By Carleigh Kenny
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott made a passionate plea to reduce gun violence Wednesday as he announced that the city has a new crime-fighting software program to help reduce gun trafficking and illegal sales.
“In recent days, we’ve seen a 10-year-old, 12-year-old and 17-year-old be shot here in Baltimore City,” Scott said as he opened his press conference. “While many of the shootings that we’ve experience in recent days were nonfatal, the sheer amount of violence that we see is unacceptable.”
Scott was joined by Police Commissioner Michael Harrison, City Council President Nick Mosby and Shantay Jackson, of the newly created Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement.
The software program, developed by Everytown for Gun Safety, will enable city officials to identify patterns of gun trafficking and illegal sales through a data portal. The system draws data from multiple systems and connects the dots.
“This allows us to see the connections between where guns are coming from and how they are being used on the streets of Baltimore,” Scott stated passionately as he described the system as “a new addition to our comprehensive strategy to reduce gun violence in Baltimore.”
The data portal is the first of its kind and provides a real-time view, Scott said.
The level of violence in Baltimore visibly frustrated Scott.
“As we all know, firearms are not manufactured here in the City of Baltimore, however, they do fall into the hands of young men and women who continuously commit senseless violent acts with no regard to those who may be caught in the crossfire,” he said.
Harrison said that the tool also allows detectives to piece together the intricate webs of the more than 900 knifings, shootings and other acts of violence. Rather than having officers trail the tail of an individual gun, this portal displays connections detectives would have to piece together case by case” the commissioner stressed.