Baltimore Police arrested more than twice as many people as they gave criminal citations to last month ?3,574 versus 1,591, reports The Examiner?s Stephen Janis. Many of those arrested trespassed, held open containers or urinated in public ? non-violent crimes.
Police have wide latitude to decide whether to arrest someone or give a citation. But arresting people for minor offenses makes no sense, when the crime could be stopped and the behavior deterred by a citation. The police department itself says so in a fact sheet on civil citations. “Arrests escalate a situation between police and community members and for first-time offenders, enters them into a system whose scarce resources should be reserved for the truly violent, predatory and/or narcotics invested criminals. Arresting our way out of this situation does not work.” (our italics.)
We are sure you agree. Arresting trespassers and beer-can wielders takes officers off the street for hours ? hours that should be spent protecting citizens from those who would kill or injure us. And there are plenty of them.
Last year, Baltimore City boasted the highest murder rate in the country for large cities ? 42 killings per 100,000 residents. By comparison, Washington had 36 murders per 100,000 residents; New York City had 7 killings per 100,000 residents.
Along with the highest murder rate, Baltimore also boasted a high arrest rate in 2005. There was one arrest for every six people in the city. By comparison, in Washington there was one arrest for every 11 residents; in New York City there was one arrest per 28 residents. Last year, the Baltimore police arrested about 100,000. Police spokesman Matt Jablow has said crime and arrests are down from last year, but a direct comparison won?t come until year?s end. Regardless, it?s obvious that a high number of arrests do not stop violent crime. What is not working?
To figure that out we need to start with the police department?s theory of policing. It follows “Broken Windows” ? first described by criminologists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling in 1982. The theory says that by fixing the “broken windows” in a community ? nuisance crimes like trespassing and loitering ? police will also stop violent crime. Police chiefs across the country abide by it. In practice, it means focusing police resources on stopping turnstile jumpers in subways and public urinators. When police have applied its methods, crime has dropped in many cities of varying sizes. One of them is New York, on whose police methods Baltimore has modeled its own since 1996. Arresting lots of people for petty crime was never part of the methodology, however.
“When I see a high arrest policy I wonder and at times I get nervous,” said Kelling ? one of the two creators of “Broken Windows,” in a recent interview with The Examiner. “I would anticipate an increase [in arrests] when it starts, but it [the arrest rate] would start declining in a relatively short period of time … It would warn people that we mean this and we will be firm … The goal is never a high arrest policy for a lengthy period of time.”
Kelling directed his remarks at high arrest rates in general, not at Baltimore?s specifically. But his words apply to the city?s situation. If Mayor O?Malley really cares about reducing violent crime in the city, he will direct the police department to practice “Broken Windows,” not just preach it from fact sheets. If citations, not arrests, deter petty crime, no excuse exists for not using them. We can?t afford to waste resources nor take officers from the streets where they are most needed.
