Download the Public Safety Plan

Nate has a four-part to make our streets safer:

• Focus relentlessly on street crime and gun violence.

• Reform and strengthen the Baltimore Police Department

• Expand support for community safety programs, especially after-school programming

• Re-focus our justice system on violent criminals 

Step 1: Focus relentlessly on gun violence and street crime

Baltimore is locked in a downward spiral of crime and violence. Criminals feel more and more free to break the law, and it is more and more common to resort to guns to settle disputes. As the streets grow more dangerous, people are more likely to stay locked in their homes; as the streets grow emptier, crimes becomes that much more common. We need to take dramatic steps to break this cycle.

(A) Expand community-oriented, beat policing

(B) Use evidence-based programs to bring down the murder rate

(C) Light up Baltimore City Streets

(D) Make the BPD a national leader in using technology and data

Step 2: Rebuild trust in the Police Department

Illegal and unjust behavior over many years by a number of officers in the Baltimore Police Department has undermined the legitimacy of the Department and in turn undermined community support in many parts of Baltimore. In neighborhoods where people don’t trust the police, crimes go unreported, witnesses are hard to find, and more individuals take justice into their own hands. Building a more accountable, fair and just police department is not only right – it’s essential to restoring public safety.

(A) Get the U.S. Department of Justice consent decree implemented quickly and thoroughly

(B) Improve Baltimore Police Department training

(C) Create a new police accountability and reform commission

(D) Bring more city residents into the police force

Step 3: Fund Community Safety programs, especially after-school programs

We cannot only rely on our formal criminal justice institutions – the police, prosecutors, courts and prisons – to address crime and violence in our city. We must also act as individuals, families and neighborhoods to discourage crime in our backyards and to shape more positive norms and expectations.

(A) Expand after-school programming

(B) Support grassroots public safety projects

(C) Fully fund Safe Streets

Step 4: Re-focus our criminal justice system on violent criminals

Our justice system should not punish for the sake of punishment: prison time should be meted our as a deterrent and when required to take dangerous people off the streets. That means reducing jail time for non-violent drug offenders and focusing on treatment, but also holding repeat offenders accountable, even those under the age of 18.

(A) Bring balance to the juvenile justice system

(B) For non-violent drug offenders, pivot away from jail time and towards treatment

(C) Improve our track record of prosecuting violent criminals

(D) Stop criminalizing poverty in our justice system