On Tuesday, Governor Larry Hogan announced that he will be implementing several new initiatives to target violent crime in Baltimore City, citing the increasing violence as “completely unacceptable.” Hogan plans to open a Violent Crime Joint Operations Center in the city that will have 200 “strike force” officers from 16 federal and local agencies to fight crime and gangs.

“Citizens across the state are outraged by the daily headlines of this rampant gang violence,” Hogan said at the press conference. “They don’t feel safe in their own neighborhoods . . . They’re crying out for somebody to do something to stop these killings.”

For the last four years, the city has exceeded more than 300 homicides. Hogan said that “enough is enough” and that he will use every resource available to curb the amount of violence in Baltimore, including providing additional funding to the Baltimore Police Department for signing bonuses to attract more recruits, as well as $50 million to fund every request received from victim service providers across the state.

“All of these efforts won’t be enough if we can’t keep these repeat offenders off the streets,” he said. “According to the BPD, 60 percent of those convicted of gun crimes in Baltimore City do not serve any real time and are released back onto the streets to commit violent felonies again and again. This is completely unacceptable.”

The governor will fund the expansion of Project Exile, a federal program that targets repeat offenders and have them charged under federal laws and courts that may lead to longer sentences. Hogan also said he would introduce legislation at Maryland’s General Assembly session, which begins today, that would increase the mandatory minimum sentence for repeat gun offenders.

“The federal mandatory sentences are 10 years. If we can process them on federal gun crimes and federal courts, we can put them in jail rather than a slap on the wrist with Baltimore City judges and without mandatory sentences with prosecutions here in the city,” Hogan said. “They are not enough prosecutors to handle all these cases, and we ask them, ‘How could they do more of them,’ and they said they need more manpower, so we’re paying for them.”

Hogan believes that there has been too much focus on the misconduct of the BPD and not enough on the violent criminals plaguing the city, pointing the finger at the consent decree that was implemented in 2017.

He also said that permanent leadership is vital to make this all work expressing his frustration at the vacancy of the position for the past seven months. This comes just one day after Mayor Catherine Pugh announced New Orleans Superintendent Michael Harrison as commissioner-designate.

“There’s been a whole lot of focus on the consent decree, that’s all people have been talking about,” Hogan said. “I think it’s out of balance. We’re going to focus on getting the criminals off the street.”

When Tina Giles Forrester spoke with her husband Jim Forrester on December 18, 2017, she didn’t know that it would be the last time she would hear his voice. Just outside the Baltimore Tattoo Museum, where he worked as a body piercer, two men approached him while he was on the phone, shot him, and ran off. Through the phone, that was now laying on the sidewalk, Tina heard everything—people yelling, sirens, and first responders saying that her husband was gone.

“I heard them say, ‘We got nothing,’” she said. “I know what that means.”

Instead of letting her grief consume her, Tina decided to use it as fuel. City Councilman Zeke Cohen reached out to see what he could do to help her with her plan to help the at-risk youth in Baltimore. 

“I sat down in his office and went off like a rocket,” she said. “He just sat there and listened to everything I had to say. Afterward, he told me he had someone I needed to meet.”

That someone turned out to be Victory Christine Swift whose son, Victorious Swift, was killed on March 26, 2017 just weeks before graduating from the Baltimore Design School. Mama Victory, as she’s affectionately known, developed Our Victorious City, an organization dedicated to continuing her son’s work in the community. Although something so tragic brought the two women together, they shared the same determination to prevent someone else from feeling their pain.

“Victorious loved Baltimore,” Victory said. “He loved his school, and he loved helping others. We created Our Victorious City out of that same energy and his commitment to serving others. We just want to help young people in Baltimore to have a better future.”

Joined by Cohen, the two women came up with the Swift and Forrester Scholarship Fund to honor the legacy of both Jim and Victorious with the hopes of ending violence and providing an opportunity for the next generation of children in Baltimore to thrive. 

The memorial fund will be split across three different scholarships. Through Our Victorious City, there will be a scholarship awarded to families of homicide victims. In order to memorialize Victorious’ commitment to community service, a graduating student from the Baltimore Design School will be awarded a scholarship to pursue higher education. The last scholarship is for a Baltimore City Public School student who wants to pursue a degree in music to honor Jim’s legacy and love of music. 

These scholarships are not for any typical student. Although logistics are still being worked out, the pair want to target the youth in the city who are “typically forgotten about.”

“I wanted to find a way to provide an opportunity to kids who are completely off track,” Tina said. “I don’t want to give this to kids who are already on the right path, there are already programs out there for kids like that.”

Currently, Tina and Victory are raising funds for the scholarship programs through a GoFundMe page. To date, the campaign has raised more than $3,600 towards the $10,000 goal. Tina says that every little bit helps, and they are grateful for the support they have received thus far.

“Sometimes in life, we are either born into situations or we put ourselves in these situations where we feel like there’s no turning back,” she said. “We want to eliminate that for as many people as possible. We know that if someone was there to help the troubled youth, Jim and Victorious would still be here. If you can affect one kid, it will multiply.”

On Friday morning, Mayor Catherine Pugh announced that she would be replacing Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis with 30-year BPD Deputy Commissioner Darryl D. DeSousa effective immediately. Pugh asserted that the crime in Baltimore needs to be eradicated at faster and Davis is simply not getting the job done.

DeSousa will assume the responsibilities for the police department immediately as the city’s 40th police commissioner, and following appropriate measures, his appointment will be made permanent.   

“My decision is because I’m impatient,” Mayor Pugh said at a press conference Friday morning. “And we need to get these numbers down now. The fact is, we are not achieving the pace of progress that our residents have every right to expect in the weeks since we ended what was nearly a record year for homicides in the City of Baltimore. As such, I have concluded that a change in leadership is needed at police headquarters.”

Commissioner Davis, who was made aware of his dismissal Friday morning, was appointed to his position in 2015 after then Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake fired Commissioner Anthony Batts in the wake of rioting that flooded the city’s streets during the Baltimore Uprising.

“I am grateful to Commissioner Davis for all that he has done to implement the initiatives underway to address violent crime at its root causes,” Pugh said. “I speak for the entire community in expressing our admiration and gratitude for his service to Baltimore and for his leadership of the women and men who put their lives on the line to serve and protect our citizens.”

DeSousa, a New York City native, came to Baltimore in 1983 to attend Morgan State University and joined the Baltimore Police Department in 1988. Since joining the force, he’s held many positions with the department over the years, including Area Commander of the Neighborhood Patrol Division, and Chief of Patrol. He was appointed Deputy Police Commissioner in 2015.

“I am deeply honored by the Mayor’s confidence in me at this critical time in the life of our city,” DeSousa said. “Baltimore has long been my home and I’ve spent my career on its streets and in its neighborhoods to address problems and bring about solutions that are meaningful for the people we serve. I am committed to this important work more than ever and look forward to validating the trust of Mayor Pugh, my fellow officers, and most importantly, the citizens of Baltimore each and every day.”

Commissioner-Designate DeSousa has already begun working in his new position. As of 9 a.m. Friday, a new initiative that places uniformed police officers on the streets hourly has unrolled. The officers have been placed in strategic locations with high violence and will patrol the areas until midnight. The patrol-focused DeSousa assures that this type of “proactive constitutional policing” will help to accelerate the reduction of violence around the city.

“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done,” he said. “Violence reduction is the first priority, the second priority, and the third priority. We are focused on the repeat offenders and the trigger pullers—we know who they are and we’re coming after them.”

Mayor Catherine Pugh announced today that the City of Baltimore would be partnering with Roca—an anti-violence, nonprofit program based in Massachusetts—to connect with high-risk young adults by finding jobs and keeping them out of jail as part of her plan to reduce crime.

“We believe the approach to violence is holistic,” Pugh said at today’s press conference. “As we continue to look at the best practices among the nation, this is one of them. This will head the city in the right direction.”

For nearly 30 years, Roca has helped thousands of young men between the ages of 17 and 24 to transform their lives. Roca’s philosophy is that, with positive relationships, job training, and education, at-risk young adults can change their behavior “to disrupt the cycle of poverty and incarceration.” The CEO and founder of Roca, Baltimore native Molly Baldwin, began this program in hopes of working with a demographic that she says is being left out and believes that “the timing makes sense” for this to be instituted in the city. 

“They are a small group that causes a huge impact,” Baldwin said. “We are here to work with those young people who are not yet ready to show up and be the productive citizens they should be.”

The mayor’s office has been working with Baldwin and her team for the past five years to bring the program to Baltimore. Roca’s unique approach, which they call “relentless outreach,” uses data to target individuals with high recidivism and dropout rates—providing them with two years of intensive services and relationship building, as well as two years of follow-up and evaluation.

“This is data-driven and focused for those most at risk for violence,” said Drew Vetter, who heads the Mayor’s Office Of Criminal Justice. “It is something that is proven to work and we are optimistic that it will be successful here in our city.”

In Baltimore, the four-year interventional program will partner with local organizations like Baltimore Safe Streets and the Baltimore Police Department to develop the best practices. Baldwin has even gone so far as to temporarily live in Baltimore to get the program off the ground.

“We know that change is possible,” she said. “It’s an enormous responsibility to work with people at this level, but we believe that even the highest-risk young people belong, and that each one of them can succeed. And we have the data to show that.” 

As Baldwin affirmed, the data speaks volumes. Of the more than 850 participants in 2017, 84 percent had no new arrests. The program shows similar results in job retention with 76 percent of participants maintaining employment for at least three months. But this programming doesn’t come cheap and will cost the city $17 million.

Mayor Pugh is currently seeking funding from the state but is still awaiting response for her request to finalize a four-year funding plan for Roca. In a press conference last week, Governor Larry Hogan said he did not consider educational and job training programs to be part of an immediate crime fighting strategy. 

Philanthropic groups like Harry and Jeanette Weinberg, the Annie Casey Foundation, and the Abell Foundation have pledged to step in a pay for a portion of the program. The Baltimore-based money management firm T. Rowe Price Foundation, The Johns Hopkins University, and BGE are also among companies in the private sector stepping up to fund the program.

In Baltimore, juvenile crime rates follow an overall pattern in the city and violent crime has surged since the 2015 riots with homicide rates surpassing 300 for the third consecutive year. Data from the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services show overall juvenile arrests in Baltimore are down 11 percent, but are up in certain neighborhoods.

“It’s so tragic,” Baldwin said. “It’s heartbreaking, but we have a lot to learn. We’re going to dig in over the next few months and look at what interventional efforts work best in Baltimore that will effect change.”