Baltimore Police Commissioner Fires Back At Criticism Inferring City Lacks Crime Plan

By Staff Reporter
Posted on 07/12/17 | News Source: WBAL

Baltimore's police commissioner fired back Tuesday at criticism that the city lacks a plan to reduce violence.

The issue flared up Monday night when a key City Council member abruptly ended a council hearing.

What has been exposed in this controversy is how long Baltimore has been doing the same thing to try to reduce crime, and how frustrated some members of the City Council and the public are becoming.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis used an announcement of a federal drug and murder case to fire back at the suggestion there is no plan to reduce crime.

"Yes, Baltimore, there is a crime plan. Yes, Baltimore, there is a robust active crime strategy," Davis said. "Anyone who says there is not a crime plan or strategy in Baltimore is either intentionally uninformed or operating off ulterior motives."

Davis' comments followed the City Council Public Safety Committee hearing Monday night that ended abruptly when committee Chairman Brandon Scott accused city officials of failing to provide the City Council with a violence reduction strategy.

"Until we get serious about reducing violence in Baltimore, the committee is in recess," Scott said.

Scott's criticism is directed at the mayor's office. In January the City Council called on the Pugh administration to come up with a coordinated response to violence, involving every city agency. That was supposed to be presented Monday at the council hearing.

No such plan has been done before in Baltimore. Traditionally, the city relies solely on policing for crime reduction.

Over the past 10 years, each commissioner -- Fred Bealefled, Anthony Batts and now Davis -- has employed a similar strategy to focus on violent offenders, get guns off the street, push for tougher sentencing laws and use partnerships with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the FBI.

Some in the public want change. Via Twitter, Shai Crawley, a transit activist, wrote: "If Baltimore's crime plan don't (sic) have anything 2 do w/ transit, lead poisoning, dilapidated housing, defunding police, I don't wanna hear it."

Scott wants a plan that goes beyond police.

"The strategy for dealing with public safety in Baltimore should not fall solely at the feet of the Police Department and the police commissioner," Scott said.

Scott is also dissatisfied that the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice is without a director. That office mostly coordinates grant writing.