In one month, Baltimore police cut their large backlog of outstanding juvenile warrants from 860 to 540 ? with the arrest of 115 youths.
“Two of these young men had handguns in their possession,” Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld said Wednesday. “Nothing good was going to come from those two young men having those guns.”
From May 27 to June 27, police cleared more than 300 warrants; many of the 115 juveniles arrested had multiple outstanding warrants. Of those arrested, 38 were identified as “top priorities,” Bealefeld said at a news conference.
“There is a very fine line between those children that are shot and those children that shoot others,” said Secretary Donald DeVore of the state Department of Juvenile Services, who joined Bealefeld at the announcement.
During that month, police made 1,158 attempts to find the juveniles.
“It would be easy to say, ?Well, 850 open juvenile warrants. You arrested 115. Eh, how successful was it?? ” Bealefeld said. “Well, we knocked on and we visited over 1,000 homes in the Baltimore metropolitan region to let folks know we mean business. Over 1,000. That?s real work.”
Some of the children were detained, others were put on electronic monitoring and still others received other services, DeVore said.
“I have to tell you, a lot of kids were surprised,” DeVore said. “They were very surprised.”
Mayor Sheila Dixon called the arrests “impressive.”
“If we?re going to address the culture of violence that has plagued this city for too long, we have to intervene with our juvenile offenders,” the mayor said at the news conference.
Ultimately, Dixon said, she would like to see the day when there is no need for a state department of juvenile services.
“Secretary DeVore, I know you want to keep your job,” Dixon said. “But we need to put the Department of Juvenile Services out of work. We should not be building more prisons for young people versus more schools.”
