Baltimore City councilman introduces oversight bill for ‘half-baked’ citation docket program

A Baltimore City councilman is taking aim at the citation docket program, introducing legislation for quarterly reporting to the council after what he said were “ethical and fiscal flags” raised at a budget hearing earlier this year. Councilman Kristerfer Burnett, a Democrat representing West Baltimore, has been critical in the past of the docket, a program begun by Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates, also a Democrat, to manage low-level criminal offenses such as loitering, drinking in public and drug possession.