Baltimore's Safe Streets Belvedere reaches 379 days without a homicide

BALTIMORE — Baltimore leaders are celebrating a milestone in the city's violence prevention efforts, with the Safe Streets Belvedere area going more than a year without a homicide.

Mayor Brandon Scott said the area has reached 379 days and counting without a homicide, crediting Safe Streets workers and the community for helping prevent violence.

City officials said the milestone is part of a broader decline in violence across Baltimore. Scott said homicides and non-fatal shootings have fallen about 60% over the past five years, while stressing that the goal remains getting that number to zero.

“We didn't need federal troops descending on Baltimore City. We didn't need all the gimmicks, we just needed a plan for Baltimoreans by Baltimoreans to be implemented with Baltimoreans, and you can see uh that it has happened each and every day,” Scott said.

Belvedere is the sixth Safe Streets site to reach 365 days without a homicide in 2026, according to city officials. McElderry Park, Park Heights, Penn North, Sandtown and Woodbourne-McCabe have also reached the milestone.

Officials said the Belvedere site has successfully mediated more than 120 potentially violent conflicts during the 379-day stretch.

Speakers also made clear that the milestone does not mean the work is finished.

City leaders said the goal is to continue that work until going a year without a homicide is no longer the exception in Baltimore communities.

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