From an article somewhere on the interwebs:
Four years ago, the national media and liberal activists converged on the city of Baltimore, Maryland, following the shocking and unconscionable death of Freddie Gray, a man who died in police custody in 2015. Intense protests and riots occurred in the aftermath, and the city engaged in a consent decree with the Department of Justice to reform itself. The government’s investigations did indeed find corrupt and unconstitutional practices by some of the city’s police force.
But as Baltimore engaged in much-needed reforms to prevent police brutality and heal relations with the citizenry, it also effectively de-policed much of the city. There were 39,654 arrests in Baltimore in 2014, compared to 25,820 arrests in 2016, while homicides increased from 211 to 318 in that period. By November 2017, gun arrests were down 67 percent from the previous year.
Reverend Kinji Scott, a community activist in the city, told me last year that he blames this de-policing for the spike in homicides. “We saw the police department arrest less during a period of high crime,” he said. “So what happened is you have a community of emboldened criminals.”