Andre Street, a retired Baltimore Police detective sergeant, remembers an incident several decades ago, wrestling two men who had stolen a car.

“We were really battling. And my hat went one way. My shirt got torn,” he said.

Someone who’d observed the scuffle met him at the police station afterward, holding the abandoned hat. “Officer Street, you lost this during the fight,” Street said the person told him.

To the retired detective, such moments demonstrate effective community policing — where an officer builds enough trust with the community that they, in turn, also support him in his work. Street was one of three officers named in 1981 as The Evening Sun’s “Policemen of the Year” and combated drug-dealing as a member of the department’s STOP Squad.

“The secret to winning the so-called war against crime is the public. You can’t do it without the public’s help,” Street told The Baltimore Sun in a recent interview. “These policemen today — and it’s not their fault, but — they’re strangers to the community.”

The sentiment is echoed by several Baltimore residents and community leaders, who say the department still has a long way to go on community policing. Some residents told The Sun the police department is not responsive to calls and that drug-dealing and other types of crime are rampant in their communities, to the point where one woman said she was unable to sell her home due to people dealing drugs directly in front of her house.

Frustration with police stems partly from abuses of the past, leading to Baltimore’s ongoing consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice.

The police department says it’s continuing to work on improving community policing, building trust between the police and residents through trainings, community service outings and collaboration with agencies that can address problems with mental health and employment.

The recent officer-involved shooting in Upton and the community reaction illustrate the continued healing process between police and those they serve, said Jamal Turner, chief of Baltimore’s Police Accountability Board. Video released earlier this week shows Bilal Yusuf-Muhammad “B.J.” Abdullah Jr. removing a gun from his bag as officers tackled him. Abdullah fired three shots, and police fired a total of 38 rounds, killing Abdullah. One officer was injured on the foot.

Turner said a big difference between this incident and previous eras of Baltimore’s history, including Freddie Gray’s death in police custody in 2015, is that there is now a system for civilians to review complaints against police. In Abdullah’s case, Turner said he believes police were justified in responding with force, but he questions whether they should have fired as many shots as they did.

To Crystal Parker, president of the North Avenue and Hilton Street Baltimore Business and Community Task Force, community policing is about finding ways to help people change behavior that doesn’t just involve arrests.

Parker said she has begun to see positive change in her community, partly as a result of a Neighborhood Policing Plan implemented in her area by the mayor’s office and the BPD in late 2023. But throughout Baltimore, there still needs to be a “change in mindset,” she said.

“Some police come in some neighborhoods with, you know, guns drawn, ready to shoot before they ask any questions. And some police will go in other neighborhoods (where someone is) threatening to have a gun, and they will sit down and have a coffee with them.”

‘A fine line’

Several Baltimore residents complain the police department is understaffed and they want more police presence.

But West Baltimore resident and police reform activist Ray Kelly, who has helped with the implementation of the consent decree, said he doesn’t believe anyone wants more police.

“They want less crime, less violence,” he said. “And when you hear people saying they want less police, that’s because they live in communities where, historically, the police department has — I’ll be nice and say ‘misbehaved.’”

Turner, of the accountability board, said it depends on the characteristics of the neighborhood — some may want less police interaction, while others feel safer with a more visible police presence.

“There’s a fine line between safety and harassment. There’s a fine line between safety and over-policing,” Turner said.

Baltimore’s Police Accountability Board reviews hundreds of community complaints about interactions with police officers, many of which could have been avoided if people had been treated with more respect and compassion, he said.

Turner added that building trust with the community also can’t be established overnight.

“It has been more than 100 years of, especially within Black communities or communities of color, where those relations, those interactions with police officers — although the majority may be OK — there still have been a multitude of incidents where it hasn’t been,” he said.

Residents say crime goes unaddressed

Several city residents say they want police to be more proactive, rather than responding to crimes after they occur.

One Brooklyn resident, Rae, says she hardly sees any police presence in her community, despite the area being riddled by prostitution, drug-dealing and gun violence — including a recent shooting just outside her home.

“I literally tell the dispatchers at 911 that I’ll talk to them in 10 minutes, because (the police) don’t come,” she said. Rae asked to use only her first name due to concern she might be treated differently by police, and due to fear of armed drug dealers.

A Curtis Bay resident in her 70s, who requested anonymity due to fear for her safety, said drug dealers have been selling across the street from her house for at least two years. She wants to move, but she said a real estate agent told her she’d never be able to sell her house because of the drug activity.

Asked about the residents’ concerns regarding lack of responsiveness to crime, BPD Chief Lisa Reynolds, who heads up the department’s new “Youth and Community Partnership Division,” described weekly “blitzes.” Members of the police department and representatives from various city agencies, including the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, walk through the community and address various needs related to vacant housing and squatters, trash pick-up, abandoned cars and employment development.

BPD Spokesperson Lindsey Eldridge also noted a recent drug bust in Curtis Bay and said there are many examples of drug arrests in the city. She added the department is also trying to help people with addiction and “reduce the demand” for drugs, so that “we can then also tackle those that are dealing.” She added that it also takes time for officers to build cases.

The Sun attempted to speak with current BPD officers but was told they would need permission to speak with the media. Eldridge offered a ride-along with police, but later said she was unable to confirm scheduling.

Loss of community policing

Street, the retired detective, said he believes the idea of community policing has been lost in Baltimore.

He recalls working in Baltimore’s Fairfield neighborhood in the 1970s, a “poverty-stricken” area where some kids had never been to a baseball game. He reached out to the Orioles, and they provided tickets for 50 people to attend a game, along with hot dogs and hamburgers.

“I’ve got some of the older people that still stay in touch with me from down there. They said, ‘I remember when you took us to the baseball game.’ That’s community policing,” Street said.

Have a news tip? Contact Brooke Conrad at bconrad@baltsun.com, 443-682-2356 or @conrad_brooke on X.