City Council says it was blindsided by overhaul of Baltimore’s Safe Streets anti-violence program

As the Baltimore City government pours unprecedented resources into alternative approaches to stemming gun violence, City Council members on Thursday expressed frustration at the mayor’s top official overseeing the work for not giving them a heads up on major changes announced last month. The exchange between Councilman Mark Conway and Shantay Jackson, the director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, or MONSE, started out diplomatically enough, but soon escalated into a curt back-and-forth after Jackson revealed that the changes were being planned as far back as March.