Governor O’Malley’s 15 Strategic Policy Goals

4. Reduce Violent Crime in Maryland by 20% by End 2012

Public safety is the greatest responsibility of government at every level; and because we are committed to moving our State forward, and delivering safer neighborhoods for every Maryland family, we’ve set the goal of reducing violent crime in Maryland by 20 percent by 2012.

Strategies

Identify high risk offenders, hold them accountable, and improve outcomes for offenders through effective re-entry services
- Established Juvenile and Adult Violence Prevention Initiatives (VPI).
- Expanded inmate employment and skills training through Maryland Correctional Enterprises to provide pre-release employment to over 2,000 inmates per month to lower recidivism.
Enhance warrant service to swiftly remove violent offenders from the streets;
Maximize the use of DNA samples and findings to convict the guilty and exonerate the innocent.
Expand efforts to reduce illegal gun use and possession.
Modernize crime fighting and information sharing by maximizing the use of the best available technology.
- Created public safety dashboard, receiving up to 40,000 inquiries a day from local and state law enforcement.
- Established mandatory electronic reporting for pawn shops.
- Providing COMPSTAT-On-Demand to local law enforcement agencies.

Read the more detailed plan to achieve this important public safety goal...

Delivering Results

In 2010, Maryland experienced the lowest crime rates in years:
- Lowest rate of violent crime since 1975.
- Lowest rate of homicides ever reported.
- Lowest reported robberies ever.
- Lowest reported rate of aggravated assaults since 1976.
- Lowest rate of vehicle theft ever reported.
- Lowest rate of property crime ever reported.
- Lowest rate of total crime ever reported.
Since 2006, Maryland has seen the steepest three-year reduction in homicides since the 1970s.
Juvenile homicides are down 46% statewide in the last three years. The number of juvenile victims of homicides was reduced 53% in Baltimore City, and 45% in Prince George’s County.
Improved warrant service through expanded regional law enforcement task forces.
Expanded public safety information sharing agreements with border and regional states.
Reduced backlog on unanalyzed DNA evidence.
Maryland State Police and the Division of Parole & Probation are working with local warrant task forces to assist in closing warrants for violent and dangerous offenders.
The Division of Parole and Probation, continuing with its Violence Prevention Initiative efforts, shared new arrest information with the District of Columbia and Virginia to ensure the regions probationers are being tracked by each jurisdiction when they commit new crimes. In 2009, Maryland received 1,487 electronic arrest hit notices from its partner probation agencies in Virginia and the District of Columbia.