BALTIMORE — According to mayoral candidate Thiru Vignarajah, Baltimore can't tackle crime without knowing an accurate number of cases solved.
The former prosecutor is demanding the city and the police department publish clear arrest and clearance rates for violent crimes.
The Baltimore Police Department said the clearance rate for murders was 31-percent last year but Vignarajah said that's misleading.
"That number includes murders from previous years that have been solved in 2019. It includes exceptional clearances which is where a suspect in a particular murder is himself killed," said Vignarajah.
If elected as mayor, Vignarajah said he will improve transparency by publishing a list of murders and other crimes with which ones have resulted in an arrest or closed on the front page of city hall's website.
When it comes to tackling crime, he plans to include aerial surveillance wire taps in the deadliest neighborhoods in the city, a college cadet program to get more officers on the streets and reducing overdoses.
