President’s Message
Public Safety and Other News Entering A New Year
For the first time in many years, the City of Baltimore will see less than 200 murders in the year just ended. Kudos to Mayor Brandon Scott and the police department for their strategies to reduce violence in the city. Mayor Scott’s non-traditional gun violence reduction strategies appear to be working and the police efforts to have more officers pounding the pavement on daily patrols appear to be big reasons for reductions in the murder rate. The city still has its problems with violence, such as the fact that assaults are three times higher than the national average, and the drug trade is still a major reason behind crime in charm city, but there is some reason for hope in light of the decline in the murder rate.
Despite the recent wave of violence along Loch Raven Blvd. in the County, we can also point to a decrease in homicides over the first half of the year. (statistics have not yet been released for the whole year) There were only 11 homicides in the County over the first half of the year. That’s a drop by 31% compared to the same time frame in 2023, and it is a drop of 66% compared to 2021. Similarly, non-fatal shootings were down by 30% compared to 2023.
One element that is not on the decrease is juvenile crime. Every week we read or hear about some teenager, or group of teenagers, or even younger ones, being involved in a car- jacking or assault. In far too many instances the juvenile justice system does not take these youngsters off the streets. It simply releases these young offenders to their parents’ or guardian’s custody pending a court date.
If you want to learn more about the state of the juvenile justice system, join us at the next GTCC general meeting on January 8th when our guest speaker will be Baltimore County State’s Attorney, Scott Shellenberger. We could not be hearing from a better authority than Mr. Schellenberger.
Approximately 200 citizens turned out to let the County Council know what qualities the Council should be looking for in selecting a County Executive to fill out the remaining two years, more or less, of the Olszewski term. The Council was looking for traits of the next executive, and they did not want to hear endorsements for any specific candidate, although several speakers made obvious references to a candidate just the same.
Former County Executive Don Hutchinson told the Council that they needed to choose a candidate who could make direct connections with the County employees. Although Olszewski will be leaving, Hutchinson was right to suggest that the executive and department heads need to be on the same page given that these department heads were appointed by Olszewski.
Retired Essex attorney, Robert Romadka, now in his nineties, offered his recommendations on the traits of the next County Executive, and Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger made a spirited speech endorsing candidate Jim Brochin, without ever stating his name.
There were also a number of supporters for candidate Yara Cheik at the hearing, and they recognized Cheik’s longtime advocacy for educational issues.
I told the County Council that the next County Executive will need to practice fiscal restraint. With the State facing a $2.7 billion-dollar structural deficit in the coming year, the County should not look for much money from Annapolis, and I also anticipate that the Trump administration will reduce spending as well, cutting off another source of funding. Further, the next County Executive should have a strong platform for economic development in our jurisdiction. Fields such as manufacturing, life sciences and tech are just a few of the employers that Baltimore County should be attracting.
As of this writing the County Council has reduced the list of candidates to five: Jim Brochin, Yara Cheik, State Senator Kathy Klausmeier, Barry Williams and George Perdikakis. In a separate Council session, they interviewed each of these candidates. For a further look at these interviews, look for a separate article in this newsletter.
Eric Rockel