Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement

Michelle Hines, mom of Izaiah Carter, 16, attends the youth violence town hall held by WJZ-TV and The Baltimore Banner at the University of Baltimore on May 18, 2023. Izaiah was shot and killed in Baltimore on March 6, 2023. Photo by Wambui Kamau/WYPR.

WYPR News

Mother of slain Baltimore teen raises concerns about security near school campuses, during town hall on youth gun violence

Wambui Kamau

City, school and faith leaders gathered at the University of Baltimore exploring solutions for the recent uptick in gun violence among the city’s youth. The mother of a slain teen expressed the concern many parents share regarding the need for greater school security.

Members (and friends) of Safe Streets, a corps of trained, community-based city employees who work to prevent gun violence by interacting with high-risk groups in selected neighborhoods. The program is administered by the Mayor's Office of Community Safety and Engagement (MONSE). (photo courtesy MONSE)

Programs

Safe Streets' violence-reduction work praised in Hopkins report

Tom Hall

The city's flagship violence interruption program has been effective in curbing crime, says a new report by Hopkins' Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Lead author, Dr. Daniel Webster, joins us.

Programs

MONSE Director Shantay Jackson, on curbing violent crime in the city

Tom Hall

The head of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement describes how the city's Group Violence Reduction Strategy is reducing rates of murder and gun violence in Baltimore.

Michael S. Harrison was sworn in as the Baltimore Police Department's 41st Commissioner on March 12, 2019. Before coming to Baltimore, Commissioner Harrison served the New Orleans Police Department for nearly three decades. (official BPD photo)

Programs

Newsmaker: Baltimore City Police Commissioner Michael Harrison

Tom Hall

Baltimore City's top cop discusses key issues facing the city and its police force, from curbing gun violence to recruting new officers.

Yellow crime tape blocks off an area near a mall parking area where two Baltimore city police officers were shot and a suspect was killed as a U.S. Marshals’ task force served a warrant, on July 13, 2021, in Baltimore, Md. The police officers' injuries were not life threatening. The number of homicides in Baltimore climbed past 300 last week, making 2022 the eighth consecutive year that murders in the city -- mostly from gun violence -- have exceeded that grim toll. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Programs

MONSE director Shantay Jackson, on strategies to curb gun violence

Tom Hall

The director of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement discusses efforts underway to reduce Baltimore's endemic gun violence, which for the eighth consecutive year has claimed more than 300 lives.

In this Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019 photo, Nathaniel Silas squeegees the windshield of a truck stopped at a red light in Baltimore. City officials estimate that more than 100 squeegee kids regularly work at intersections citywide, dashing into the street as traffic lights turn red to clean windshields in exchange for cash from drivers. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Programs

Squeegee Collaborative: New city efforts to address an old concern

Tom Hall

Mayor Brandon Scott's initiative engages city, business and community leaders — and city youths — to solve the decades-old problem of squeegee workers. Three key players join us to share their ideas on how they plan to do it.

(L-R) Heather Warnken directs UBalt Law's Center for Criminal Justice Reform; Lydia Watts is the executive director of University of MD, Baltimore's "Rebuild, Overcome and Rise" (ROAR) Center. (UBaltLaw/UMB photos)

Programs

Heather Warnken, Lydia Watts on helping Baltimore's crime victims

Tom Hall

The two social activist lawyers discuss their efforts - through Warnken's Center for Criminal Justice Reform (UBalt Law) and Watts's "Rebuild, Overcome and Rise" (ROAR) Center (UMB) - to better assist Baltimore communities and individuals victimized by violent crime.

Programs

Epigenetics: How trauma affects our genes

Sheilah Kast

Traumas of racism, poverty and violence can be passed from one generation to the next and affect how someone’s genes work, how they read their DNA. Trauma can be severe--but is it an excuse for acting out or criminal behavior? We speak with two experts.

A routine gun, ammo and drug seizure by the Baltimore Police Department, posted this week on the BPD's Facebook page. (photo credit BPD/Facebook)

Programs

Curbing Baltimore's gun violence epidemic: two new strategies

Tom Hall

A MD lawmaker discusses her new "gun court" bill, and a city official describes plans to expand the Mayor's "Community Violence Intervention Ecosystem."