Residents Experience Police Work Firsthand

Maj. Sabrina Tapp-Harper, Northern District commander, said the Baltimore city police's ride along experience is one of her favorite department programs.

She said it allows residents to see first hand what officers do and how many different situations they encounter while patroling.

"It allows you to actually get into a patrol car, with a uniform police officers so that you can see all the various things they have to do—the multitasking—and it's a very different world behind the windshield of a police car," Tapp-Harper said. 

All nine of the city's districts allowed residents to tag along with officers on Friday when the department held its ride along day. Police reported that hundreds of residents participated. 

Tapp-Harper also reported that crime in North Baltimore is off to a slow start this year.

She reported the district had three homicides so far this year, one more than this time last year, but that can be attributed to a murder-suicide last month.

"We are 50 percent down in shootings and about minus 42 percent in burglary, so I'm really happy about the way this trend is traveling," Tapp-Harper said.