Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said the city has “stabilized” since recording its deadliest year on record in 2015 and hopes increased community support in getting violent criminals off the streets will translate to further gains.

“Community support is an art form. It’s not an exact science, but I certainly feel it,” Davis said during a panel discussion on WMAR-TV’s “Square Off” program with host Richard Sher that aired Sunday.

“It feels different in 2016, and I’m hopeful it’s contagious,” Davis said.

Davis has been espousing community­-oriented policing based on improved relationships with residents since he took over the department last summer. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (D) fired Davis’s predecessor, Anthony W. Batts, in July after the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray from injuries acquired in police custody in April, the rioting and looting that occurred after Gray’s funeral, and a surge in killings in the months that followed.

The pace of violence continued after Davis took over, and there were 344 homicides in Baltimore by year’s end — the most killings per capita on record and the first time homicides had topped 300 since 1999.

The pace fell for the first time in January, when there were 14 homicides. It has ticked back up this month — there had been 22 homicides this month as of Saturday afternoon — but Davis said the city is back on the right track.

“We’ve stabilized it. We’re in a better place in 2016. We’re not in a perfect place, but we know that public safety has a big role to play in economic development, a big role to play with small businesses, and we’re committed to be a part of it,” he said in response to questions from “Square Off” panelists about Baltimore’s ability to attract new residents and businesses, given last year’s crime surge.

“The 2015 crisis has brought this community together,” he said.

Davis’s approach to policing has been analyzed extensively since his appointment to the department’s top spot, and this past week was no exception. After a speech he made Wednesday to a class of police academy trainees at Anne Arundel Community College — in which he described the emotional response of a veteran officer as having helped “spark” property damage around Oriole Park at Camden Yards on April 25 — he issued an email to department members apologizing.

“I do not believe the actions of any Baltimore police officer caused or created the violence and property destruction that occurred at Camden Yards,” Davis said in the email. “My remarks were intended to be constructive in an educational environment. I should have chosen my words more carefully.”