Street robberies are up 19 percent from last year. The increase in these robberies has been seen most acutely in Baltimore's Downtown neighborhood, where street robberies are up a staggering 70 percent year-over-year.
Looking at these incidents over time, street robberies have steadily risen over the past six years. With 3,416 street robberies so far in 2016, Baltimore has seen a 37 percent rise in these crimes since 2011 (when there were 2,490). Street robberies are generally defined as theft through use or threat of force in a public area.
Street Robberies 2011-2016
Many of 2016’s street robberies involved the use of a firearm: 1,589 incidents reportedly involved a firearm and 406 involved a knife.
Street robberies have been steadily rising through 2016, hitting 289 incidents in April and staying high throughout the year. October and November were the two worst months for street robberies, with 394 and 381 incidents, respectively.
Street Robberies by month 2016
The Central and Southeastern districts recorded the highest number of street robberies in 2016, each near 600 incidents. The Southern district saw the highest percentage jump at 49 percent. The Southwestern, Northwestern and Northern districts all saw modest decreases in street robberies this year.
There were nine neighborhoods that exceeded 50 street robberies each in 2016:
TOP STREET ROBBERY NEIGHBORHOODS 2016
| Downtown |
227 |
| Frankford |
84 |
| Belair-Edison |
70 |
| Patterson Park Neighborhood |
68 |
| Brooklyn |
65 |
| Charles North |
64 |
| Ednor Gardens-Lakeside |
58 |
| Fells Point |
54 |
| Mid-Town Belvedere |
51 |
EXAMINING STREET ROBBERIES IN DOWNTOWN
Baltimore’s Downtown neighborhood had the most street robberies by far-- 227 incidents, more than the entire Western District combined. This represents a 70 percent jump in that neighborhood. In fact, the number of robberies in downtown held steady at around 140 per year since 2011 before surging this year.
Downtown is the neighborhood located just north of the Inner Harbor, bordered by Lombard Street to the south, Paca Street to the west, Franklin Street to the north, and Fallsway to the east. It includes Lexington Market, Royal Farms Arena, Hippodrome Theater and War Memorial Plaza.
Downtown street robberies 2011-2016
The map below highlights the locations of all reported street robberies in the Downtown neighborhood. Each square represents a location where a street robbery was reported, accompanied by the number of incidents at that location. The lighter squares represent locations with multiple incidents.
A few areas immediately jump out for having a high concentration of street robberies in downtown, explored in more detail below.
LOCATION OF DOWNTOWN STREET ROBBERIES
Royal Farms Arena
The Royal Farms Arena is located at 201 W. Baltimore St. It takes up a city block and is bordered by West Lombard Street, South Howard Street and Hopkins Place. On that single block, there were 21 reported street robberies in 2016. Fanning out a few more blocks would increase that number significantly, as seen in the map below. This location is just a few blocks from the University of Maryland, downtown hotels and Camden Yards.
Baltimore Street
Another hot spot for downtown street robberies is an eight-block section of Baltimore Street running between 400 East Baltimore St. (Baltimore Street and Gay Street) to 400 West Baltimore St. (Baltimore Street and Eutaw Street). Nearly 60 street robberies occurred on this section of Baltimore Street and many more if you expand one block north or south along the corridor, as seen in the map below. This corridor runs the length of downtown Baltimore and includes the Charles Center Station, the Hippodrome Theatre and The Block.
Satatoga and Eutaw
The corner of West Saratoga and North Eutaw is another hot spot, with 18 robberies occurring near that corner in 2016 (and many more if you fan out one block in either direction). This corner is home to a busy bus stop and is one block north of Lexington Market.
Several high-profile robberies have occurred in the Downtown neighborhood this year. In February, a father and son were charged in a daylight robbery near Power Plant Live where police say they struck a man in the head, knocked him to the ground and rummaged through his pockets. The suspects were spotted by an off-duty officer and arrested in the Latrobe Homes in Oldtown.
In May, a man was shot while being robbed on a Sunday morning on Water Street. Police said the victim struggled with a man trying to rob him, and several shots were fired. Another man had been shot on the same block a month earlier.
In August, police charged a man with attempted murder after he allegedly shot a man during a robbery in the unit block of Custom House Avenue The suspect had attempted to rob a man but the victim ran. The suspect shot at the victim but missed and was later arrested after being observed by a City Watch operator.
Residential and commercial robberies
Residential and commercial robberies did not increase dramatically as carjackings and street robberies did in 2016. In fact, both crimes have seen decreases in recent years.
While residential robberies were up 9 percent from last year (from 426 at this time in 2015 to 466 in 2016), those crimes are actually down 20 percent over the last six years. In 2011 there were 581 residential robberies in Baltimore, 115 more than this year. An exception, the Northeastern district has seen a 32 percent rise in residential robberies this year.
Commercial robberies were down significantly year-over-year. Baltimore saw a 7 percent decline in commercial robberies this year, with 676 at this time in 2015 down to 632 so far in 2016.
*All data current as of 12/17/2016
Updated 12/23/2016 with new data
Source: Open Baltimore and Baltimore Police Department
Contact Adam Marton at amarton@baltimoresun.com
