Homicide Rate Soars In Year's First Quarter

Spike Comes as Other Crimes Decrease

While crime is down overall across Prince George's County, the county's homicide numbers have soared close to a record high, Police Chief Melvin C. High announced yesterday.

"Even though our train is headed in the right direction, I'm not satisfied," High said at a news conference. "We were hit hard by homicides."

Despite a series of measures aimed at heading off the violence, the county marked a 56 percent increase in homicides in the first three months of this year.

According to police statistics, from Jan. 1 to March 31 this year, there were 39 homicides in Prince George's, compared with 25 during the same period last year, and 40 in 2005, a record year. As of yesterday, the county had tallied 50 homicides, one more than the current total for the District.

The numbers paint a chilling picture of violence in the nation's most affluent predominantly African American county: 87 percent of homicides in this quarter involve guns, and about 60 percent of the victims are males younger than 35. High said most of the recent fatal shootings appear to be drug-related. "That's the wild card in this situation," he said.

Yet during the first quarter of this year, robberies were down 14.7 percent, rapes 2.4 percent, carjackings 22.9 percent and assaults 25.5 percent. Property crime was also down by 3.5 percent, with auto thefts down 7.9 percent in the quarter, according to police data.

High attributed the drop in crimes such as robbery and carjacking to more aggressive policing, enhanced cooperative efforts with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and an increase in manpower in the police force, which now numbers almost 1,400 officers.

"We are seeing a continuation of the good results from last year, but there is no doubt that this snapshot of the crime landscape in the first quarter has challenged us, because we were hit hard by homicides," High said.

Last year, homicides in the county declined 21 percent, from a record 169 in 2005 to 134 in 2006. This year's surge in lethal violence set off a scramble among High and other county officials to quell public fears.

Last month, High announced the formation of a special investigative task force to tackle the rise in homicides after a dozen deadly shootings in the county in about two weeks.

The explosion of unrelated killings prompted High to also ask Maryland State Police and federal authorities for assistance in heading off crime in Prince George's.

Two weeks ago, High met with District Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier and Joseph Persichini Jr., head of the FBI's Washington field office, and other top law enforcement officials to discuss cross-border initiatives aimed at reducing homicides, auto thefts and other crimes.

The three announced plans to increase patrols along the D.C. border and coordinate information-sharing between investigators in Prince George's and the District.

Since then, several state troopers have been assigned to assist with traffic enforcement, and troopers have been added to the police auto theft unit, the violent crimes task force and the special investigative task force on homicides.

The department is also receiving assistance from the FBI, High said, adding that he is optimistic that the additional resources will help but that there are no guarantees.

"Homicides are complicated. We have to work at it every day," High said. "Today we're working at it harder than we did last year."