Baltimore: Fewer Than One-Third of Homicide Cases Cleared

Baltimore's homicide clearance rate has fallen to one of its lowest points in the last three decades as the city deals with record murder rates this year, The Baltimore Sun reports.

Police Commissioner Michael Harrison announced during a news conference at City Hall with Mayor Bernard C. "Jack" Young that of the 347 homicide cases that have been reported in the city this year as of Tuesday morning, only 32.1% have been cleared, meaning that a suspect or suspects were arrested or died before trial, among other factors. In 2010, the clearance rate was 56%, the national average for a city the size of Baltimore. However, that rate dropped to 30.5% in 2015. The national clearance rate for cities with more than 500,000 residents remains at 57%, according to data compiled by the FBI.

"The Baltimore Police Department has a central role in the crime fight, but to address the root causes of violence that have plagued our city for decades, we need help from people from many professions and many different walks of life," Harrison said.

"We're working to solve this problem from all angles because it will take all of us to change the culture of violence in our city," said Young.

The mayor added that starting in 2020, police, prosecutors, and city officials will begin holding a weekly meeting to assess non-fatal shootings and cases of armed robbery to focus on the "highest quality cases moving forward" and will devise a "non-fatal shooting response protocol" to help prevent violence.

"This approach, coupled with accountability of [police department] leadership and effective constitutional enforcement that results in real consequences that takes offenders off the streets so that they cannot re-offend," Harrison said. "When we do all of that we will finally be able to change the culture of violence that has held the city back for far too long."

Not long after the event, a Baltimore man was shot and killed in the Southwest region of the city.

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