In 2021, shortly after starting his first term, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) rolled out a comprehensive plan to reduce gun violence in a city that had long been troubled by one of the deadliest homicide rates in the nation.
The strategy was to approach gun violence as a public health threat instead of simply a crime issue and to treat that threat at the source by investing in violence interrupters, community organizations and trauma-informed support systems in impacted neighborhoods. The plan’s goal: reduce shootings by 15 percent every year for five years.
Now four years in, Scott said, the plan is working.
As of July 1, 68 people in Baltimore had died by homicide this year, the fewest during the first six months of the year in more than five decades. It marks a nearly 23 percent decrease compared to the first half of 2024. Shootings where nobody was killed have also fallen by nearly 20 percent compared to the same time period last year. The falling statistics, mirroring a national drop in violent crime, follow years of similar declines.
“Everybody plays a part,” Scott said in an interview. “Yes, I’m the mayor. Yes, I had to come up with and deliver this plan. But none of it works without every single one of our partners.”
Among them, the mayor said, are the 40 or so employees of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement; the dozens of people who work as violence interrupters with the city’s flagship gun violence reduction program, Safe Streets; the Baltimore Police Department; the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office; the U.S. attorney’s office and the Office of the Maryland Attorney General.
“But most importantly,” Scott said, “the folks in the community.”
After a spike during the pandemic, homicides by guns in the United States have steadily dwindled, to 17,927 in 2023, according to the most recent
Center For Disease Control data available. In D.C., there have been 85 homicides this year as of July 3, compared to 89 during the same time last year, according to
police department data.
The historically low violent crime rate in Baltimore has prompted a scramble to take credit among state and city leaders, all of whom are acknowledging each other’s roles while emphasizing their own parts.
The office of Gov. Wes Moore (D) pointed to the $50 million in state funding to the Baltimore Police Department and additional $10.8 million to the city’s state’s attorney’s office since he took office in 2023. Under the Moore administration, state leaders and lawmakers have also focused on changes to the juvenile justice system, measures for stricter gun regulations, and coordination about experts, advocates and officials on commissions centered on best practices for crime-fighting and restorative justice.
In a statement, Moore praised the “all-of-the-above approach to public safety that is showing results across the state.”
