Aridas
Crazy Little Green Dragon
Baltimore Stops Arresting People for Petty Crimes & All Crime Rates Go Down.
This is something that started in 2020, of note.
This is something that started in 2020, of note.
Crime in Baltimore declined significantly in 2020. Violent crime dropped 20% from March 2020 to March 2021, property crime decreased 36%, and there were 13 fewer homicides. It wasn’t due to COVID lockdowns — other big cities saw crime increases in the time of pandemic. So what was the secret to the success? Counterintuitively, it was fewer arrests and prosecutions for non-violent crimes.
In March last year, as the severity of the coronavirus became apparent, the State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced that the city would no longer prosecute drug possession, prostitution, trespassing, and other minor charges, to keep people out of jail and limit the spread of the deadly virus.
The policy was so unexpectedly successful that Mosby announced on Friday that the policy would become permanent.