After a tumultuous August with riots in Baltimore that led to the deaths of five people, the latest controversy surfaced Sunday when the Baltimore Sun’s crime-reporting data reporters asked Mayor Catherine Pugh why the city’s violent crime rate is declining.
In response, Ms. Pugh’s spokeswoman, Doan Fuller, drew a comparison to Chicago, where violent crime has also seen recent drops despite President Donald Trump’s hyperbolic claims about it.
“We’re comparing our situation to Chicago, where yes, there has been a rise in violent crime — but they’re up 18 percent from where they were last year,” Ms. Fuller told the reporters.
Other top leaders in Chicago have strongly rejected the assertion that a spike in crime has occurred in Chicago, saying it’s greatly exaggerated. But they have not called for Ms. Pugh’s resignation and have dismissed comparisons between the two cities.
Chief of police Eddie Johnson added on Sunday, “If the numbers have gone up like they say they have, it’s because they have had an increase in shootings.”
Still, Ms. Pugh defended her administration.
“In response to the questions raised by the Sun, I’d like to reiterate that since I took office in January my administration has worked tirelessly to provide the citizens of Baltimore with a Safe City’s strategy that our excellent community policing strategy has grown strong partnerships with the police department and challenged us to work together in the most effective and efficient way to effect long-term change,” she said in a statement.
In response to Ms. Pugh’s comments, reporters from the Baltimore Sun wrote, “That claim left Sun reporters rhetorically asking, ‘What’s good for the goose is good for the gander?’
“The column also said the governor of Missouri, a state with a higher per capita violent crime rate than Maryland, had a 96 percent attendance rate for the high school band the Sun recently documented, ‘showing there is more work to be done in our public schools.’ “
A new data set from the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that violent crime rates are down over the past decade in Maryland, with there being less total offenses and more serious offenses than before. The rate of felony property crimes, such as burglary, rose, but that jump is lower than the rate of overall offenses.
Ms. Pugh has been working to spark change in the city after violence erupted during Freddie Gray’s funeral.
In response to her administration’s response to questions about crime, Sun reporter Amie Ferris-Rotman added a call for calm from the police chief of Baltimore County Police, which includes Baltimore.
“I do not see any need for a comparison to Chicago. There are very serious things going on and they have much larger issues to deal with. Don’t be like the mayor. Calm down. Count it in. Count it out. Count it in. Count it out,” he wrote.