Ehrlich Ads Hammer O'Malley on Crime

After a sharp increase last year, the number of homicides in Prince George's County has fallen this year. As of yesterday, the count stood at 92, compared with 127 this time last year. In the District, the count stood at 131 yesterday, down from 144 last year and on pace for a third straight year to total fewer than 200.

Baltimore, meanwhile, had 206 killings as of yesterday -- two more than the same day last year.

O'Malley's goal of 175 originated with Baltimore's business leaders, who grew increasingly frustrated during the 1990s as the city's business climate was undercut by its deadly reputation.

While Baltimore's homicide count stood above 300, other big cities began to see substantial drops. The most dramatic came in New York City, where the number fell from 2,262 in 1990 to 629 in 1998, a development widely credited to more aggressive policing. The District's homicide count, which peaked at 482 in 1991, stood at 260 by 1998.

Watching what was happening elsewhere, leaders of the Greater Baltimore Committee challenged the 1999 mayoral candidates to embrace a goal of cutting the homicide count in half. O'Malley latched on to the figure of 175.

O'Malley's 1999 campaign focused most on closing down Baltimore's pervasive open-air drug markets. But his homicide pledge was included in a campaign booklet, which called it "a realistic goal" to be met by 2002.

O'Malley said the goal was intended to motivate a police department "in need of shock therapy." For the first few years, it arguably had that effect. Under Commissioner Edward T. Norris, a third-generation officer from New York, the department emphasized using technology to fight crime, rounding up fugitives and flooding zones of violence with more police.

"The place was a mess in a lot of ways," Norris said of the department he took over. "They weren't geared to fight crime."

Under O'Malley's direction, the department also borrowed heavily from New York's strategy, stepping up enforcement of quality-of-life offenses such as loitering, a tactic that police argue can deter more serious crime. Baltimore also copied a New York program that uses computer mapping and other technology to measure police performance and re-deploy officers.

Baltimore recorded 261 murders in 2000, the first full year of O'Malley's term, down from 305 the year before. On New Year's Eve, Norris and O'Malley celebrated the achievement with shots of Irish whiskey, Norris recalled. During this period, O'Malley also sought -- and received -- significant increases from the state for drug treatment. The homicide count continued to drop, dipping to 253 in 2002.

In late 2002, Norris left Baltimore to become the state police superintendent under Ehrlich. He later served federal prison time for misusing money from a supplemental city police fund and lying on tax returns.

Baltimore's murder count has crept back up under O'Malley's subsequent commissioners, averaging 272 annually for the past three years. The overall drop in violent crime since 1999 has been far steeper -- nearly 40 percent, if a controversial O'Malley-ordered audit of crime figures is used as a baseline, or about 26 percent using older figures.