Baltimore Mayor Scott Touts Crime Drop, Launches 90-Day City Improvement Sprint

One hundred and thirty-three. That is the number of homicides Baltimore recorded in 2025, and it is the number Mayor Brandon Scott placed at the center of his sixth State of the City address, delivered March 31 at Baltimore Center Stage in Mount Vernon.

The figure carries historical weight worth examining. The year-over-year drop from 2024 to 2025 was 31 percent, which city officials say is the largest single-year percentage decline in Baltimore's recorded history. Non-fatal shootings fell from 423 in 2024 to 311 in 2025, a 24.5 percent reduction. Measured across five years, homicides are down 58.7 percent and shootings down 57.3 percent since 2021. The trend has continued into 2026: through April 1, the city logged 28 homicides and 61 non-fatal shootings, tracking 12.5 percent below the same period last year for killings and 7.6 percent below for shootings. Baltimore Police have already seized 443 firearms this year, including 44 ghost guns, and made 287 gun arrests.

"These smart-on-crime solutions have reduced homicides and nonfatal shootings in Baltimore by 60% in the last five years," Scott said. He credited his administration's community intervention model, including the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement and the Group Violence Reduction Strategy, and previewed a second five-year comprehensive violence prevention plan in the coming months. That office has faced scrutiny from Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming over the past year; Scott's defense of it Tuesday signals he intends to expand rather than retreat from the strategy.

With the crime data as his backdrop, Scott turned to a tangible challenge aimed at city agencies: a 90-day sprint beginning mid-April. The Department of Transportation must pave 25 lane miles of road and fill 25,000 potholes. The Department of Public Works is on the hook for sweeping 25,000 miles of roadway, completing 6,000 graffiti removals, and executing 12,000 bulk waste pickups. Baltimore City Recreation and Parks will clean, weed, and mulch 500 tree pits across the city. Scott's FY2027 budget, set to go before the Board of Estimates on April 22, includes $3 million to keep the Clean Corps program funded after its American Rescue Plan Act dollars expire. The 12 Clean Corps regional crews have already completed 15,000 vacant lot cleanings and 19,000 alley cleanings as of March 2026.

Scott also announced a $2 million pilot program for legacy homeowners: residents who are 65 or older, have owned their home for more than a decade, and earn under $73,000 annually can enroll in the Tax Sale Deferral Program by April 15 to have their property tax bills cleared next year, contingent on completing financial literacy courses. The city's new Energy Stability Fund will provide up to $1,500 in utility relief to eligible households, and small and medium businesses can apply for grants of up to $25,000 to offset rising energy costs.

How to hold all of it accountable: the 311 app, available for iPhone and Android, lets residents report potholes, graffiti, bulk trash, and missed pickups by address and track resolution status in real time. The city's investment map at baltimorecity.gov/sotc plots infrastructure projects by specific address going back to Scott's December 2020 inauguration. The April 22 Board of Estimates presentation on the FY2027 budget is the next public moment to see whether the 90-day sprint targets come with the sustained funding to outlast a single season.

Governor Wes Moore, who rarely attends Baltimore's State of the City address, appeared as an opening speaker, a signal of state investment in a city that enters the spring budget cycle with its lowest homicide count in nearly half a century and a very public list of neighborhood promises to keep.