City officials are proposing new boundaries for the nine Baltimore Police districts, the first such reallocation of resources in more than 60 years.

The map is set to be unveiled Thursday afternoon, but the Baltimore Banner obtained a copy earlier in the day. Eighteen neighborhoods would no longer divided into different districts, and officials say police resources would be more balanced.

Mayor Brandon Scott said he doesn’t believe any areas will lose out on resources as a result of the proposed plan.

“Because things will be more balanced out, we’ll have a lot of people gaining,” Scott said.

Significant changes include:

• Shifting the Eastern District north to no longer include the area around Johns Hopkins Hospital and instead encompassing the Belair-Edison and Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello neighborhoods as well as Clifton Park.
• Cutting the Central District off at Martin Luther King Boulevard and shifting it east to include Fells Point.
• Including the neighborhoods west of Martin Luther King Boulevard — including Reservoir Hill, Bolton Hill and Upton — into the new Western District.
• Eliminating the so-called “tri-district” area where the Western, Southwestern and Southern districts converged, setting the Southern District boundary at Carroll Park and putting areas such as Carrollton Ridge and Union Square into the Southwestern District.
• Setting Greenmount Avenue/York Road as a boundary for the North, Northeastern and Eastern districts.

Scott said that while the Eastern District grows - which would spread resources more thin - he noted some of the areas where it is expanding include parkland (Clifton Park) and the Orangeville industrial area.

The last time the city police districts were drawn, the city had 940,000 residents. Today, it has fewer than 600,000. A law enacted in 2019 calls for the district boundaries to be redrawn every 10 years in conjunction with the U.S. Census.

Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said one of the top concerns officials heard from residents was about uniting communities split between districts.

“We’re not overloading one district while underserving another,” Harrison said.

Officials are seeking feedback on the plan through July 28, at baltimorepolice.org/redistricting.

justin.fenton@thebaltimorebanner.com

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Justin Fenton

justin.fenton@thebaltimorebanner.com

Justin Fenton is an investigative reporter for the Baltimore Banner. He previously spent 17 years at the Baltimore Sun, covering the criminal justice system. His book, "We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption," was released by Random House in 2021 and became an HBO miniseries. 

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