Baltimore City homicide closure rate fails to significantly improve with the use of police surveillance cameras

A study of year 2012 Baltimore City homicides shows that the presence of public police surveillance cameras do not lead to a significant increase in homicide closure rate.

In the year 2012 Baltimore City had 217 homicides. Of those homicides, as of May 12, 2013, 72 have been closed by the following events: Someone has been charged in the murder, the police know what happened but refuse to press charges, or the suspect has died. In 2012 Baltimore City utilized 587 public surveillance cameras that were monitored by the city police department. Cameras were installed at roadway intersections and recorded video imagery in all directions. 34 of the city homicides occurred within a one block distance from a police surveillance camera. One block is defined as within a 100 street address value of the intersection where a camera is installed. Here are the homicide case closure results:

Of the 217 city homicides in th year 2012, 72 of them have been closed yielding an overall closure rate of 33.2%.

34 homicides occurred within one city block of a police CCTV camera. Of those homicides, 12 have been closed yielding a closure rate of 35.3%

183 homicides did not occur near a police cameras. Of those homicides 60 have been closed yielding a no-camera closure rate of 32.8%.

The increase of homicide case closures near a police surveillance camera over those that did not occur near a camera was a paltry 2.5%.

The 2012 city homicides that occurred within one block of a surveillance camera, and information regarding their case closure is as follows:

No.	Name	Address Block Found	Murdered By/Notes	No. of police cameras on block
1	Doral Hinton	2400 Ashland Avenue		1 camera
2	Travis Spencer	4400 Park Heights Avenue		1 Camera
3	Jerry Isaac	2800 Greenmount Avenue		2 cameras
4	Tyrice Forney	400 Oxford Court		3 cameras
5	Javon Johnson	2200 West North Avenue		2 cameras
6	Dexter Jones Jr	2600 West North Avenue	Guy Thomas charged	1 camera
7	Ronnell Chaney	500 East 21st Street		1 camera
8	Chauncey Hardy	900 Valley Street	Herbert Mayes charged	1 camera
9	Brandon Simms	400 Watty Court		2 cameras
10	Mark Day	1500 West North Avenue	Dontae Crawford charged	2 cameras
11	Cortez Lemon	400 West Saratoga Street	Troy Harrison charged	2 cameras
12	Cheryl Thomas	400 Cummings Court	Edward Ford charged	3 cameras
13	Terrence Anderson	600 North Eutaw Street		2 cameras
14	Cornell Booker	300 Whitridge Avenue	family dispute	1 camera
15	Derrick Lawson	4000 West Franklin Street		1 camera
16	Dominick Brown	1500 Gough Street	Dominique Washington charged	3 cameras
17	Travis Miller	1100 North Milton Street		1 camera
18	Dawan Evans	600 Pitcher Street		1 camera
19	Jermaine Blue	1400 Poplar Grove Street	Edward Ellis and Zebary Pearson Jr. and Antoine Dorsey all charged	1 camera
20	Charles Johnson	1800 West North Avenue	James Pitts and Charles Brogden both charged	2 cameras
21	Anthony Cureton	2700 Giles Road		1 camera
22	Sterling Parker	1900 Walbrook Avenue		2 cameras
23	Audie Mickens	1700 Presstman Street		1 camera
24	Nabil Epps	2700 West North Avenue	Wendielle Hall charged	1 camera
25	Clarence Ross	200 South Pulaski Street		1 camera
26	Elliot Lee Jr	600 North Belnord Avenue		1 camera
27	Tashawna Jones	300 East 26th Street	Tyrone Alston charged	1 camera
28	John Moore	3100 Garrison Boulevard		2 cameras
29	Erwin Daniels	600 North Lakewood Avenue		1 camera
30	Daniel Pearson	2600 Greenmount Avenue	Terry Addison charged	2 cameras
31	Adonay Garcia-Wilson	2800 Boarman		1 camera
32	Thomas Rawlings	1800 North Fulton Street		2 cameras
33	Brent Nickens	2300 Westwood Avenue		2 cameras
34	Thomas Cunion	1100 Webb Court(Latrobe Homes)		1 camera