BALTIMORE (Map, News) - The last time we saw Det. Lamont Davis, at the Eastern District of the Baltimore Police Department, he was holding up a bible that wasn’t exactly his. It was the Blood bible, in which we find the by-laws of the Bloods street gang. Davis was holding it out for inspection when everybody got a little sidetracked.

We have a problem here. Everybody in law enforcement talks about it, and the crime numbers reflect their anxiety. And Davis and another detective, Dennis Workley, were concerned enough, and brave enough, to put their names next to their concerns the other day.

They talked about the dangers of so many desperate, angry, disenfranchised people joining these street gangs as a kind of extended family when they have no other. They talked about the connection between these gangs and the increased levels of violence in the metro area. They talked about the need for far more police focus on the gangs.

Then we heard from police brass, making the sad claim that there's adequate coverage, and from Paul Blair, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, who said two things: There’s a terrible shortage of officers; and there might be “political” fallout for the detectives Workley and Davis.

This is insanity, and we will get to it in a moment.

But first, let’s take a look at this Blood bible, which Davis holds in his hand. He retrieved it from this dank little corridor at the Eastern District, next to a row of vacant cells, which is the space out of which the tiny Gang Unit works.

In this time of great worry about crime, Workley and Davis are one-half of the only unit in the department working full-time on gang-related enforcement and intelligence.

“The Blood bible,” says Davis, holding open the pages of the book. He shows it to City Councilman Keiffer Mitchell, who’s here to talk about police coverage. The Bloods are just one of the nationally connected street gangs with a growing presence here.

“Look at this,” Davis says, turning page after page of neatly written script. “Here. Some of the rules. ‘Death to all those who go against the Bloods. Don’t rob, beat or touch another Blood. Never show fear. No snitching. R.I.P. to all those who died in the struggle ...’ ”

“Wait a minute,” Councilman Mitchell says. “What struggle?”

“Oh, yeah,” Workley says. “We had a girl in here. Belongs to the Bloods. She told us, ‘I bang for the cause.’ You hear this all the time, ‘the cause.’ We said, ‘What’s the cause?’ She sat there and thought about it, and didn’t say anything for a while. Finally, she said, ‘I don’t know.’ ”

Sometimes it doesn’t matter. Sometimes it’s just the sound of something dramatic, something that sounds rebellious, something that finally connects isolated, adrift, troubled human beings to something when they’ve had nothing else in their lives to which they feel any connection.

“A lot of these people,” says Davis, “they’ve got no real family. They’re looking for something to give their lives a little structure. And these gang guys come up to them, and that’s what they’re selling. That sense of family.

“They tell them, ‘Listen, y’all grew up together, but you’re battling over the same product. We can get you better product. We can get you better weapons, better protection. If you have to go to prison, we can get you better protection inside the joint.”

The city’s not the only area facing this problem. The counties report worrisome increases. But, as Workley puts it, “Around here, Baltimore’s the hub. And it spreads.”

Mitchell met with the detectives after hearing reports from other police that the Gang Unit consisted of just a handful of officers.

“It’s outrageous,” Mitchell said, “that we have such a gang problem and so few officers working on it. It shows a lack of leadership in the department.” Mitchell, running for mayor, has called for increased police hiring. So has Mayor Sheila Dixon.

Which gets us back to the two detectives, Workley and Davis, and Blair’s concern about the “politics” of their speaking out. “In this department,” said Blair, “they don’t like it.” But, what the detectives said is an exact echo of Dixon and Mitchell and everyone else running for office this summer.

We do not want to live in fear. There are gangs committing mindless violence, and the police are supposed to be protecting everyone from this. By speaking out, Davis and Workley were looking out for their community and not just their jobs.

Please send news tips to Michael Olesker at olesker@baltimoreexaminer.com