A Baltimore cop on the crime fight, increased patrols, targeting offenders (episode 204)

With 2017 off to a deadly start in Baltimore, Bob Cherry, a Western District sergeant and past-president of the police union, asks citizens to step up and help officers prevent and solve crimes across the city. Additionally, Cherry suggests that the police department adopt a New York City model for patrol-based targeting of violent, repeat offenders to reduce the shootings that have claimed nearly 700 lives since the spring of 2015. That means, he says, fewer officers in special units and more in uniform and on the street. With the city in a consent decree with the Justice Department to foster reforms within the department, Cherry says it’s time to shift more attention back to the crime fight. “We will increase trust when we start cutting crime,” says Cherry, a city resident. “If you get the numbers down and people feel safer, they’re going to feel proud and good about their police department.” Past-president of the Baltimore lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, Cherry also serves as a national trustee for the Maryland FOP.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-violence-20170125-story.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/doj-report/bs-md-ci-lawyers-committee-concerns-20170125-story.html