Editor’s note: The “Mayoral candidates on the issues” series won second place (Division C) in the Series category of the Maryland, Delaware, and D.C. Press Association’s 2024 Contest. The series also won second place in the Wild Card category (this year’s category theme, which changes each year, was focused on pre-election coverage of the 2024 election). Read the other parts of the series by clicking the links at the bottom of this article. Read our other award-winning pieces here.
Public safety is a perennial concern for Charm City residents. Baltimore often tops lists of cities with highest crime rates. And even with declines in some categories, there have been 78 homicides, 150 shootings, and 147 carjackings so far this year, according to the Baltimore City Police Department’s crime statistics dashboard.
Addressing public safety remains a primary concern of voters, with 78% of registered voters polled in April by Goucher College citing it as their top issue as they head to the polls for Tuesday’s mayoral primary election.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott is hoping to continue efforts to address public safety with another term. His top opponent, former mayor Sheila Dixon, criticized the incumbent’s handling of crime, especially carjackings and “quality of life” crimes like loitering or public nuisance. Businessman Bob Wallace and teacher Wendy Bozel, also looking to replace Scott at the city’s top post, both think more can be done to improve public safety.
“Never in the history of Baltimore have you had a mayoral election where you weren’t talking about homicides,” Scott said, adding that if reelected he’d continue to “not only drive down crime in Baltimore, but to make every single neighborhood safer.”
While homicides are indeed down, the decline mirrors a broader trend across the U.S. following a pandemic spike in 2020. Despite the reduction in homicides, there are still a number of issues facing the Baltimore Police Department, and the work officers do each day.
“Yeah, homicides have gone down, but various crimes have gone up,” Wallace said. “Crime will rise to the level in which it is tolerated. What my plan as mayor is to… establish a mentality and an expectation that we will not tolerate these crimes.”
Police shortage
Among the issues the next mayor will need to contend with is an officer shortage. The department is looking to fill 600 vacancies, the police union told Baltimore’s Fox45 last month. Fewer officers means fewer patrolman working the beat.
Dixon said the department under her leadership would address officer retention, recruitment, and morale. She’d also tap retired officers to return to the agency to help with patrolling and training as it builds up its staffing.
If elected, Dixon pledged work with the Baltimore City Sheriff’s Office, the school police, the MTA police, and the police forces of universities in Baltimore to help with coverage gaps.
Wallace said he would also tap retired officers to help the department police the city while it addresses recruitment. He’d also design a program to allow veterans an expedited path to join the force.
Carjackings and car theft
Dixon criticized the current mayor’s handling of the uptick in carjackings and auto thefts across the city, suggesting Scott should have addressed these thefts “before it got out of control.”
Scott pointed to the “negligence of Hyundai and Kia” as a key reason for a spike in car thefts. Scott said that’s why he joined other mayors across the U.S. in a public nuisance lawsuit against the automakers.
The Baltimore Police Department, Scott contends, is working to tamp down car thefts, with hundreds of arrests each year. He also pointed to the city’s efforts to provide Apple Airtags and wheel locks to thwart theives.
Wallace said car thefts are among what he calls “economic crimes,” and suggests the activity must be met with more resources and economic viability in areas where these crimes occur.
“If you address the need issue, where people have jobs, the unemployed and underemployed are gainfully employed so they can make enough money to take care of their family [and] raise their children, you’re not going to have these crimes,” he said.
Quality of life crimes
Dixon’s public safety plan includes a renewed focus on quality of life crimes.
The former mayor received the endorsement from the Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates last month. The city’s top attorney ran and won his 2022 bid to unseat Marilyn Mosby campaigning on enhanced enforcement of these types of crimes. Bates’s office resumed the citation docket for these last July.
“It’s not about locking up but you know, come on enough is enough,” she said. “People have to have respect for the communities that they live in.”
Dixon wants to increase police presence outside in key areas. She said that it’s unfair to the average taxpayer for people to be loitering or hanging out near bus stops or subway stations, like at North Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue.
Soctt says he does care about quality of life crimes in Baltimore, but he sees the police department’s efforts under his leadership as an “informed way of understanding public safety.”
The mayor pointed to his Group Violence Reduction Strategy as a key component to addressing quality of life crimes, suggesting that gang and gun related activity have a detrimental impact on quality of life in areas with high activity, some of the same individuals are loitering around neighborhoods.
Stripping violent organizations from neighborhoods and offering residents resources “is a quality of life issue,” the mayor contends.
He’d said he’s very sensitive to going “back to the days of the past where we wrongfully and illegally and, in a very racist manner, had black and brown and poor people in Baltimore being over policed simply for existing.”
“We will hold people accountable for illegal actions,” he said. “We are going to police in a community-informed way that is constitutional.”
Bozel said she’d direct the police department to focus on addressing crime in the Sandtown Winchester neighborhood, suggesting a bulk of the city’s crime comes from this area. But she said it’s a broader issue of the city failing to invest in that community to “it a great area for kids to go to school.”
Full mayoral campaign issues coverage:
Mayoral candidates on bicycle transportation
Mayoral candidates on supporting art
Mayoral candidates on the environment
Mayoral candidates on vacant properties
Mayoral candidates on recycling, trash collection and public works
Mayoral candidates on graffiti, dumping and cleanliness
Mayoral candidates on jobs and the economy
Mayoral candidates on large development projects and special tax treatment
Mayoral candidates on squeegee workers and youth recreation
Mayoral candidates on crime and public safety
