Ryan E. Little

Ryan Little is an award-winning data journalist at The Baltimore Banner, where he uses computational tools to tell powerful stories about the people and experiences found in large data sets.

Most recently, he was the Roy W. Howard Investigative Fellow at Mother Jones. He has also worked at the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, the Capital News Service and The Ledger in Lakeland, Fla. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press and elsewhere.

Little has a master’s degree from the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. There, he focused his studies on computational and data journalism.

The Baltimore Banner •

Proposed Baltimore police districts would lump more violent crime into the most violent districts, analysis shows

The Baltimore Police Department’s proposed new district boundaries, which officials say are necessary to modernize and streamline police operations, would shift areas of the city that have had more of the most violent crimes into larger, more violent Eastern and Western districts, a Baltimore Banner analysis has found.
The Baltimore Banner’s analysis shows that the city’s attempt to equally distribute workload among its nine districts creates other inequities, disproportionately saddling larger versions of the Western, Eastern, Southwestern and Central districts with areas that have seen even more shootings, homicides and aggravated assaults. The trends were similar when The Banner analyzed pre-pandemic crime trends and those since the beginning of 2020.
The Baltimore Banner •

For some Maryland landlords, filing for eviction is a monthly routine. Tenants pay the price.

In Anne Arundel County, a Baltimore Banner analysis of electronically available failure-to-pay-rent cases found that nearly a fifth of the more than 27,000 renters who had received an eviction filing since 2019 got five or more complaints during that time. Some residents had received as many as 30 eviction notices. The cases make up 57% of all civil cases since 2019.
The analysis also found that fewer than 2,250 of those cases resulted in eviction, revealing Maryland landlords’ widespread use of the court system as a tool for collecting rent — often with extra fees tacked on — rather than for actually removing tenants.
The Baltimore Banner •

Maryland kids in distress are being kept in emergency departments for weeks, months

A Baltimore Banner analysis of MDHS data found that hospital stays past the point of medical necessity increased as out-of-state placements, especially of psychiatric patients, dropped. They were far more likely to experience an overstay than medical patients, with stays for psychiatric patients lasting a week longer on average, according to the data compiled in state reports first mandated in 2019.
The Baltimore Banner •

City to conduct traffic calming study on Orleans Street

Liam Davis, the legislative affairs manager for the department, said the city is committed to implementing some traffic calming measures and conducting a six-month study of the corridor. The study, which will focus on traffic patterns from Washington Street to Ellwood Avenue, is set to start in either late October or early November, according to the department.
Davis said there were a few factors that led to the study, such as the data — which was “highlighted” in a Baltimore Banner story — community interest, and political support from elected officials.
“The data shows that traffic calming is really kind of needed, right?” Davis said.