Ten federal agents will join the Baltimore police homicide unit, commanders announced Sunday, after the city followed its deadliest month in decades with a night in which 10 people were shot – seven of them in one incident.
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‘We are increasing the resources, we are increasing the collaboration and increasing the partnership at all levels.
Bringing federal forces into local police departments is an “unusual” arrangement, Mr. Davis said, because federal agencies usually seek the help of local detectives on a particular long-term investigation.
Acting Police Commissioner Kevin Davis announces the start of the Baltimore Federal Homicide Task Force, Monday, August 3, 2015, in Baltimore. Forty-two people were killed in May, the month after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody sparked riots. “This is our next step in our all-hands-on-deck approach to decreasing violence”.
Under the program, two special agents from each of the federal government’s five crime-fighting agencies (the FBI, DEA, Secret Service, U.S. Marshals Service and the ATF) will help investigate cases for the next 60 days.
The homicide rate in Baltimore began to skyrocket in May, when the city saw 42 homicides in a single month. There was a brief dip in June, with 29 killings, however the number shot up to 45 in July, breaking a record set in 1972.
The police commissioner is attending a conference of police chiefs in Washington DC to discuss an increase in murders across the country and what can be done about it. “But it all comes back to the gangs, the violent repeat offenders and the drug organisations”.
When Davis was asked if the police and their help are on top of the crime problem, “We refuse to treat water”, Davis said. He pleaded with them to put down their guns and “allow people to live”.
“There have been 191 killings (this year) in the city of Baltimore, that is completely unacceptable”, said Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby. The rise of violence is being partially attributed to the 32 pharmacies that were looted (amounting to almost 300,000 doses of prescriptions that were gone) during the spring riots, according to Davis. “Certainly it’s pronounced here in Baltimore, but I believe the circumstances contributing to our uptick are probably not unlike the circumstances contributing to the uptick in homicides in other jurisdictions across our country”, Davis said.
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Officials believe most of the murders and non-fatal shootings are gang or drug related. “And we will continue to punch back as collaboratively and creatively as we can until we can break through this”. Are you collaborating with prosecutors?
