Posted on 05/14/25
| News Source: FOX45
Baltimore, MD - May 14, 2025 - There are a handful of young people driving the majority of the crimes happening in Baltimore City, and the kids are known to police, members of the City Council learned this week.
The details were revealed during a public safety hearing at City Hall on Wednesday. Representatives from the Baltimore Police Department told councilmembers there are between 10 and 50 young people who can be recognized by name.
While stolen auto arrests are declining, according to BPD data, most of the charges are coming from robbery or robbery-related incidents, Lisa Reynolds from BPD said.
Officers have the ability to spot robbery patterns, and Lt. Col. John Herzog said currently, there aren’t any open robbery patterns in the city. But, he said, BPD can’t immediately stop juveniles.
“There are situations where they are getting back out and they are reoffending but because we have familiarity with them, we’re able to identify them in future cases,” Lt. Col. Herzog explained. “It’s a really small number of kids that are committing the majority of these offenses.”
When questioned by Chairman Mark Conway on the number of juveniles driving up the robbery numbers, Lt. Col. Herzog said during weekly meetings with DJS, BPD “typically go[es] over about 10 names.”
“Those are probably the most problematic, but I would say there are probably 50 names that when they come up on a daily basis or weekly basis, the commanders, the commissioner, we know the names by heart,” he added.
Baltimore, MD - May 14, 2025 - After the General Assembly passed legislation in 2024 changing what crimes young people can face and DJS later altered its detention policy. But, according to Reynolds, three out of 10 juveniles that BPD requests detention actually behind held by DJS.
“Those are usually the handguns and the warrants,” Reynolds explained, noting the crimes of violence are typically released on home monitoring.
When a juvenile is not immediately detained, Kara Aanenson from DJS, told the council that it doesn’t mean juveniles are not going through the formal court process.
FOX45 News previously reported on the various types of home monitoring, specifically the different ankle monitors. During the hearing, Lisa Garry, a deputy secretary at DJS, told members of the Public Safety Council committee that there are four types of home monitoring, ranging from a simple curfew to home detention with a GPS ankle monitor.
According to data obtained by FOX45 News from DJS, there were 92 juveniles under home detention, as of May 5, and 161 wearing a GPS ankle monitor.
Councilman Zac Blanchard asked DJS questions that mirror what FOX45 News has been asked when it comes to ankle monitors: why wouldn’t the GPS monitor be used when the technology allows DJS employees to see in real-time where the juvenile under supervision is located?
Garry said simply, electronic monitoring – which provides more geofence data – has been around longer than GPS. But Garry said the GPS technology is “much more effective for us to ensure compliance.”
“We are scheduled to do full GPS as of July 1,” Garry said.
DJS did not immediately respond to questions about why the transition is happening, how many juveniles will switch to a GPS ankle monitor, or if the department has enough staff to monitor them.