BALTIMORE, Md. — It was crowded behind the podium inside City Hall on Tuesday afternoon. Everyone there had a common goal - to make Baltimore a safer place to live.
City and state leaders reflected on the progress made in the last two years - a historic drop in homicides and shootings. Governor Moore said he inherited a government with fundamental gaps in the system.
"When we took office, our public safety agencies struggled to recruit and retain top talent. Our State’s Attorney and U.S. Attorney were in desperate need of more resources. State agencies weren’t talking to each other, even if they had complete overlap in the work."
He's seeing improvements in all of those regards, specifically with communication in the Department of Juvenile Services. WMAR-2 News has covered issues between the department and the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office, as well as with the Baltimore Police Department.
"These were long-standing issues," Governor Moore said. "If you take a look at what’s happening right now between DJS and also what’s happening with State’s Attorneys, you’re seeing a marked difference and a marked coordination change about what happens once a child is inside the system, about what’s happening once information is being shared."
Governor Moore and Mayor Brandon Mayor Scott made it clear that they see partnership as the key.
"Anyone who tries to singularly claim credit for success is either naive, being silly, or truthfully, are just plain disingenuous. Because that’s not how success happens. Success happens when you have people who are willing to band together to achieve a common goal."
"Because the Ravens are gonna beat the Steelers this weekend, I'll give a football analogy," Mayor Scott said. "We are all a part of a team. That’s the reality. And when you think about the city of Baltimore, the mayor’s the quarterback. I am the person that ultimately everyone’s gonna look at when things go bad. […] The Commissioner may be Derrick Henry. We might have someone else that is Zay Flowers. We don’t need any Diontae Johnsons that are refusing to come to the table and be partners.
The rebuffs may have been directed at State's Attorney Ivan Bates. His office put out these data points today, comparing the number of homicide convictions his office secured to his predecessor's, as well as the convictions that stemmed from the Mayor's much-touted Group Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS.)
Bates was not present during the press conference. Deputy State's Attorney Angela Galeano attended on his behalf. WMAR-2 News asked why. She said he had a scheduling conflict.
"With more violent offenders being held accountable with incarceration, would-be trigger-pullers are removed from our City, and we are seeing record lows in the violent crime that plagued Baltimore for decades,' Galeano said during the press conference.
"The drop in homicides actually started in the fall of 2022 before the State's Attorney took office, and we're gonna continue to let folks know that reality," Mayor Scott told reporters. "But when you think about the targeting of violent repeat offenders, we have to understand that that starts with the men and women of the Baltimore Police Department. So when you think about prosecuting people who had guns on them illegally in the city, that starts here in this building, and the direction that we give to BPD every day. But more importantly, it starts with those women and men [of BPD]. So anybody that’s trying to say anything otherwise, is not talking the truth."
During the press conference, we also heard from the leaders of boots-on-the-ground organizations that are working to reduce violence through youth intervention.
"I love the fact that so many partners from the streets are being let into this process, who have familiarity with our young people and their families," Dr. Andrey Bundley, the head of the Mayor's Office of African-American Male Engagement, said.
Tyrone Kent, director of Roca Baltimore, said, "In FY ’24, we supported 451 of the highest-risk young men in the city of Baltimore. Of those in the program 24 months or longer, 80% have no new arrests, and 92% had no new incarcerations. But sadly, we also lost young people due to violence this year. And like everyone here, we are not satisfied with the progress made to date and are steadfast in our commitment to do all we can do to support the Mayor’s efforts to continue to reduce the number of homicides in our city."
Andrew Muhammad, co-founder of We Our Us, said, "It’s love that allows us to go into the trenches, to go into these communities that don’t nobody want to go in, and talk to these young men with guns on them and drugs on them and help them to identify the things they need to help themselves be better, productive young men. And the Mayor gets it."
A few hours after the press conference, the Mayor held his annual Vigil of Remembrance at War Memorial Plaza. He said beforehand that his message to the victims' famiies would be: "We will never not be with them."