When Mayor Brandon Scott first proposed a goal of reducing Baltimore shootings by 15% per year, his staff “almost fainted” and others laughed, Scott recalled Monday.
Midway through his five-year violence prevention plan, residents are beginning to see the fruits of that work, and those double-digit declines are becoming reality, Scott said at a news conference. The city saw a 20% year-over-year drop in homicides in 2023 and remains below that level in 2024, with nonfatal shootings also declining, though at a slower rate.
“We know we have a long way to go, and together is how we’re going to get there,” said Scott, flanked by community-based organization representatives and city officials. “We’re on a mission to maintain that momentum and continue to see progress driving down violence.”
To that end, Scott’s administration unveiled its first biennial update Monday to his Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan, with progress updates on initial steps and a new fourth pillar focused on youth justice.
The fourth year of the plan, beginning in July, will focus on further expansion of the city’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy, continued attention on its flagship violence intervention program called Safe Streets and some new initiatives, including a delayed school-based violence intervention pilot project and a citywide parent and caregiver commission.
The administration’s announcement Monday comes less than a month out from the Democratic primary for mayor, in which Scott is seeking reelection against challengers including former Mayor Sheila Dixon. She has suggested residents don’t feel safe, despite declining violent crime rates, due to property crime trends including spiking auto thefts.
At a news conference, Scott said he doesn’t “play politics” with public safety, and said things like the expansion of the group violence strategy known as GVRS into the Eastern District earlier this month was the result of following data and best practices.
The Eastern District became the fourth of nine police districts to host the focused deterrence model targeting the population most at risk of gun violence involvement. It is slated to expand into the Southern District later this year and citywide by the end of 2025.
Implementation of the five-year plan has hit hurdles along the way, Scott and others acknowledged Monday. He pointed toward the launch of GVRS, which he said was delayed after a study found the population driving violence was above 30 years old, rather than the 18-to-24-year-old population that one might expect.
There weren’t existing community groups focused on that older population, Scott said, so “we had to build it.” It may have been more popular to launch the pilot more quickly, he said, but then the “popular thing would have been even less popular, had we failed.”
Officials also adapted midway through the plan’s implementation, as attention centered on the number of young people falling victim to gun violence. Last year was one of the most dangerous on record for young people in Baltimore, even as killings overall declined in the city and the state remains below pre-pandemic levels of crime committed by juveniles.
Dr. Letitia Dzirasa, the city’s deputy mayor for health, equity and human services, convened a work group focused on the root causes of youth violence, with feedback from the city’s young people, according to the biennial report. It resulted in some new suggestions and renewed focus on existing work.
The “youth justice” pillar of the mayor’s plan now calls for the expansion of the pre-arrest diversion program SideStep, coordination with the state Department of Juvenile Services on rehabilitative services, the start of a “Youth Outreach Campaign” focused on peace and led by young people, the expansion of trauma-informed care training, increased funding for neighborhood stabilization, and a new parent and caregiver commission to engage with families, among other steps.
Terry Williams runs a youth outreach nonprofit called Challenge to Change. Williams, who goes by “Uncle T,” said his approach to working with youth is to know they “can never fall too low” that the community can’t pick them back up.
“We can’t punish them all the time into greatness. We got to love them into greatness,” he said. “At Challenge to Change, we spell love ‘T-I-M-E.’ Why do we spell it that way? Because it’s the time we spend with them that will make the difference. That’s love.”
Scott’s first violence prevention plan, released in the summer of 2021, sought to coordinate anti-violence initiatives across city government and in partnership with community organizations, recognizing that law enforcement is a critical component of public safety but not the only entity with responsibilities.
The mayor emphasized that his group violence reduction strategy, which offers violence drivers connection to services to change the trajectory of their lives or else facing accountability through law enforcement actions, is not the sole focus of the five-year plan.
Accomplishments, he said, also have included shoring up Safe Streets, which has experienced some problems, by consolidating the community groups operating the city’s 10 sites and creating a new policy manual for community violence intervention.
His team also pointed toward the expansion of Neighborhood Policing Plan pilots in Baltimore and a boost in community policing efforts, which the team monitoring Baltimore Police’s progress with its federal policing consent decree has identified as a struggle for the agency.
So far this year, Baltimore has experienced 57 homicides and 129 nonfatal shootings, according to figures provided by Baltimore Police. In the same time period last year, there were 85 homicides and 162 nonfatal shootings. Last year was the city’s first since 2014 to end with fewer than 300 homicides.
Meanwhile, officials said the city plans to launch its school-based violence prevention programs in time for the start of the 2024-25 school year; to build on coordination between community violence intervention groups; and to strengthen its efforts to support returning citizens being released from prison.
Residents are encouraged to offer feedback on the biennial update at bit.ly/BiennialUpdateFeedbackForm.
