BALTIMORE — Wednesday, the Board of Estimates voted to receive $3.6 million in state funding for the Safe Streets program.
This comes following one Safe Streets site that had controversy after it was searched last week by the FBI.
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The FBI confirmed it conducted a 15 count authorized search that included the Belair-Edison Safe Streets location.
Charging documents from the District of Maryland shows the home of its site supervisor David Caldwell was also searched. No federal arrests were made but Caldwell is facing an illegal possession of ammo charge.
Some city residents are worried this news will discredit the work of Safe Streets violence interrupters. But city leaders like Mayor Brandon Scott said this involves specific people who need to be held accountable.
Now, they’re reassuring city residents why they shouldn’t lose trust in the Safe Streets organization and why it shouldn’t cause the entire organization to be dismantled or defunded.
“When we were under a federal investigation for BPD we were still taking grants from the state for BPD. We have to treat those individuals who are doing wrong, wrong. The same way we do when police officers, when elected officials, when people in the military, and any other walk of life are caught doing wrong. Those individuals are held to account and that's what we're going to do here,” Scott said.
As of November 1, Baltimore has seen 226 homicides, compared to 278 at this time last year. Mayor Scott said the work Safe Streets is doing is adding to that success of decreased homicides.
“We are talking about a city that is finally, on track in Baltimore to see under 300 homicides for the first time in nine years. We cannot allow individuals to tear down things that work,” Scott said.
Mayor Scott said he spoke with comptroller Bill Henry who plans to perform an audit of the organization. Scott said there will also be some changes to the hiring process for Safe Streets workers moving forward and those changes will be made public at a later date.
“We are talking about individuals and we have to hold those individuals accountable not the entire system. Not their entire agency that would be disrespectful to the people who put their lives on the line,” Scott said.
