Statement on the Baltimore Police Department's Crime Plan

Statement on the Baltimore Police Department's Crime Plan

I was proud to stand with Commissioner Harrison, Mayor Young, State’s Attorney Mosby, and our state and local officials this morning for the roll out of the Baltimore Police Department’s crime plan and departmental transformation plan. As City Council President and former chair of the Council’s Public Safety Committee, reducing violent crime and reforming the BPD has been my top priority in office.

In 2017, I led the Council in requesting a comprehensive violence reduction strategy to deal with record levels of violence at that time. We did not receive one, despite producing a comprehensive, citywide public safety framework called Live To Be More. Today, we finally received a plan. 

I am heartened that many of the things that the Council and I have been requesting for years are reflected in this plan:

• Group violence strategy, ensuring we are targeting the small number of individuals who create the overwhelming amount of violence in our city;
• Comprehensive analysis, fully understanding the resources at our city’s disposal to most effectively and efficiently deploy them to reduce violent crime;
• Call-burden reduction, allowing our officers to have the time and capacity to proactively patrol and build relationships in the communities they serve;
• Civilianization, putting more officers on the streets and putting more civilians in administrative jobs within our police department;
• Better data analysis, improving coordination between the BPD and State’s Attorney to build stronger criminal cases.

I’m thankful for Commissioner Harrison’s leadership and dedication to reforming the BPD into a 21st century police department that our residents can have faith in. The Baltimore City Council will hold the police department accountable to this plan.

I wait with anticipation for the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice's crime plan. All of our agencies have a role to play in reducing violence so that we can truly address the disease of gun violence across our city.