Baltimore Police Step Up Amid Jump In Violent Crime

By Rebecca Blatt

Baltimore is allocating more resources to its police department after a series of violent weekends. Last weekend 10 shootings left 3 people dead and 10 others injured.

Baltimore had been seeing a decrease in violent crime, but the city has seen an uptick in the last few months especially on weekends. Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld III says that prompted Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to authorize additional resources, including overtime pay to put extra officers on the street.

"The mayor hasn't put a price-tag on this, and she said do what you need to do to turn this around," says Bealefeld.

Bealefeld says botched street robberies account for many of the incidents, and he says he wants officers to work aggressively to eliminate illegal handguns, especially when residents call in weapon-related complaints.

"If people are calling and being proactive, I want to make sure that our cops are responding in kind," he says.

His strategy also calls for building cases against repeat violent offenders.