Don’t fixate on the downward trend of violent crime since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fix your eyes on the diminishing support for witnesses and crime victims as a superior metric in giving report cards to politicians.
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris touts her credentials as a former prosecutor and California attorney general. But what has she done for victims and witnesses?
Congress enacted the Victims of Crime Act in 1984 creating a Crime Victims Fund to distribute grants to state and local first responder law enforcement entities to assist both victims and witnesses. The two commonly overlap. In 1988, the Office for Victims of Crime within the Department of Justice was established to administer the grant program.
In Maryland, the funds support victim-witness coordinators, also known as specialists, within each of the state’s 23 counties and the City of Baltimore. The coordinators act as sherpa guides to victims through criminal proceedings, for example, making victim impact statements during sentencing or providing the necessary transportation, therapy, food and even parking validation to facilitate attendance at trial.
But recently, a worrisome trend has surfaced. Funds have been diverted to nonprofit organizations concerned less with victims and more with revamping police departments.
For example, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott created a crime-fighting entity, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE), led by a novice in public safety (a former radio show producer). MONSE largely copies what the Baltimore Police Department and the State’s Attorney’s Office already are doing, which multiplies costs for the same output. It’s political patronage at its worst.
And Gov. Wes Moore is bettering Scott’s instruction in undermining the federal grant program. The Baltimore Sun recently disclosed that the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention, Youth and Victim Services slashed $22,583 from Carroll County’s annual $425,664 criminal intelligence grant to arrest gang violence preying on a small, rural county. But the office did not stop there. It cut funding for virtually every major law enforcement unit in Maryland, including majority-minority jurisdictions.
Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office lost $311,771, meaning the loss of one full-time employee and shrinking victim housing services by $273,000, which will impair victim safety. The Baltimore Police Department and State’s Attorney’s Office took staggering hits from the governor’s penny-wise, pound-foolish approach to crime.
Ivan Bates, head of the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, received a shocking 11th-hour email from the governor’s office cutting victim-witness funds by an astronomical $400,000 from the figure anticipated without granular explanation because of professedly more important unnamed priorities.
Baltimore has been stigmatized as the most dangerous city in America, notwithstanding a downward trend in homicides and shootings. What can be more important than upgrading criminal law enforcement to the citizenry? Preventing, punishing and deterring crime is the first duty of government — article 1 in the social contract. The keystone of that duty is assisting victims and witnesses of crime. Without them, law enforcement is a fool’s errand.
The grant process also confounds necessary law enforcement planning. Grant allocations are made at a time certain. But the funds themselves are chronically delayed for weeks if not months. Is law enforcement expected to find bridge loans like a construction contractor? The Maryland State’s Attorneys Association was allocated a grant on July 1. It has yet to be informed whether its award has been approved or cut. This is no way to run a railroad, much less urgent criminal law enforcement.
Moore should be applauded for standing firm on reforming the juvenile justice system, signing legislation tackling vacancies in public safety jobs and upgrading victims’ compensation services. He has fallen on the job, however, in optimizing use of victim-witness funds to prevent hardened criminals from evading justice.
Cooperating victims and witnesses are the royal flush of criminal prosecutions. Johnny-come-lately nonprofits are the two of clubs. Moore should direct victim-witness funds accordingly.
Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.