Crime and Safety

Citizens, policymakers, and other stakeholders often read the news or learn through various real-time outlets, such as social media and neighborhood-based communication channels, about incidents of crime in their local communities. This media environment, combined with the recent national spotlight on crime and safety deficiencies in Baltimore, often creates a sense of insecurity and concern. Now more than ever, having access to reliable and consistent data is crucial for accountability, community goal setting, and tracking progress toward a city that is safe and just.

In July 2021, in response to the increasing rates of violence in Baltimore, Mayor Brandon Scott announced a three-pillar approach to addressing crime in Baltimore. The Baltimore City Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan includes a public health approach to violence, community engagement and inter-agency collaboration, and evaluation and accountability. The latter relies on data to inform areas of need, opportunities for improvement in services, and transparency in service to communities. ^[1]  As part of the Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) was established in 2021 to oversee the coordination and implementation of the work throughout the City and with partners, including the long-running Safe Streets program. ^[2]  

Baltimore City’s Open Baltimore data portal includes routinely updated datasets from the Baltimore Police Department, including 911 calls for service and crime incidents. These datasets are submitted in the national Uniform Crime Report (UCR) cooperative statistical reporting. ^[3]  A new Public Safety Accountability Dashboard, released by MONSE in 2023, provides the public with details on crime incidents, arrests, and convictions to understand this data in summary and by neighborhood. ^[4]  This data is also synthesized into Vital Signs, enabling communities to relate crime statistics by Community Statistical Area to other indicators analyzed by the  Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance . ^[5]  

Four indicators are tracked in Vital Signs 21 reflecting overall crime rates: Part I crime rate, violent crime rate, gun-related homicides, and property crime rate. Incidents of crime reported in Part I of the UCR are considered the more serious criminal offenses. These offenses are categorized as either violent crimes (homicide, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery) or property crimes (burglary, larceny, and auto theft). The violent and property crime rates are derived from these two categories. The indicator for homicides committed with a gun/firearm is also derived from the Part I dataset.

Between 2020 and 2021, the Part I crime rate in Baltimore City increased slightly from 47.2 offenses per 1,000 residents to 48.1 offenses. Despite this increase, Baltimore City has seen slight and incremental reductions in Part I offenses since 2017, with a marked decline during the COVID-19 pandemic. ^[6]  The line chart below illustrates the overall decrease in the Part I crime rate in 2020 compared to previous years.

The Downtown/Seton Hill CSA had the highest Part I crime rate in 2021 (142.6 incidents per 1,000 residents). The Downtown/Seton Hill area consistently has the highest rates of crime in Baltimore City, which may be a function of two factors. The Downtown region has a high daytime population with employees, tourists, and individuals making transit connections where bus, light rail, and Metro lines intersect, and the crime rate calculation uses total population as its denominator. Until recently, the Downtown area did not have a significant residential population, which may have led to higher crime rates. ^[7]  Other CSAs with high Part I crime rates in 2021 were Pigtown/Carroll Park (119.1 incidents per 1,000 residents), Southwest Baltimore (90.2 incidents per 1,000 residents), and Harbor East/Little Italy (88.3 incidents per 1,000 residents).

The communities in 2021 with the lowest overall Part I crime rates per 1,000 residents were Cross-County/Cheswolde (10.1 per 1,000 residents), North Baltimore/Guilford/Homeland (12.2 per 1,000 residents), and Mount Washington/Coldspring (12.6 per 1,000 residents).

Some of Baltimore’s Community Statistical Areas (CSAs) experienced a decrease in Part 1 crime from 2020 to 2021, with the largest declines occurring in Madison/East End (-11.2 per 1,000 residents), Sandtown-Winchester/Harlem Park (-10.7 per 1,000 residents), and Allendale/Irvington/S. Hilton (-7.5 per 1,000 residents).

The rate of violent crimes per 1,000 residents reflects a subset of the overall Part 1 crimes, including homicides, rapes, aggravated assaults, and robberies. Between 2020 and 2021, the violent crime rate for Baltimore City increased slightly from 16.1 to 16.7 incidents per 1,000 residents.

In 2021, a total of 338 homicides occurred in Baltimore. Out of that total, 293, or nearly 87% of the deaths were from the use of a firearm. From 2020 to 2021, the rate of gun-related homicides in Baltimore City remained mostly steady at 0.5 incidents per 1,000 residents. Since 2011 when Vital Signs began including this indicator, the Baltimore City gun homicide rate has steadily increased, from 0.2 homicides per 1,000 population. Despite overall decreases in violent crime since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the homicide rate has not been impacted.

The CSAs with the highest rates of gun homicide in 2021 were Southwest Baltimore, with a rate of 2.8 deaths per 1,000 residents, followed by Clifton-Berea and Pimlico/Arlington/Berea, both of which had values of 1.7 per 1,000. In 2021 there were nine CSAs without any gun-related homicides: Canton, Cross-Country/Cheswolde, Fells Point, Greater Roland Park/Poplar Hill, Hamilton, Hampden/Remington, Mount Washington/Coldspring, Orchard Ridge/Armistead Gardens, and South Baltimore.

The Part I property crimes include burglary, larceny, and auto theft. In most communities, property crimes are the predominant type of serious offenses that have occurred. In 2021, the Baltimore City property crime rate was 31.4 incidents per 1,000 residents, a slight increase from 31.1 in 2020. Since BNIA began tracking this indicator in 2011, the overall citywide rate has decreased from a high in 2011 of 48.6 incidents per 1,000.

In 2021, the CSAs with the highest property crime rates were Downtown/Seton Hill (88.8 incidents per 1,000 residents), Pigtown/Carroll Park (82.9 incidents per 1,000 residents), Harbor East/Little Italy (64.3 incidents per 1,000 residents), Southwest Baltimore (52.2 incidents per 1,000 residents), and Midtown (50.9 incidents per 1,000 residents). The lowest property crime rates in 2021 were seen in Cross Country/Cheswolde (7.6 incidents per 1,000 residents), North Baltimore/Guilford/Homeland (9.6 incidents per 1,000 residents), Mount Washington/Coldspring (9.7 incidents per 1,000 residents), and Chinquapin Park/Belvedere (12.9 incidents per 1,000 residents).

Vital Signs 21 includes four indicators developed using the 911 emergency calls for services to the Baltimore City Police Department. 911 calls for service can originate from the public or be initiated by police officers while on duty. Indicators derived from these data include reported shootings, common assaults, reports of narcotics, and automotive accidents. Each of these indicators are presented per 1,000 residents allowing for comparison across each of the CSAs.

Between 2020 and 2021, the rate of calls for shootings citywide increased from 3.4 to 4.1 calls per 1,000 residents. The CSAs with the highest rates of calls for shootings in 2021 were Southwest Baltimore (18.4 calls per 1,000 residents), Downtown/Seton Hill (15.6 calls per 1,000 residents), Madison/East End (13.8 calls per 1,000 residents), Clifton-Berea (13.1 calls per 1,000 residents), and Upton/Druid Heights (12.5 calls per 1,000 residents). The communities with high rates of 911 calls for shootings correspond closely to areas with high violent crime rates.

From 2020 to 2021, the rate of 911 calls for common assaults in Baltimore increased from 53.0 to 63.6 calls per 1,000 residents. The CSAs with the highest rates of calls for common assault in 2021 include Downtown/Seton Hill (220.5 calls per 1,000 residents), Pigtown/Carroll Park (138.8 calls per 1,000 residents), Southwest Baltimore (130.9 calls per 1,000 residents), and Oldtown/Middle East (107.4 calls per 1,000 residents).

The CSAs that saw the largest increases in calls for common assault from 2020 to 2021 were Downtown/Seton Hill (+39.4 calls per 1,000 residents), Greater Govans (+33.6 calls per 1,000 residents), Cherry Hill (+26.4 calls per 1,000 residents), and Pigtown/Carroll Park (+24.1 calls per 1,000 residents). The overall trends for these communities can be seen in the chart below.

Only six Communities out of 55 had decreases in common assault calls to 911 during this timeframe, Madison/East End (-6.7 calls per 1,000 residents), Oliver/Johnson Square (-6.2 calls per 1,000 residents), Greater Lauraville (-5.6 calls per 1,000 residents), Hamilton Hills (-2.9 calls per 1,000 residents), Mount Washington/Coldspring (-1.4 calls per 1,000 residents), and Cedonia/Frankford (-0.4 calls per 1,000 residents).

Between 2020 and 2021, the rate of 911 calls for narcotics decreased from 59.1 to 50.3 calls per 1,000 residents. Most CSAs experienced decreasing rates, most notably in Madison/East End (-72.7 calls per 1,000 residents), Sandtown-Winchester/Harlem Park (-71.0 calls per 1,000 residents), Pigtown/Carroll Park (-60.3 calls per 1,000 residents), and Southeastern (-54.2 calls per 1,000 residents). Despite this trend, some communities had increases, such as Westport/Mount Winans/Lakeland (+33.7 calls per 1,000 residents), Dickeyville/Franklintown (+23.4 calls per 1,000 residents), and Johnson Square/Oliver (+21.9 calls per 1,000 residents).

Overall, the CSAs with the highest rates of calls for narcotics in 2021 were Upton/Druid Heights (381.0 calls per 1,000 residents), Southwest Baltimore (247.6 calls per 1,000 residents), Sandtown-Winchester/Harlem Park (234.6 calls per 1,000 residents), and Oliver/Johnson Square (143.1 calls per 1,000 residents). The lowest rates of calls were in Cross-Country/Cheswolde (1.4 calls per 1,000 residents), South Baltimore (1.8 calls per 1,000 residents), Greater Roland Park/Poplar Hill (2.8 calls per 1,000 residents), and Canton (3.0 calls per 1,000 residents).

In 2021, the Baltimore City rate of 911 calls to police for automobile accidents was 89.8 calls per 1,000, an increase of +19.6 calls from 2020. In that year, the CSAs with the highest rates were Downtown/Seton Hill (318.5 calls per 1,000 residents), Washington Village/Pigtown (206.8 calls per 1,000 residents), Greektown/Bayview (195.4 calls per 1,000 residents), Southeastern (192.3 calls per 1,000 residents), and Oliver/Johnson Square (164.1 calls per 1,000 residents). All five of these Communities three contain or are adjacent to interstates and major highways: I-95, I-395, I-83, and I-895, as well as MD-295. These calls are indicative of crashes that happen on major roadways and arterial routes with a higher traffic density and higher speed limit compared to city streets and avenues.

Excluding CSAs that contain interstates, the Communities with other high rates of 911 calls for auto accidents include Southwest Baltimore (143.7 calls per 1,000 residents), Clifton-Berea (141.5 calls per 1,000 residents), Greater Mondawmin (131.5 calls per 1,000 residents), and Upton/Druid Heights (126.3 calls per 1,000 residents).

The rate of calls to the non-emergency 311 system to report street light outages is an indicator of Baltimore’s communities that may have high and persistent issues with public lighting, without which areas may have higher levels of potential victimization as darkness can provide a cover for a variety of property and violent offenses.

In 2021, the Baltimore City rate of street light outages was 15.0 per 1,000 residents, a decline from 21.4 calls in 2020. The CSAs with the lowest rates of calls were Dickeyville/Franklintown (2.2 calls per 1,000 residents), Cherry Hill (3.7 calls per 1,000 residents), and Cross-Country/Cheswolde (5.2 calls per 1,000 residents). The CSAs with the highest rates of calls in 2021 were The Waverlies (27.8 calls per 1,000 residents), Forest Park/Walbrook (26.8 calls per 1,000 residents), Greater Govans (25.6 calls per 1,000 residents), Chinquapin Park/Belvedere (25.4 calls per 1,000 residents), and Greater Lauraville (25.3 calls per 1,000 residents). Three of the top five CSAs for calls are adjacent in North Baltimore, east of York Road.

Some CSAs had large decreases in the number of calls from 2020 to 2021, including Greater Mondawmin (-13.2 calls per 1,000 residents), Southwest Baltimore (-13.0 calls per 1,000 residents), Pigtown/Carroll Park (-12.9 calls per 1,000 residents), and Clifton Berea (-12.4 calls per 1,000 residents).