Time to put a light on controversial Safe Streets program

PUBLISHED: October 21, 2025 | www.baltimoresun.com

Baltimore has long been a city divided along racial and economic lines, further demonstrated by a geographical map illustrated by the “Black Butterfly,” representing the predominantly underserved communities of Black Baltimoreans, versus the “White L,” representing the more affluent white communities that make up Charm City.

However, the past few years have featured another division that is starting to take shape here in Baltimore, the division among those who want to attribute the reasons for the city’s recent historic reduction in homicides and violent crime. There is a faction that hails Mayor Brandon Scott and his Group Violence Reduction Strategy as the reason crime has dissipated across the city. His method consists of a focused deterrence model of so-called violence interrupters offering resources and programs to those identified as being the ones perpetrating violence across the city.

Others give the sole credit to Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan J. Bates, who on day one of his administration sent a message to criminals to “pack their toothbrush” if they continued to engage in illegal activities. The first-term prosecutor backed up his words with a coordinated approach to prosecuting gun crimes alongside Gov. Wes Moore and former U.S. Attorney Erek Barron, which led to thousands of repeat, violent offenders prosecuted and sitting behind bars, unable to perpetrate the violence Baltimore once became accustomed to. And regardless of which side you choose, the numbers don’t lie.

During the first two years of the Scott administration, during which Mayor Scott promised a 15% reduction in homicides each year, Baltimore witnessed homicides and violent crime increase, continuing the 300+ annual homicides trend the city had witnessed for the six years prior. It wasn’t until 2023, the first year of the Bates administration, that Baltimore saw the numbers start to steadily decline at such a dramatic pace that this year, Baltimore is seeing the greatest decline in violent crime and homicides it has witnessed in well over 50 years.

One such program affiliated with Mayor Scott’s deterrence model is the violent interrupters who work for the program known as Safe Streets. This public health program, made up of formerly convicted felons who are “influencers” within the criminal world, is focused on having outreach workers intervene when “beef” occurs in their community, looking to step in and de-escalate situations and mediate the conflict. They work for the city, specifically the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, but technically are not city employees, having their employment housed under one of two non-profits — Catholic Charities and LifeBridge Health’s Center for Hope.

This new operation model was set up by Mayor Scott in 2022, taking the roughly 40 Safe Street workers operating in the 10 neighborhoods in which the program operates and stashing them safely under the umbrella of these non-profits, thereby shielding them from the same public scrutiny that an average city employee would endure. Unlike other Safe Street programs across the country, like the one in New York, where the workers working within the program have their faces and names publicly shared on their website, Baltimore has continued to hide the identification of these workers from the general public, the media and even the state prosecutor.

Unfortunately, the mayor’s decision to continue touting a program surrounded by a shroud of secrecy may have just put the program and its leadership under a legal microscope, after FOX45 recently uncovered several cases in which individuals charged with various crimes went into court touting their affiliation with the Safe Streets program in an attempt to get sent home during bail review hearings. The attorneys for the three individuals in question were captured on court audio recordings celebrating the work their client had done for the program and making the argument to the judge that this should weigh heavily when deciding whether they should be detained without bail or sent home while awaiting a court hearing.

One such individual is Antonio Taylor, whose attorney stated on the record that he was “somewhat responsible for the decrease of crime in the city as the director of outreach” for the Safe Streets program. In fact, Mr. Taylor was standing next to Mayor Scott when he was arrested for this latest incident, according to his attorney. However, according to the city, none of these individuals work for, or have any affiliation with, Safe Streets. If that is the case, it calls into question whether there is a larger problem of individuals perpetrating a fraud on the courts by fraudulently listing employment with an organization.

This is something that has raised the eyebrows of State’s Attorney Bates, who told FOX45 that his office is seriously considering whether or not to open an investigation into the Safe Streets program based on these possible fraudulent actions. However, he remains perplexed as to why the city refuses to release the names of these individuals, even to him, whose job is to ensure the crimes these individuals are supposed to be preventing are prosecuted, but it appears that they may be contributing to the crime numbers.

So now the question remains as to the group’s effectiveness in the community if they are continuing to engage in illegal activities, if these individuals do in fact work for Safe Streets. Citizens are also seemingly wondering about the true effectiveness of this program, which consists of a very small catchment area of the city, and continues to operate under a cloud of secrecy and suspicion, all while being funded by the city with millions of taxpayer dollars.

Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.

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