Carl Snowden Appointed To HACA

....With ample persuasion from the Mayor and despite objections from several Aldermen.

Homicide

There was a homicide last night, which I believe is the 8th in the city this year. The victim was an 18 year old male, and the shooting occurred in College Creek Terrace, which is a HACA community near Clay Street in Ward 2:

At approximately 6:55 PM on October 31st, 2007, Police Dispatchers received a
report for several shots fired, with a possible victim lying on the ground
near 50 College Creek Terrace, Annapolis, Maryland. Upon the arrival of the
officers, an 18 year old male victim was found on the scene, suffering
from a gunshot wound(s). The victim was taken by ambulance to the
Anne Arundel Medical Center, where he was pronounced as deceased a short time later. The identity of the victim is unavailable at this time, pending notification to next of kin.

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I actually suspected that such an event may have occurred....I scared the bejesus out of Mrs. Politics when I arrived at her Ward 2 abode around 7:30, which she informed me was only half an hour after she heard multiple gunshots. As she says, "it's so sad to think that somebody's whole life is just gone."

Press Release: Recent Homicide

The Moyer administration issued a press release praising the involvement of the Bay Ridge Gardens community in conferring justice on the perpetrators of recent homicides in that community. So say they:

Annapolis Police Chief Joseph Johnson has high praise for the Bay Ridge Gardens Resident Council Association and Management Team for working closely with the Annapolis Police Department.

"They are directly responsible for the quick arrests made in the two latest homicides in Annapolis," said the Chief.

Perhaps more interestingly, the press release goes on to characterize the general conditions of crime as it relates to public housing in the city:

"A review of recent crime statistics indicates that 4 of the 6 homicides that have occurred in the City during 2007 happened on or near public housing. Many secondary and regular duty police officers responded to these incidents. The large number of officers working in and around public housing has resulted in a decrease in violent crimes on those properties. Both the victim and the suspect the latest homicide had previously been arrested for drug offenses and were banned from public housing properties. However, criminals from those areas are spilling into surrounding areas and Bay Ridge Gardens seems to be one of the communities being affected."

It should be pointed out that of the 6 homicides, 3 occurred on or near HACA properties and 3 on or near federally subsidized housing.

So what does this mean? Well, a case alleging mismanagement by HACA would be weak, for starters. For finishers, it is important to look at the demographics. For any subsidized housing, there appears a disproportionately high amount of drug and violent crimes, and importantly, many crimes are committed by people who don't live in Annapolis.

AP has not yet been able to follow up on the recent attempts to hire more officers, but at any rate, we should still beat the drum for community patrols.

The Capital Reports on Mayor's Public Housing Plan

Today The Capital reported on the mayor's HACA crime fighting plan--the same one that AP commented on recently. If you want to read their version, click here. If you want to read my version, click here.

(When I refer to The Capital article in this post, I am referring both to the front page article by Nichole Young and the 'B' section article by Eric Hartley. I have a lot to write about today, and I don't have time to do separate posts. So lay off.....just kidding.)

I actually think The Capital dropped the ball on this one ( which wouldn't be the first time). They alluded to the $200,00 the city gives HACA to fight crime; but, they failed to mention that the mayor wants to take this away AND make HACA share additional costs such as cameras and sub-stations.

On the other hand, I think The Capital did a good job of portraying how un-cooperative and aloof the mayor seems to be. The mayor apparently was a victim of shock and awe:

The first thing I get hit with when I get back in town after meeting with our sister cities is "We've got a crime problem. We've got a crime problem. We've got a crime problem," the mayor said.

You didn't know about this before? Seriously? BE SERIOUS. Did you know about this before? WERE YOU SHOCKED AND PISSED OFF THAT YOUR IMPORTANT SISTER CITY BUSINESS WAS INTERRUPTED BY THE TRIVIAL, MUNDANE ISSUE OF.........FELONY VIOLENT CRIME??!! WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING FOR THE PAST 20 YEARS?!!!!

Ms. Moyer called that charge unfair and said she's been working with residents on crime issues for 20 years, going back to her 14 years as an alderman from Eastport.

Bullshit. The charge is fair.

And let me sum up HACA's reaction to this whole thing:

Capital Reporter: What do you think about this whole thing?
HACA guy: Uhh, this is what we have been saying for, like, many months now.
Capital Reporter: But what do you think about the mayor's ideas?
HACA guy: It's all the same crap.
Capital Reporter: And what if you had a pen pal in a sister city?
HACA guy: Neat-O!!

And now for my favorite part of the article(s), a quote from police chief Johnson:

We already co-op secondary employment to them, but we need more manpower.

What, I ask you, WHAT does this mean? This is horrible. Grammar. That should. Be a better sentence. With logic.

Ever onward!

Analysis of Actual Crime Data

A reader sent me a detailed study of all crime committed in 2006, broken down by type, location, and perpetrator. Here are the main findings, and my semi-excellent analysis is to follow. (Only semi-excellent today--my brain works better with sunshine, which we haven't seen in a while. The backup plan for occasions like this is to drink a lot of coffee, but my caffeine level is already approaching the maximum safe level as recommended by the Surgeon General.)

2006 Crime Statistics
(Note: According to published statistics, about 6% of city residents live in HACA communities)
(HACA stands for the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis)

-7.4% of all crimes occurred on HACA properties
-5% of all arrests were of HACA residents
-16% of all crimes occurred on OR NEAR HACA properties
-29.5% of all violent crimes occur on HACA properties
-26% of all drug arrests occur on HACA properties

The point that this blog has made is that ratios of officers per thousand employees are not helpful because Annapolis has more public housing than any other city its size, and crimes occur more frequently in these areas. We now have the data to show that this theory was largely, ultimately correct.

The first thing we need to consider is that this data UNDERESTIMATES the true link between public housing and crime. Why?

Reason #1: Nobody really knows how many people actually live in public housing. HACA has lease records, but an unknown number of people live in these dwellings and are NOT on the leases.

Reason #2: There is subsidized housing in Annapolis that is not subsidized by HACA, but rather by the federal government. So, crimes committed by individuals in these communities are attributed to the 'rest of the city', not the public housing areas, because the study that I have data for only considers HACA properties (and not the federal public housing properties.)

So, what this data shows is even more true when you try and understand the situation as it accurately exists.

We can see that drug crimes and violent crimes occur at a disproportionately high rate in public housing communities. (Drug crimes and violent crimes are undoubtedly correlated with each other, but we would need more detailed statistical analysis to determine by exactly how much). Furthermore, many of these crimes are being committed by people who shouldn't be there.

So, what do we do about this? HACA, like this blog, has advocated more police, and particularly police walking beats (this means on foot) in the public housing communities. This would allow officers to cover more remote areas than vehicle patrols, and would be a better deterrent to drug dealers/users. It would also allow officers to develop personal relationships with the residents, which would make it easier for officers to identify non-residents and people who don't belong there.

Sounds simple enough...so why aren't the police doing this? Answer: because they have general orders that they are to remain "reactionary", and not proactive*. Let me repeat this. Officers have general rules of conduct, coming straight from the top, ordering them to remain in their vehicles even when responding to a call. They are prohibited from preventing crime.

(*I have heard this from 2 reliable sources. Although I have not utilized a Public Information Act request to look at the general orders, I know people who have.)

Please reread that again...the police are prohibited from doing their job. Who can change this culture? The police chief, and the mayor.

Let's assume that eventually the city has a mayor and a police chief who are committed to addressing this problem in the right way. Done. Good. Now the question becomes, what is the strategy for structurally preventing crimes--that is, changing the culture so that people want to commit fewer crimes.

The answer, I would argue, is ownership. If people own their houses, they become stakeholders in their communities. They would be less likely to encourage or tolerate criminal or destructive behavior. Is this happening now? Sort of. All HACA subsidized housing is rental-only. HACA is trying to promote ownership in and around their communities, but there is too weak of an incentive for families to move out of public housing. If a family moves in to public housing, there is no requirement that they leave, even if they eventually earn enough money to buy their own house. HACA gives preference to working families and tries to promote self-sufficiency, but there is only so much they can do.

There is only so much anyone can do with a mayor and chief who don't want to help.