Squeegee workers are continuing to wash windshields in Baltimore’s busiest intersections, including zones where the practice is explicitly prohibited, raising fresh questions about whether city leaders are enforcing their own rules.
Despite a high-profile 2022 action plan that promised citations, clear restrictions and alternative jobs for youth, a Spotlight on Maryland investigation found the city has issued just one citation in nearly three years.
Officials have touted progress, but data and on-the-ground observations show enforcement gaps that have allowed the practice to return to major corridors.
On President Street in Baltimore City, just off I-83, a group of four squeegee boys wipes car windshields at a stoplight. The Baltimore City Police headquarters towers over the intersection as drivers hand cash to the young workers — a location Mayor Brandon Scott’s office lists as a disallowed squeegee zone.
The November scene is one example of how squeegee workers continue to operate in high-traffic areas the city pledged to restrict.
Thiru Vignarajah, a lawyer who represented the family of Timothy Reynolds, said city leaders appear to have lost focus on the issue. Reynolds was shot five times and killed in 2022 by a 15-year-old squeegee worker after an altercation at a stoplight in the Inner Harbor. The juvenile was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in 2023 and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
“The worst thing about this happening under the nose of the police department is that it sends a signal to the community that either the city doesn’t care about the problem, or it can’t address the problem,” Vignarajah told Spotlight on Maryland.
Reynolds’ death sparked action in Baltimore City, led by the Mayor’s Office of African American Male Engagement. The office published a Squeegee Collaborative Working Action Plan in 2022 with help from an extensive list of community leaders.
The plan included connecting squeegee workers with alternative employment opportunities, banning squeegeeing in designated high-traffic zones, enforcing the ban with police-issued citations after two warnings and setting up an online donation system for citizens to support youth in need.
A spokesman for Scott’s office told Spotlight on Maryland the squeegee action plan is being “fully implemented” as the collaborative group meets biweekly to address ongoing issues.
However, John Brothers, the former co-chair of the Squeegee Collaborative who helped write the action plan, disagreed with that assessment.
“On the accountability section, largely none of those are done. Drivers who give to squeegee kids in the zones aren’t issued tickets, and neither are the squeegee kids. They were supposed to use citations,” Brothers told Spotlight on Maryland.
A squeegee database from the Mayor’s Office of African American Male Engagement shows that from January 2023 to September 2025, the Baltimore Police Department issued one citation.
Scott touted his record on squeegee workers during his reelection campaign. In an April 2024 appearance on WBAL Radio, he admitted the Squeegee Collaborative ditched efforts to issue citations because police presence was deemed sufficient.
“I don’t play games when it comes to public safety or tragedy or things important to the city of Baltimore, period. We have a perfect example. This is what we did with squeegeeing, this is how we did it, and we ended up not having to give out citations,” the mayor said. “There’s this thing that happens when the police get out of their car and start walking towards people: they move. And that means you can’t give them a citation because they’ve moved.”
Brothers, the former president of T. Rowe Price Foundation, expressed disappointment in how his squeegee action plan has been implemented by the mayor’s office and BPD.
“The city used this as a political opportunity and now we have the ramifications of that: young squeegee kids squeegeeing every day under the deck of the police commissioner,” he told Spotlight on Maryland.
In September, FOX 45 reported that a woman said a squeegee worker stole $900 by charging her Cash App.
A spokeswoman for the Baltimore Police Department said BPD “has and continues to take enforcement action as appropriate and needed with individuals that are unwilling to accept offers for services and assistance.”
“While BPD serves as a partner in educating and referring individuals to services, we are appropriately the enforcement arm in the city’s overall strategy to abate this activity that causes public alarm and concern,” BPD’s spokeswoman told Spotlight on Maryland. “We work, in conjunction with the Squeegee Collaborative, to identify those that have been offered services, warned of the illegal nature of their activity, and, as needed and appropriate, take enforcement action as a substantive deterrent and to hold people accountable.”
Spotlight on Maryland gave BPD two weeks to provide data on its enforcement of the squeegee action plan. A spokeswoman provided what she described as “incomplete” data showing that as of Nov. 20:
- There were 2,111 squeegee-related calls this year, a 19% decrease compared to the same time period last year
- There have been 40 squeegee-related arrests since 2020
BPD did not provide data or information about how it issues citations on squeegeeing.
Other participating organizations in the squeegee collaborative include We Our Us and the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore.
Vignarajah said Baltimore City needs to commit to its own plan.
“There’s no question there’s been some progress, but the reality is that on more and more corners, you’re seeing the squeegee boys returning to do the work that they’ve done for so long. The reality is that part of the work requires eternal vigilance. You can’t just do it for the press conferences, then think it’s gone forever,” he told Spotlight on Maryland.
Spotlight on Maryland is a joint venture by The Baltimore Sun, FOX45 News and WJLA in Washington, D.C. Have a news tip? Call 410-467-4670 or email SpotlightOnMaryland@sbgtv.com. Contact Patrick Hauf at pjhauf@sbgtv.com and @PatrickHauf on X.