Baltimore

=====Crime=====
{{Main|Crime in Baltimore}}
[[File:2016-05-11 18 45 30 Baltimore City Police Car at the intersection of Franklin Street (U.S. Route 40) and Franklintown Road in Baltimore City, Maryland.jpg|thumb|A [[Baltimore Police Department]] patrol car, May 2018]]
Baltimore is considered one of the most dangerous cities in the U.S.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2023/01/31/report-ranks-americas-15-safest-and-most-dangerous-cities-for-2023/?sh=652dc70b309a |title=Report Ranks America's 15 Safest (And Most Dangerous) Cities For 2023 |date=January 31, 2023 |magazine=[[Forbes (magazine)|Forbes]] |first=Laura Begley |last=Bloom |access-date=February 14, 2024 }}</ref> Experts say an emerging gang presence and heavy recruitment of adolescent boys into these gangs, who are statistically more likely to get serious charges reduced or dropped, are major reasons for the sustained crime crises in the city.<ref>{{cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIbg7vqEVU8 |title=The reason gangs recruit children in Baltimore and why they join, according to one expert |date=April 23, 2023 |work=[[WBFF]] |access-date=February 17, 2024 |via=YouTube }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://mcac.maryland.gov/2023/04/are-gangs-driving-crime-in-baltimore-city/#:~:text=Experts%20say%20many%20gangs%20have,by%20those%20drug%20trafficking%20organizations |title=Are Gangs Driving Crime in Baltimore City? |date=April 24, 2023 |website=Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center |access-date=February 17, 2024 }}</ref> Overall reported crime dropped by 60% from the mid-1990s to the mid-2010s, but homicides and gun violence remain high and far exceed the national average.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bidgood |first=Jess |date=January 15, 2016 |title=The Numbers Behind Baltimore's Record Year in Homicides |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/01/14/us/Baltimore-homicides-record.html,%20https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/01/14/us/Baltimore-homicides-record.html |access-date=September 27, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

The worst years for crime in Baltimore overall were from 1993 to 1996, with 96,243 crimes reported in 1995. Baltimore's 344 homicides in 2015 represented the highest homicide rate in the city's recorded history—52.5 per 100,000 people, surpassing the record ratio set in 1993—and the second-highest for U.S. cities behind [[St. Louis]] and ahead of [[Detroit]]. Of Baltimore's 344 homicides in 2015, 321 (93.3%) of the victims were African-American.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bidgood |first=Jess |date=January 15, 2016 |title=The Numbers Behind Baltimore's Record Year in Homicides |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/01/14/us/Baltimore-homicides-record.html,%20https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/01/14/us/Baltimore-homicides-record.html |access-date=September 27, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Drug use and deaths by drug use, particularly drugs used intravenously, such as heroin, are a related problem which has impaired Baltimore for decades. Among cities greater than 400,000, Baltimore ranked 2nd in its opiate drug death rate in the United States. The [[Drug Enforcement Administration|DEA]] reported that 10% of Baltimore's population – about 64,000 people – are addicted to heroin, most of which is trafficked into the city from New York.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://healthversed.com/2016/07/20-most-drug-addicted-cities-in-america/26/|title=30 Most Drug Addicted Cities in America|newspaper=Healthversed|date=July 26, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://data.maryland.gov/Public-Safety/Violent-Crime-Property-Crime-by-County-1975-to-Pre/jwfa-fdxs|title=Violent Crime & Property Crime by County: 1975 to Present – Open Data – data.maryland.gov|website=data.maryland.gov}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://data.baltimoresun.com/bing-maps/homicides/index.php?show_results=UPDATE+MAP&range=2015&district=all&zipcode=All&cause=all&age=all&gender=all&race=all&article=all |title=Baltimore Homicides |newspaper=The Baltimore Sun |access-date=December 14, 2015 |archive-date=December 18, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151218201023/http://data.baltimoresun.com/bing-maps/homicides/index.php?show_results=UPDATE+MAP&range=2015&district=all&zipcode=All&cause=all&age=all&gender=all&race=all&article=all |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-homicide-per-capita-20151117-story.html |title=Per capita, Baltimore reaches its highest ever homicide rate |newspaper=The Baltimore Sun |date=November 17, 2015 |access-date=December 3, 2015 |first1=Kevin |last1=Rector |first2=Justin |last2=Fenton |archive-date=October 11, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011085419/http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-homicide-per-capita-20151117-story.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1994-11-11/news/1994315031_1_eastern-district-homicide-rate-police-report |title=46 slayings in 41 days push homicide rate up |newspaper=The Baltimore Sun |date=November 11, 1994 |access-date=December 3, 2015 |first=Michael |last=James |quote=1993, the city's most murderous year ever with 353 killings }}</ref>

In 2011, Baltimore police reported 196 homicides, the lowest number in the city since 197 homicides in 1978, and far lower than the peak homicide count of 353 slayings in 1993. City leaders at the time credited a sustained focus on repeat violent offenders and increased community engagement for the continued drop, reflecting a nationwide decline in crime.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-01-01/news/bs-md-ci-year-end-crime-20120101_1_killings-violent-crime-deadly-cities|title=Baltimore has fewer than 200 killings for first time in decades|newspaper=The Baltimore Sun|author=Justin Fenton|date=January 1, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2012/11/25/as-baltimores-homicide-total-climbs-d-c-murders-plummet/|title=As Baltimore's homicide total climbs, D.C. murders plummet|work=Baltimore Brew|author=Mark Reutter|date=November 25, 2012}}</ref>

In August 2014, Baltimore's new youth [[curfew]] law went into effect. It prohibits unaccompanied children under age 14 from being on the streets after 9 p.m. and those aged 14–16 from being out after 10 p.m. during the week and 11 p.m. on weekends and during the summer. The goal is to keep children out of dangerous places and reduce crime.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Honan|first1=Edith|title=Go home kids: Baltimore launches strict evening curfew for youth|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/go-home-kids-baltimore-launches-strict-evening-curfew-for-youth/2014/08/09/197f7f9e-1ff8-11e4-ab7b-696c295ddfd1_story.html |newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=August 10, 2014}}</ref>

Crime in Baltimore reached another peak in 2015 when the year's tally of 344 homicides was second only to the record 353 in 1993, when Baltimore had about 100,000 more residents. The killings in 2015 were on pace with recent years in the early months of 2015, but skyrocketed after the [[Baltimore Uprising|unrest and rioting of late April]] following the [[killing of Freddie Gray]] by police. In five of the next eight months, killings topped 30–40 per month. Nearly 90 percent of 2015's homicides resulted from shootings, renewing calls for new gun laws. In 2016, there were 318 murders in the city.<ref>Rector, Kevin (January 3, 2017). [http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-homicide-id-20170103-story.html "Baltimore police identify last homicide victim of 2016, one of first in 2017"]. ''The Baltimore Sun''. Retrieved January 14, 2017.</ref> This total marked a 7.56 percent decline in homicides from 2015.

In an interview with ''[[The Guardian]]'' on November 2, 2017,<ref name="theguardian.com">Gately, Gary (November 2, 2017). [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/02/baltimore-murder-rate-homicides-ceasefire " Baltimore is more murderous than Chicago. Can anyone save the city from itself?"] ''The Guardian''.</ref> [[David Simon]], himself a former police reporter for ''[[The Baltimore Sun]]'', ascribed the most recent surge in murders to the high-profile decision by Baltimore state's attorney, [[Marilyn Mosby]], to charge six city police officers following the [[death of Freddie Gray]] after he was paralyzed during a "rough-ride" in a police van while in police custody in April 2015, dying from the injury a week later. "What Mosby basically did was send a message to the Baltimore police department: 'I'm going to put you in jail for making a bad arrest.' So officers figured it out: 'I can go to jail for making the wrong arrest, so I'm not getting out of my car to clear a corner,' and that's exactly what happened post-Freddie Gray."<ref name="theguardian.com"/>

In Baltimore, "arrest numbers have plummeted from more than 40,000 in 2014, the year before Gray's death and the charges against the officers, to about 18,000 [as of November 2017]. This happened as homicides soared from 211 in 2014 to 344 in 2015 – an increase of 63%."<ref name="theguardian.com"/> Simon's HBO miniseries ''[[We Own This City]]'' aired in April 2022 and covered many of the events surrounding the death of Freddie Gray and the work [[slowdown]] by the Baltimore Police Department during that time period.

In the six years between 2016 and 2022, Baltimore tallied 318, 342, 309, 348, 335, 338, and 335 homicides, respectively.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sun |first=Baltimore |title=Baltimore City Homicides |url=https://homicides.news.baltimoresun.com/ |access-date=January 15, 2023 |website=The Baltimore Sun |language=en-us}}</ref> In 2023, Baltimore saw a 20% drop in homicides to 263.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://apnews.com/article/baltimore-homicides-decrease-2023-d88000d65d3916d1fbbe6352becd8881 |title=Baltimore celebrates historic 20% drop in homicides even as gun violence remains high |date=January 5, 2024 |work=Associated Press |first=Lea |last=Skene |access-date=February 14, 2024 }}</ref>
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