The Baltimore Police have issued 206 citations since new traffic enforcement zones were launched at the end of March - and 128 of those citations were issued to drivers in the zones across the western parts of the city.
The enforcement zones, police say, were selected based on a three-year analysis of data showing the areas with the highest concentrations of traffic fatalities and injuries.
Police launched the new initiative on March 29th in an effort to reduce deadly road incidents. As part of that initiative, BPD officers began issuing warnings and citations for drivers committing violations while also targeting certain enforcement zones.
In a Thursday news release, BPD said that the strategy is working.
“Prior to March 29, there were 16 vehicle-related fatalities on Baltimore’s roadways for 2024. Since the initiative, there has been one traffic-related fatality in the city and none in an enforcement zone,” the department wrote in the news statement.
Those are still a fragment of the 3,300 traffic citations issued citywide between March 29th through May 3rd. In that same time, the department conducted more than 10,000 traffic stops. According to a state dashboard, BPD conducted just over 21,600 stops throughout the entirety of 2022.
Between March 29th and May 3rd, police made 60 arrests and 17 of those arrests included handgun violations.
The western enforcement zone which includes the 500-600 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, the 2000 block of West Franklin Street near the Highway to Nowhere, and Unit S. Monroe St. on Edmondson Avenue had 50 citations, more than any other enforcement zone. Those areas are primarily located in the city’s Ninth Councilmanic district– one of the city’s poorest and most disinvested areas. In 2021, police data showed that BPD was stopping drivers in that district at a rate nearly double to anywhere else.
The Northwest and Southwest enforcement zones had 39 citations each.
“Before the initiative, we were seeing way too many fatalities, serious accidents and road rage incidents,” said Police Commissioner Richard Worley in a statement. “By working with the Mayor’s Office, our law enforcement partners, other city agencies and the community, we are showing that we are reducing traffic-related incidents by issuing citations to drivers who do not obey the rules of the road. Please drive safely and be courteous of pedestrians and your fellow drivers.”
Demographic data was not immediately available for the drivers who were issued citations, said a BPD spokesperson in an email. When the initiative launched, some police reform activists raised alarm bells that it could be a slide back into unconstitutional practices of the past that landed the department in a federal consent decree.
According to state data, 80% of Baltimore drivers stopped by police were Black in a city where 61% of the population is Black.
Enforcement Zone Citations (206 to date)
Area I
Central – 40 citations to date
400 Ensor at Orleans Street
200 Light Street
100 E. Lombard Street
Southeast – 20 citations to date
3100 E. Biddle St.
200 N. Patterson Park
5700 Pulaski Hwy.
Eastern – 0 citations to date
3500 Belair Rd.
1200 E. North Ave.
1900 Belair Rd.
- Area II
Northeast – 0 citations to date
3400 The Alameda
5800 Belair Road
Northern – 8 citations to date
3500 Reisterstown Rd
300 E Coldspring Ln
Northwest – 39 citations to date
5100-5200 Reisterstown Rd
3500 Hillsdale Rd.
3100 W North Ave
- Area III
Western – 50 citations to date
2000 W. Franklin
500-600 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Unit S. Monroe St.
Southwest – 39 citations to date
1800 W. Pratt St.
3400 W. Caton Ave.
400 S. Monroe St.
Southern – 10 citations to date
1100 S. Monroe St.
3900 Curtis Ave.
600 W. Patapsco Ave.
Citations outside of Enforcement Zones
Central – 408
SE – 240
Eastern – 329
NE – 156
Northern 144
NW – 90
Western – 338
SW – 223
Southern – 196
Not categorized – 1,213
Total 3,337
Updated: This story has been updated with clearer language reflecting the location of the enforcement zones.
