Hines: Baltimore crime initiatives a good start, but do they go far enough?

I grew up in Park Heights, the same neighborhood where Mayor Brandon Scott announced that Baltimore will use $50 million in federal COVID relief money to fund collaborative gun violence prevention initiatives. Mayor Scott’s announcement comes on the heels of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s 14-month study that found less than a 1% increase in violent crime and no threat to public safety as a result of Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s March 2020 decision to decline prosecution of drug possession and prostitution cases.