A quick note about the Baltimore homicide data

To Baltimore(not Detroit): As you may have noticed I have spent a great deal of effort amassing complete lists of Baltimore homicide victims for 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. 2006 poses a bit of a challenge, I can get the information but it would be difficult to say the least. I might add that the year 2006 doesn't interest me as much as the newer data because the city was still in the throes of zero-tolerance and the school system was still tossing out its poor-performing students like old wet copies of the Baltimore Sun. In 2007 Mayor Martin O'Malley left for Annapolis, Sheila Dixon took on the reins at City Hall, Dr. Andres Alonso took over the school system and Fred Bealefeld became police commissioner. Many of the policies Mayor Dixon started are still in place, Dr. Alonso certainly has left his mark and is going strong, and, well, right now I'll keep my mouth shut about Bealefeld.

However, it's is October 17, 2011 today and we are 80% of the way through 2011. The one thing I learned after several years in the hard sciences is that in order to spot a trend you need five points of data, I need another year to make five. I have numbers for 2011 it's just that they won't be complete until Jan 1, 2012. It will be around that time that all hell is going to break loose on this blog. If you like line graphs, maps and pie charts, this will be the place for you.

4 comments:

Courtney said...

Do you know how I would info on the status of a case? How can I find out what happened to the body and what types of info was found after the date of death.

Cham said...

The easiest way to track a case is to use the Maryland Judiciary Case Search and search for the alleged perpetrator. I believe the Baltimore city police department will sell you a copy of an incident report for $10, although I've never gone that route. The police report should describe what happened at the scene. The State's Attorney's office was supposed to set up a site where cases could be tracked, but that hasn't happened as far as I can tell.

Courtney said...

Thank you for your help. One more question.... would you happen to know why there wouldnt be a case? I get a red message that the name doesnt match records.

Cham said...

There might be two good reasons why the name wouldn't be in the case search. 1) The name in the case search doesn't match the name for which you are searching. The data entry process at the case search isn't foolproof as the name isn't always inputted correctly, or the media may have spelled the name incorrectly. 2) The case was tried and the alleged perpetrator was found "not guilty". If you provide me with the name I can poke around and see what I can find out.