Posted on 09/07/23
| News Source: FOX45
While announcing another bid to become Baltimore’s next mayor, Sheila Dixon called for more transparency and accountability within City Hall, and specifically took aim at Mayor Brand Scott’s flagship gun violence prevention program: Safe Streets.
Mayor Scott touts the efforts as a success, pointing to the growing number of mediations completed by the violence interrupters, and a study completed by Johns Hopkins showing some reductions in gun violence in certain Safe Streets zones.
But FOX45 News has been investigating Safe Streets for nearly two years and uncovered a lack of accountability within the program, and serious questions about its effectiveness. Questions about how the $20 million program spends tax dollars often go unanswered by leaders inside City Hall and by the community-based organizations operating the sites.
The program has operated in Baltimore for over a decade; Dixon was the first mayor to bring the program to Charm City after modeling the efforts on a similar program in Chicago.
“I think Safe Streets needs to be investigated,” Dixon said during an interview on FOX45 Morning News Thursday discussing her mayoral campaign launch.
During her official campaign launch event, FOX45 News pressed Dixon about what kind of investigation she thought was necessary; was it a probe she wanted to see done at the city level, state or federal?
“We brought Safe Streets to Baltimore and the purpose was another tool that we used in order to navigate through the city to eliminate issues and conflict,” she said. “Certain information that’s asked about the budget– not necessarily the employees, I wouldn’t release those names – but the funding and where it’s going and how’s the reporting done and how do you connect what they’re doing versus what somebody else is doing.”
I mean, our funding comes from the state, comes from the federal government, Dixon said. It might be an independent entity that needs to look at that.
LifeBridge Health operates the Belair-Edison location, along with McElderry Park, Franklin Square, Park Heights, Woodbourne McCabe, and Belvedere. Catholic Charities operates the Penn-North location, as well as Sandtown, Cherry Hill, and Brooklyn.
When questioned about Safe Streets, Mayor Scott is quick to defend the program, often standing behind the efforts as well as the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement – the public safety city agency he created when he assumed the helm of City Hall and the agency that oversees the implementation of Safe Streets.