Crime is down but Baltimore remains an unacceptably dangerous and deadly place – that was the tricky double message Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake sought to send at a news conference yesterday.

“This is not a cause for celebration, but a call for further action,” Rawlings-Blake said at police headquarters, in a press event that featured posters showing the faces of violent offenders with hefty prior histories of gun arrests. “I believe with the help of the Maryland General Assembly, we can pass tougher penalties for illegal gun possession, and we can continue reducing gun violence to historic lows.”

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III echoed her message.

“I am really proud of how much progress Baltimore has made over the years reducing violent crime, especially gun crime,” Bealefeld said. “But, we can do more with the right legal tools in place for police and prosecutors and that means getting tough on illegal guns and the violent criminals who use them.”

They were acknowledging, in a muted way, the disconnect most people in Baltimore seem to feel about recently-released year-end crime statistics showing encouraging change – reported crime is down and the homicide death toll is at its lowest since 1989.

At the same time, large swaths of town remain dilapidated, deserted and dangerous and murders continue – we’ve had three already, less than a week into the new year.

In northeast Baltimore, for instance, family members are still reeling from the murder of Hezikah Wilson III, an autistic man who rarely left the house he shared with his mother and was shot Sunday night, as he let out the dog.

On New Year’s Eve, all of the city’s 223 homicide victims from 2010 were remembered, at the second annual “Missing You” candlelight vigil, a somber event that drew Rawlings-Blake and Bealefeld, as well as family and friends of victims and organizers and supporters from Safe Streets East and Living Classrooms.

Crime Trending Down

It may be cold comfort to those mourners, but statistics released by city officials show an apparent drop in crime by many measures in recent years.

According to the Mayor’s Office, the homicide count is down 6 percent compared to 2009. In 2010, Baltimore recorded the lowest homicide count since 1985, a 25-year low, according to the press release circulated yesterday. The city had 223 homicides in 2010, 15 fewer than in 2009.

Homicide rates, however, remain strikingly high compared to other cities and the national average. The city’s murder rate in 2009 was the fifth highest in the country, according to data released in August by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The city’s homicide rate was 37.26 for every 100,000 residents, according to those figures.

Factoring in population loss, in fact, the homicide picture has actually worsened in Baltimore. There are 123,000 fewer residents to be stabbed, shot and otherwise victimized by criminals today than in 1985. Factoring in the city’s rapid population loss, the murder rate was about 15 percent higher in 2010 than in 1985, making City Hall’s claims of “the lowest homicide count in 25 years” ring rather hollow.

According to the FBI, the city’s 2009 rate for robberies was the 12th worst in the U.S and for aggravated assaults was the ninth worst in the nation. Being among the top 20 on all three lists is a distinction Baltimore shares with just five other cities: Buffalo, N.Y.; Detroit, Oakland, Calif.; St. Louis, and Flint, Mich, according to an analysis by Buffalo Business First.

The other statistics the city released yesterday all focused on incidence of crime rather than rates. According to the news release:

• Gun homicide is down 13%. In 2009, 196 homicides were committed with a gun. In 2010, there were 171 gun homicides, a 13% decrease. Since 2005, 82% of homicides have been gun related. In 2010, 77% were gun related.

• Juvenile homicides and shootings are down 35%. Juvenile homicides are down 25% compared to 2009 – a 57% decrease compared with 2006. Juvenile shootings are down 38% compared to 2009 – a 66% decrease compared with 2007.

• Non Fatal Shootings are down 7%. In 2010, Baltimore recorded 420 shootings, 31 fewer than in 2009 and a 42% decrease compared to the 2000 total.

• Overall Gun Crime is down 16% from 2009 – 498 less victims of gun crime.

• Violent crime is down 4% in 2010, a 40% decrease compared to the 2000 total.

• Property crime is down 3% in 2010, a 43% decrease compared to the 2000 total.

• Total crime (Part I) is down 3% in 2010, a 42% decrease compared to the 2000 total.

• Between 1999 and 2009, Baltimore had the greatest drop in overall crime and property crime of the 20 most populous cities.

Stiffer penalties for “bad guys with guns”

Bealefeld and Rawlings-Blake said they want to continue the progress by pushing this year in Annapolis for tougher gun laws.

They are proposing two bills in the upcoming legislative session. One would create a minimum sentence of 18 months for all defendants arrested with an illegal, loaded firearm.

The second bill would strengthen sentencing options for felons in possession of guns by creating a tougher sentencing range of 5 years minimum to 15 years maximum, giving judges more sentencing options when faced with a repeat gun offender.

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((Go here to see a moving photo gallery from the vigil. All photos by Baltimore photographer John Waire.))