Between policing, jailing and prosecuting, the price tag of the city's problem is huge, costing taxpayers more than $1 billion a year.

Advertisement Baltimore crime costs taxpayers more than $1B a year City leaders tout new crime-fighting strategy Share Shares Copy Link Copy

The backdrop of the spike in violent crime in Baltimore -- the real cost to taxpayers -- is more than a $1 billion a year.Between policing, jailing and prosecuting, the price tag of the city's problem is huge, I-Team lead investigative reporter Jayne Miller said.Mobile users tap here for video.That $1 billion falls on both city taxpayers and taxpayers statewide because so much of the city's public safety industry is paid for with state dollars. Some may ask that for all the money being spent, why isn't there a better result?In a tough neighborhood off Harford Road -- the scene of two slayings since August -- Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Baltimore City Police Commissioner Anthony Batts on Tuesday touted their new strategy to fight violent crime: An expansion of enforcement zones to zero in on violent offenders."What we are doing here is taking the best practices from an empirical data standpoint, looking at what has worked for us and expanding it," Batts said.It follows other strategies in recent years -- 30 to 40, according to the police commissioner -- that have also focused on violent crime."For those who say it's just another thing, OK, what are we supposed to do? Wash our hands and say, 'Let it be?' I am going to continue the fight," Rawlings-Blake said.It is an expensive fight, according to the WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team's analysis of city and state budgets. Two big numbers stand out.The city is spending $428.7 million this year on its police department, while state taxpayers this year are paying $349 million to lock up and supervise the city's offenders. That figure includes the cost of running Central Booking and the scandal-plagued city jail -- both paid for by the state.But public safety also includes courts, prosecutors and public defenders. Add those costs to the crime costs for the city, and they go from nine digits to 10 -- topping out, according to the I-Team's estimate, at $1,002,430,450, Miller reported. For comparison, the city school budget is just a bit more at $1.17 billion."I am always concerned that we get the most bang for our buck with taxpayer dollars, whether we are talking about a $20 program or a $400 million police budget," said City Councilman Brandon Scott.