Northern District Commander Addresses Guilford Crime

Cathy Boyne said she has seen some nasty crime waves in Guilford, some reminiscent of the spike in 1993.

But the Guilford resident said she’s really seen crime pick up since the economy has slowed down.

“There have been more incidents in the last 18 months,” she said.  

On Wednesday Northern District commander Maj. Sabrina Tapp-Harper addressed Guilford residents' fears about an increase in crime in the neighborhood.

According to statistics from the Baltimore City police, there has been an increase in burglaries, robberies, aggravated assaults and stolen vehicles in the neighborhood.

The largest increase has been in burglaries, which jumped from 28 in the neighborhood in 2010 to 43 so far this year. 

To combat that increase, the Northern District has placed two foot patrol officers in the neighborhood. Tapp-Harper said the placement of foot patrol officers in part explains the spike in the district’s overtime pay. The Northern district has the second highest amount of overtime out of nine districts.

But she said police are starting to see results. officers have made 22 individual burglary arrests in the last 28 days, she said. She called that many burglary arrests in so few days “unprecedented.” 

“There’s no way that 22 burglars can be arrested and you not see some kind of decrease,” Tapp-Harper said.

Tapp-Harper said she was unsure exactly what caused the crime spike in the neighborhood, but also said they haven’t seen spikes in neighborhoods similar to Guilford such as Homeland and Roland Park.

But Boyne said she knows what would help crack down on crime in Guilford. Giving Northern District police more resources.

“I pay all these taxes and all I get is my trash picked up,” Boyne said.