Baltimore police stats meetings got 'stale,' get scrapped

Baltimore's police commissioner has suspended the department's weekly meeting where commanders share intelligence and pore over statistics.

The meeting is known as Comstat and has been a key part of the city's crime-fighting strategy since 1999, when it was introduced by then-mayor Martin O'Malley.

Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld has moved away from many of the policing strategies of the O'Malley era, in particular his zero-tolerance approach to minor crimes. Violent crime has declined significantly under Bealefeld.

Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi says Comstat has become “stale” and “laborious” and that Bealefeld will spend the next 30 days considering ways to revamp it.

Critics say the meetings often turned into finger-pointing sessions.

-- Baltimore Sun