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THE SECRET TO BALTIMORE’S EXTRAORDINARY YEAR  
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Rebecca Crosby and Noel Sims
July 16, 2025
Popular Information
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_ Baltimore has fought violent crime not only through policing but
through programs that provide support for housing, career development,
and education. These approaches are derided as "woke." A better word
to describe its holistic strategy: effective. _

Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott, (Photo by Danielle J.
Brown/Maryland Matters).

 

This April, Baltimore saw five homicides. That is the fewest of any
month since 1970
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when the city began tracking monthly homicide numbers. In the first
six months of the year, homicides were down 22% compared to 2024
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and non-fatal shootings were down 19%. This is the latest in a string
of historic declines in violent crime. In 2024, homicides dropped 23%
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from 2023 numbers, and non-fatal shootings dropped 34%. In 2023, the
city also saw record-breaking decreases.

What has made Baltimore — which President Trump and other
conservatives deride as a “filthy
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Democrat-controlled “slum
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— so successful in making its streets safer?

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D), who was first elected in 2020, has
brought the city’s homicide rate down by treating violent crime as a
public health crisis
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That means treating violent crime as a symptom of multiple factors,
including racism, poverty, and past violence. Addressing violent crime
as a public health issue involves going beyond arresting people after
violence is committed and taking proactive and preventative measures.

“What Baltimore did that's so impactful is really invested in a
whole ecosystem of community–oriented interventions,” The Vera
Institute for Justice's Daniela Gilbert told Popular Information.
Under Scott, Baltimore has fought violent crime not only through
policing but through a network of programs that provide support for
housing, career development, and education.

In today's political environment, these approaches are frequently
derided as "woke" and "naive." But the dramatic decline in violent
crime in Baltimore over the last few years suggests that there is a
better word to describe its holistic strategy: effective.

TARGETING THE ROOT CAUSES OF GUN VIOLENCE

 
In December 2020, Scott announced
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the creation of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and
Engagement (MONSE), which oversees city agencies and community
partners working to reduce violence in the city and “work to ensure
accountability across Baltimore’s holistic violence reduction
strategy.”

In January 2022, MONSE launched the Group Violence Reduction Strategy
(GVRS). The strategy, launched in partnership with the Baltimore
Police Department and the State’s Attorney’s Office, utilizes a
collaboration between law enforcement, community members, and social
services to “engag directly with those most intimately involved in
and affected by violence [[link removed]].”
The GVRS aims to target the root causes of gun violence, such as
poverty, mental health, and housing issues
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by matching participants with a life coach. Participants are also
provided with financial support
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while they seek employment.

The GVRS has delivered results. As of February 2024, the program had a
recidivism rate of only 4.3%
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An evaluation by the University of Pennsylvania’s Crime and Justice
Policy Lab found
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that the GVRS significantly reduced violence in the city’s Western
District, where the program was initially implemented. "uring the
first 18 months of implementation,” there was “a 33% approximate
gun violence reduction, 60 fewer victims, and a 33% approximate
carjacking reduction,” according to the study.

Baltimore also created multiple programs to provide young people with
more resources and opportunities. The Summer Youth Engagement
Strategy, for example, focuses on deterring violence during spring and
summer vacations. The strategy, which was launched in 2023
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provides “events, opportunities, and resources for young people to
enjoy themselves in a safe environment
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including pool parties, block parties, and summer camps. The city also
works with community violence intervention partners on summer weekends
to engage with young people and mediate conflicts that could lead to
violence in high-traffic areas. For spring vacation this year, the
city launched “27 spring break opportunities with about 630 young
people registered
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In a press release from the Mayor’s office, Scott credited the
program with helping to reduce youth violence. “Correlated with the
strategy’s activation last summer, youth shooting victimizations
decreased 66 percent and aggravated assault victimizations dropped 31
percent in 2024,” the release stated
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In December, Scott announced that the city was launching
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a School-Based Violence Intervention Program pilot, which involved
pairing four high schools with community-based organizations.
Specialists at each school worked to “shift community norms about
the acceptability of violence,” “provide counseling for students
at the highest risk for violence,” and strengthen “conflict
management skills.”

In 2021, Baltimore also partnered
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with the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety to develop a data
intelligence tool to help the Baltimore Police Department solve crimes
involving firearms.

MEDIATION OVER INCARCERATION

 
Another program that Baltimore has implemented in an effort to reduce
violence in the community is Safe Streets, which involves community
members mediating conflicts in ten zones
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that have historically had high gun violence rates
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In 2020, Safe Streets zones “mediated over 2,300 conflicts” and
“hosted 451 community mobilization events with 58,000+ total
attendance,” according to MONSE
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Safe Streets, which launched in Baltimore in 2007 and expanded under
Scott
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has successfully reduced shootings in key neighborhoods. Several Safe
Streets sites in the city have even gone a full year or more
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without any homicides under the program.

A 2023 study
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by the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health found that Safe Streets Baltimore
“reduced homicides and nonfatal shootings overall from 2007 to
2022.” The study, which was funded by MONSE, found that the program
was “associated with a 23 percent reduction in nonfatal
shootings,” with the five longest-running Safe Streets sites seeing,
on average, 32% lower homicide rates in the first four years.

While the study found that implementing Safe Street sites did not
always lead to fewer shootings, with some neighborhoods experiencing
no effect or an increase in gun violence, it stated that the overall
pattern was “very encouraging
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A SURGICAL APPROACH TO LAW ENFORCEMENT

 
In addition to community interventions and services, traditional law
enforcement also has a role to play in Baltimore’s efforts to reduce
violent crime, but experts say it is a more narrow role than police
have played in the past.

“People do have this natural idea if you want to reduce crime, you
have to lock people up,” said Ben Struhl, executive director of the
Crime and Justice Policy Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, who
helped Baltimore develop its GVRS.

But Struhl and Jeremy Biddle, who is the Lab’s director of Violence
Reduction Policy and Programs and who worked for Baltimore City,
including on the GVRS, said that in the past, indiscriminate arrests
have put more people in the justice system without reducing crime.

Instead, Biddle said the Baltimore police are now focusing on a
smaller group of people who are responsible for most of the city’s
violence. Biddle has studied nearly every homicide in Baltimore over
the last six years and said that the city aligns with a national
trend: “A small fraction — typically under 2% of a given community
— is tied to as much as 50 to 75% of all shooting and homicide
incidents.”

Gilbert, from The Vera Institute for Justice, echoed that a narrow
focus helps law enforcement better combat community violence. She also
stressed that collaboration with the city can help build trust and
accountability for the police department. The Baltimore Police
Department has been under a mandate
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2017 to make reforms in response to multiple violations of citizens’
rights, including the death of a man in police custody during
transportation. In April, a federal judge released the department
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from two clauses of the mandate related to officer wellness and the
safe transportation of detainees.

Gilbert commended Baltimore for targeting the right people with law
enforcement and otherwise focusing on "supporting people and
connecting folks with the kind of support that is actually reliable
for them.”

_Rebecca Crosby and Noel Sims are reporters at Popular Information._

_Popular Information, a newsletter dedicated to accountability
journalism since 2018, was created by Judd Legum.  You are not a
spectator, and democracy is not a game. But so much of what is written
about politics treats you that way. That’s why I created Popular
Information. It is daily news and analysis that respects you as a
citizen. _You won’t just learn about who is up and who is down.
You’ll get in-depth information and perspective on the things that
really matter. 

* Baltimore
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* Mayor Brandon Scott
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* violence reduction
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