Quality of life crimes remain priority for top prosecutor in Baltimore City

Prosecuting quality-of-life crimes was a priority for Ivan Bates, who made the policy shift clear during his inauguration speech in January 2023 and maintaining that effort along with the partnership with federal offices, are key to public safety, he said.

Under the days of Marilyn Mosby, drug possession, prostitution, and other crimes she deemed to be lower level were not enforced. That changed when Bates became the top prosecutor.

He then launched a citation docket; a specialized court docket for the lower-level offenses where people appear in court with their citations and can be offered services in lieu of other forms of accountability. After some back and forth with Mayor Brandon Scott, State’s Attorney Bates said Baltimore Police officers were trained and citations started being written.

“You have an individual that may use drugs and so the police may see them, the police may see them and write a citation,” Bates said. “But they may also be able to recover the drugs and understand where the drug shop is based on the markings and packaging.”

Bates said when those citations are written, for drug possession for example, larger investigations can begin, and bigger targets could then eventually face charges.

“Those quality-of-life crimes, those simple, i.e. stop, gave the individual a citation but they took the packaging to understand where the drugs were coming from, the type, yes that’s extremely important for how they build cases,” Bates explained.

Bates talked about the importance of enforcing quality of life crimes during an exclusive interview with FOX45 News along with U.S. Attorney Erek Barron. The two prosecutors talked about their work on one of the largest drug takedowns in years, resulting in nearly 40 people facing charges.

The two leaders said their teams worked together for months, listening to four different groups operating in West and Southwest Baltimore. The taps prevented what Bates described as a “Brooklyn [Day]” 2.0 – referring to Baltimore’s worst mass shooting in history when gunfire erupted at the Brooklyn Day block party in July 2023 – as well as a robbery and other crimes.

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“We were looking at individuals – everything is alleged – we were viewing it as a situation where we had two groups that were very angry about who was going to be in charge. One group decided they were going to take things into their own hands,” Bates said.

We found additional evidence that there were additional crimes, so those individuals were arrested and taken off the streets. By taking those individuals off the streets, those incidents never happened, Bates said.

The groups operated in the 1700 block of Lemmon Street, 2000 block of W. Pratt Street, 500 block of Millington Avenue, and 2800 block of Edmondson Avenue, according to Bates and Barron. Ultimately, 39 indictments were secured for state charges and two people were charged federally. Barron said his office is committed to ensuring communities are safe, regardless of who gets the credit or what agency the charges stem from.

“It’s not about whether the case goes federal, or it goes state, or one agency might not care if it’s not coming to them; no, we care because we want the state’s attorney’s office to be successful. We are invested in their success,” Barron said.

When the State’s Attorney calls me with a problem – or any law enforcement agency – calls me with a problem, it becomes my problem. I aim solve to it. It may mean being innovative, but at the end of the day, I care about our partners because we have a shared mission to reducing violence in the city, Barron explained.

The investigation started as a Group Violence Reduction Strategy, GVRS, case, Bates said. Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley and his GVRS team had investigated the case but had evidence to arrest two to three people, Bates explained.

“We were able to track it from the street level, all the way up to the middle, all the way to the hierarchy. That was very, very important,” Bates said.

That’s when Bates worked with Barron to get more funding, to not only put up the wire taps, but to expand the scope of the investigation, the two explained. In addition to the 40 people now facing charges, Bates said there were 65 guns confiscated, 10 kilograms of drugs – including cocaine and fentanyl – approximately $300,000 in cash, and as many as 15 vehicles used in suspected carjackings.

Barron said after he spoke with Bates, he visited the strike force that’s comprised of federal, local, and state agencies working together. Instead of relying on phone calls about a case, the strike force and work in person to discuss strategy and plans, explained Barron.

Several federal agencies participating in not only the investigation – like the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – but the Drug Enforcement Agency also helped foot the bill of the wiretap. Without tapping the phones, listening to the conversations and reading text messages, Bates said the probe would not have been able to collect as much information, which he said, may not have led to as many people indicted.

“We may have arrested maybe two or three. Without the wire, I can tell you the police commissioner wasn’t going to have his team do much more. They had done a great deal of work, but without the wire, then we don’t have the opportunity to go deeper to find out what’s happening,” explained Bates.

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Bates and Barron have had a history of working together and showing a united front to the city when it comes to crime-fighting strategies. When Barron became the U.S. Attorney for Maryland, he made it clear that he was going to use any legal means necessary to ensure public safety, including his ‘Al Capone’ style of prosecution. That hasn’t changed, he said, but this case is an example of why the partnerships in Baltimore City and within Maryland are important.

“I think our public servants, they do always care. But I’m a different person and I have a different set of experiences; I have a diverse set of experiences. I was an assistant state’s attorney for Baltimore City, so I know what that looks like on the ground,” Barron said. “I know the power of our office to help that individual assistant state’s attorney. So, knowing that, allows me to move in a different way than someone else might.”

“Things like this didn’t happen before because there was no partnership. Having that partnership; I don’t have the relationship with some of the federal partners that the U.S/ Attorney does,” Bates said.

Mayor Brandon Scott and Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley both applauded the work of the people involved in the investigation. In a news release, Mayor Scott touted the importance of the GVRS and support from Gov. Wes Moore and others.

“I want to thank State’s Attorney Bates, US Attorney Barron, Governor Moore, GOCCP, our Federal partners at the ATF and DEA, BPD’s Group Violence Unit, Anne Arundel County Police, Baltimore County Police, and our team at MONSE for doing the investigative and enforcement work necessary to incapacitate violent groups plaguing our communities,” Mayor Scott said via statement.

Moving forward, Bates and Barron said they want to continue strengthening the partnership between their offices and continue to use wire taps when necessary to ensure criminals are held accountable.

“I’ll say this, to other organizations who want to go out there, don’t think we aren’t listening; because we have this partnership and it’s only getting stronger, it’s only growing. We’ve been able to show what we can do and we’re going to make sure we come after you,” Bates said.

“We will hold you accountable. Get an extra toothbrush,” Barron said.

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