Originally posted in The Rawlings-Blake Review, Issue #171

Yesterday, I was joined by Commissioner Batts and two of our strong partners—State’s Attorney Gregg Bernstein and U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein, who are working with us every day to reduce crime and violence in Baltimore. In order to enhance our efforts, we announced new city funding to hire two assistant state’s attorneys, who will be detailed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office as special assistant U.S. attorneys for the investigation and federal prosecution of violent criminals in designated neighborhoods in East and West Baltimore.

I strongly believe that one of the reasons Baltimore has made progress over the last decade is because of stronger relationships between all criminal justice partners. Since taking office in 2010, I have made it clear that I will do everything I can to support their efforts, because reducing violence is the number one priority of my administration. And that is what yesterday’s announcement was about—enhancing our partnership as Baltimore’s crime fighters, all working together to get violent offenders and illegal guns off the street.

No one in our neighborhoods should have to live in fear of gun violence—I just won’t stand for it. We will not be satisfied until Baltimore becomes one of the safest big cities in America and residents feel safe in their neighborhoods and homes.

By focusing resources on specific, selected areas and individuals, we expect a more direct impact on those neighborhoods that have seen the greatest incidence of violent criminal activity. In addition, federal prosecution provides greater opportunity to obtain significant sentences that will keep these individuals off the street for longer. Finally, defendants will be incarcerated in distant federal prison facilities—separated from their affiliates, and unable to continue their criminal actions from behind bars.

The new prosecutors will enhance our ability to identify the most dangerous offenders—the worst of the worst—in the neighborhoods that have struggled most with crime, and to prosecute these criminals in the federal system, where the severity of punishment is often greater than in the state system.

To prosecute violent repeat offenders to the fullest extent of the law, we must utilize all available resources—local, state, and federal. We will stand together to do everything we can to apprehend, prosecute, and convict these offenders.