One of America's most violent cities has suddenly become less so—thanks to smarter policing Web Link

One helpful new tool is a registry for gun offenders which the mayor, Sheila Dixon, announced last year. Like sex criminals, anyone who commits a crime using a gun must register his whereabouts with the police as soon as he is convicted or once released from jail. Failure to do so can get him imprisoned again for up to a year.

The logic is simple. Of the 135 people arrested for murder in Baltimore last year, nearly half had a prior conviction for a gun offence. So it makes sense for police and parole officers to keep close tabs on former gun criminals.

Can you repost the web link? It doesn't work.

sorry here is the link from the current Economist Web Link

I'm a huge fan of "The Wire," so its interesting to read some recent real news about the ghettos of "B-more."
Sounds like a very good program. Personally, as a gun-rights advocate, I like that program because it directs laws and law enforcement where it needs to be...towards the people that are actually breaking the law, rather than law abiding citizens.
I wish they interviewed the real-life "Bunk" or "McNulty."