trafficking Area resources.
“They?re on an even pace with homicides and nonfatal shootings, and that?s bolstered by the drug trade in those areas,” he said.
Homicides in Northwest and Northeast Baltimore remain about the same as last year, even as the city experiences an overall 34 percent drop in homicides.
When asked at the past week?s Baltimore City Criminal Justice Coordinating Council meeting whether the spike in drug arrests and the drop in homicides was correlated, Bealefeld said there wasn?t a connection. “We really have to focus on who we?re after,” Bealefeld said.
“In order to stabilize that area of Park Heights, we have to focus on … some of the people driving that market.”
He pointed to a crime reductionin East Baltimore, where only two homicides have occurred this year, compared with 11 through the same period last year. “We achieved that by being very focused on the guys who are driving crime,” he said.
