Mayor’s report touts progress, but lawyer says prosecutors’ tactics are real heroes

(WBFF)— At the end of his first term, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott released an enthusiastic report citing “significant progress” in the city.

Baltimore is ending the year with 23% fewer homicides than last year and the report credits holistic solutions with reducing the homicide rate.

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The report attributes much of the success to the city’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy, where 94% of criminal participants have no longer committed crimes.

However, criminal defense lawyer Jeremy Eldridge is not convinced of the impact of GVRS.

“There is no indication, as a criminal defense attorney, that GVRS has had any impact on the street,” Eldridge said.

Instead, Eldridge credits the work of new Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates, combined with U.S. Attorney Erek Barron’s “Al Capone style” of prosecution.

“It wasn’t until Ivan Bates and Erek Barron sat down and reestablished that partnership that this fear was created among gun criminals,” Eldridge said.

Even Bates admitted that GVRS has played a small role in reducing crime.

“GVRS represents only two percent of the violent crimes my office prosecutes,” Bates said.

“It’s very easy for the mayor who is in a political bubble, and not in and out of court, to think that his policies are working,” Eldridge said.

The mayor’s new report also cites progress in reducing the number of vacant homes in Baltimore and making city agencies more efficient.