Baltimore's Comprehensive Communities Program: A Case Study

• NCJ Number: 204627
• Author(s): Jeffrey A. Roth; George L. Kelling
• Date Published: January 2004
• Length: 74 pages
• Grant Number(s): 1998-IJ-CX-0053
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description

Annotation

This paper presents an overview and description, based on site visits of a U.S. Department of Justice funded crime prevention program in Baltimore, MD the Comprehensive Communities Program (CCP).

Abstract

Baltimore's Comprehensive Communities Program (CCP) was one of 16 sites invited by and funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to combat crime. Baltimore’s CCP had its roots in community organizing around housing problems with a strong focus on problem-solving through sophisticated and time-tested legal processes. In 1994, Baltimore piloted its comprehensive strategy in the Boyd Booth area of West Baltimore. Boyd Booth was a poor area that contained one of the oldest, most active drug markets in the city. Baltimore’s CCP defined an explicit “comprehensive community-based anti-drug strategy.” CCP intended to build neighborhoods’ capacities to meet law enforcement needs through community policing; to provide effective community input through organizational and legal channels; and to coordinate service delivery in the participating communities. This paper, supported by the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, is a case study of Baltimore’s CCP program and written as a result of site visits made to various CCP programs and interviews with CCP participants between November 1995 and March 1997. Data are incorporated from BOTEC’s CCP Coalition Survey and Community Policing Survey and information contained in several Federal and local documents and reports. Appendix A-B