Baltimore SA Bates to Host Forum on Smoke Shops, Juvenile Crime

Baltimore City State's Attorney Ivan Bates hosted a community forum Tuesday evening to confront two issues he says are converging on city neighborhoods: the proliferation of smoke shops and a surge in juvenile offenses that he believes a pending state law would make worse.

The event, titled "The Solutions Pact," ran from 6 to 8 p.m. One outlet placed the venue at Digital Harbor High School; another reported it at Huber Memorial Church. The State's Attorney's Office had not publicly reconciled the discrepancy before the forum began.

On smoke shops, Bates said state regulators are already in the field. "The Maryland Alcohol, Tobacco, and Cannabis Commission is going to be there. They're now going into smoke shops and they're patrolling," he said. Baltimore Police Department conducted undercover purchases as part of a months-long investigation into the shops, though the full list of recovered items was not released ahead of the forum. Bates framed his office's role as the prosecution end of that pipeline: "We're working very closely with the Maryland Commission, and when they make the cases, we're now making sure we do everything we can to hold them accountable, to prosecute those individuals in smoke shops."

The juvenile crime discussion carries an urgent policy dimension. The Youth Charging Reform Act, currently moving through the Maryland legislature, would allow 16- and 17-year-olds charged with certain offenses, including wearing, carrying, or transporting a handgun, to no longer face automatic prosecution as adults. Bates is openly opposed. "It's almost as if the juveniles have heard in advance that this law is going to pass so they can do what they want, and it's very scary for the community," he told FOX45's Alexa Ashwell.

His sharpest criticism was directed at the legislative process itself. "I understand this law really focuses on the young people, but I've heard nobody, not one legislator, just talking about what's going to happen to the community and the victims. And so, we want to hear from the victims, we want to hear it from the community," Bates said.

Data from the Department of Juvenile Services shows 319 juvenile cases filed in Baltimore City so far this year, down from 493 at the same point last year but above the 265 recorded at this stage in 2023. About 77 percent of this year's cases resulted in formal court action.

Bates acknowledged the trend is moving in an uncomfortable direction. "I felt like things are getting a little bit better. Now, unfortunately I think they're getting a little worse," he told WMAR-2 News. "But it's not really what we feel here, what does the community feel? It's really what their perception is the reality."

Tuesday's forum is Bates' second community conversation of this kind; he previously hosted a town hall centered on violent crime broadly. This one narrows the lens to juvenile offending and the neighborhood-level concerns that smoke shops have generated in communities across the city.