Today, Baltimore City unveiled its Strategic Management & Alternative Response Tactics (SMART) initiative focusing on the intelligent deployment of law enforcement resources to more effectively combat violent crime.
The initiative includes:
- Providing Alternatives to the Baltimore City Police Department (BPD) – BPD will dispatch alternative responses, including social workers and third-party vendors, to certain non-emergency call types directly and discontinue dispatching to officers.
- Traffic Accident Management – The city will engage a third-party vendor to respond to a portion of calls concerning non-injury or non-DUI-related traffic accidents. A related pilot will launch this summer.
- Expanded Diversion to TRU/Online Reports – The Telephone Reporting Unit (TRU) will divert certain call types – such as non-emergencies, lost property, or larceny – to prevent an unnecessary in-person police response.
- False Alarm Reduction Program – A proposed ordinance by BPD would authorize the department to discontinue an officer response to locations that have recorded five false alarms in a calendar year.
Baltimore City Mayor Brandon M. Scott discussed how the initiative would free up much-needed police resources in a press release:
“Building real public safety requires us to develop legitimate solutions to more efficiently, more effectively, and appropriately deploy law enforcement resources when and where needed,” said Mayor Scott. “True to its name, this is an innovative, data-driven, and smart transformation that will put more police officers out in the community doing what our residents need them to do, deterring and solving crimes.”
Baltimore City residents who need to contact the Telephone Reporting Unit may do so from 6 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday-Friday at 410-637-8849.
To file a police report online, residents can go to baltimorepolice.org/file-police-report.
For more information on how the Baltimore Police Department is utilizing SMART Policing, go to baltimorepolice.org.
