Eight years of more than 300 homicides in Baltimore; can new leaders prevent a ninth?

Baltimore closed the books on 2022 with 334 homicides, little changed from the 338 recorded the previous year. It was the eighth year in a row with at least 300 murders, making Charm City not only among the most dangerous major urban centers in the United States (second to St. Louis, according to the most recent FBI crime data), but its residents among the most long-suffering. It did not take long for 2023 to record more of the same, with police reporting the shooting death of a 17-year-old girl on North Glover Street in East Baltimore less than four hours into the new year.