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Strategy Reviews Needed
The need for reviews of law enforcement strategies can be seen
in crime statistics. In 1988, Baltimore experienced 234 homicides,
of which 112 (48 percent) were drug related. In addition, BPD's
Planning and Research Division recorded 1,155 aggravated assaults
with handguns on the city streets. The drug-related percentage of
these shootings is not recorded, but if the percentage is approximately
that of the murders, 554 individuals were victims of a drug-related
incident.
Using Baltimore's murder rate as a barometer of violence, two
other factors need to be considered. First, Baltimore has one of
the most sophisticated shock trauma medical systems in the nation.
From June 1987 to July 1988, Baltimore trauma centers handled 328
city shootings, with a mortality rate of 16.5 percent. Two hundred
seventy-four victims were saved by the trauma teams' outstanding
medical skills—a factor definitely contributing to a lower homicide
rate.7
Second, Baltimore has been spared the ravages of crack cocaine,
the influx of out-of-state gangs, and the violent struggles of rival
gangs securing distribution lines for their crack. During the past
30 years, the law enforcement profession has assumed responsibility
for the drug problem but has had little or no effect on it. Law
enforcement is not designed to change society but instead to cope
with its symptoms—to keep them under control.
This bulletin maintains that the gang violence under review in
Baltimore is a symptom of the powerful influence of gang leaders.
These gang leaders, though small in number, are largely responsible
for the fear that touches Baltimore's citizens. Head gangsters are
vulnerable, however, because the violence they command is revulsive
to others, and law enforcement can direct that revulsion toward
combating gangsters' ambitions. This bulletin reports a technique
used to target gang leaders by using their own violence against
them and by publicizing that those who seek to build drug empires
with violence will be the subject of special attention from law
enforcement agencies. If violence is viewed as a losing proposition,
then gangs may be repudiated in favor of other, less violent ways
of reaping profits from the drug trade. Perhaps law enforcement
cannot completely eradicate the illegal drug trade, but it can reduce
the violence that often accompanies it.
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