Prince George’s County grapples with rise in homicides

The Prince George’s County Police Department is trying to find out what is driving a recent increase in the county’s homicide rate.

Police confirmed 16 homicides in January compared to six during the same time last year — a 166% increase.

“In many of these homicides, it was a dispute between people who knew each other that resulted in violence,” a police spokesperson told The Washington Times. “At this time, there is no known connection between any cases.”

The rise in killings comes after Prince George’s tallied 99 homicides in 2020, marking an 11-year high in the county of more than 900,000 residents.

The heightened homicide rates in Maryland’s second-most populous jurisdiction appear to be a microcosm of a larger national trend.

A recent study by a D.C.-based criminal justice think tank found “record-breaking increases” in homicides across a number of U.S. cities in 2020.

At least 34 cities had 29.6% more homicides overall compared to the prior year, according to a February report by the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice. The authors of the study said the data show a “large and troubling increase that has no modern precedent.”

The jurisdictions, which have an average population of 978,000 people, reportedly were selected to be “roughly representative” of violent crime rates in large U.S. cities.

A “perfect storm” of circumstances, including protests against police brutality and the pandemic, are likely contributing factors, according to study co-author Richard Rosenfeld.

“One of the most striking findings in our work was that the uptick in homicide in most of the cities we looked at coincided almost exactly with the emergence of mass protests against police violence, almost immediately after the [death] of George Floyd in Minneapolis,” Mr. Rosenfeld said in a phone interview.

Homicide rates last year were 37% higher between the months of June through August compared to the previous year.

Mr. Rosenfeld, a criminology professor at the University of Missouri, said the nation also saw a rise in homicides in 2014 amid protests over the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

Analysts reportedly link the “Ferguson effect” to “de-policing,” in which officers pull back from law enforcement amid fears of unfair treatment and job loss, as well as “delegitimizing,” in which disadvantaged communities pull back from police amid trust issues.

“Officers may be pulling back voluntarily because they’re demoralized, but officers are pulling back in much greater numbers because of pandemic-related restrictions on policing,” Mr. Rosenfeld said. “That’s the perfect storm, right? The pandemic plus the reduction of police legitimacy.”

Like Prince George’s County, other localities are still continuing to experience rising homicide rates, Mr. Rosenfeld said.

To combat the trend, Mr. Rosenfeld said local officials, police and advocacy groups need to “double down” on prevention efforts and to consider demands for police reform. Calls to “defund the police” and “abolish the police” are not popular and are “more slogans than policy prescriptions,” he said.

Rather, reforms like increasing police accountability and sending other agencies to respond to certain situations, such as a mental health crisis, are “the best way to repair relationships with local communities and increase confidence.”

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks announced last month that officials are working to implement nearly 50 recommendations suggested by a police reform work group.

Changes include requiring extra duty-to-intervene training and establishing a “more robust” citizen complaint oversight panel that has more of an impact on local policing.

Meanwhile, the police department said it “has reallocated resources” to address the recent rise in homicides, including “enhanced patrolling and collaboration among investigative units.”