A no-nonsense prosecutor is being praised for sending crime rates in Baltimore plummeting after launching a hardline crackdown on repeat offenders.
Baltimore City State’s Attorney, Ivan Bates, was elected in 2023 with a commitment to curtail the rampant crime that tarnished the city’s image as a notorious area for murders.
The city has witnessed a substantial decline in violent crimes by 2025, showing a 22 percent decrease in homicides and a 19 percent reduction in non-fatal shootings.
Bates credited a tough stance on gun crimes and repeat offenders for reducing the level of crimes in Baltimore.
‘We realized it’s about the victims,’ the top prosecutor said on an appearance on Fox and Friends on Wednesday.
Host Brian Kilmeade commended Bates’ methods and suggested that more cities led by Democrats adopt similar tactics, criticizing the lenient crime policies towards offenders from marginalized communities.
Bates concurred, pointing out that ‘many of the community’s victims are minorities and African Americans, and they deserve security and freedom in their own homes.’
This conversation followed Donald Trump’s effort to station National Guard troops in various Democrat-led cities nationwide, which Bates mentioned he might support in Baltimore to continue the progress in reducing crime.
Baltimore City State’s Attorney, Ivan Bates, is receiving acclaim for drastically lowering crime rates in the city after implementing a strict approach against repeat offenders.
Bates, pictured holding a press conference in front of evidence collected after charges were brought against four violent criminal organizations operating across southwest Baltimore earlier this year, said his main goal is to ‘lock up violent repeat offenders’
‘We wanted to make sure that everybody, didn’t matter your race, didn’t matter where you’re from, everybody has a right to be safe,’ Bates continued in his remarks to Fox News..
‘It wasn’t a Democrat issue, it wasn’t a Republican issue, it was a people issue.
‘At the end of the day, there were too many murders, too much violence, and we needed to make a change.’
In 2024, Baltimore ranked second in the nation for murders, at a staggering 34.8 murders for every 100,000 residents.
It also led the nation in robberies at over 573 robberies per 100,000 residents, according to crime statistics tracker SafeHome.
In mid-2025 crime statistics released by the Baltimore Police Department, the city saw 68 homicides compared to 88 in the year before, a 22 percent drop.
This year, 64 percent of homicide cases and 44 percent of non-fatal shooting cases have been closed, and non-fatal shootings have decreased by 19 percent.
Crime rates began to fall after Bates took office in 2023, with homicides decreasing 23 percent by the end of 2024 and non-fatal shootings dropped 34 percent.
‘We realized it’s about the victims,’ the top prosecutor said on an appearance on Fox and Friends on Wednesday
Baltimore previously ranked second in the nation in murders and led the nation in robberies at over 573 robberies per 100,000 residents
Bates credited the drop in crime to a tougher approach to repeat offenders and aggressive policing on violent criminals.
‘Hold violent repeat offenders accountable, especially with illegal handguns, Bates said.
‘We had too many murders, 300-plus murders for eight years straight. That’s a terrible number to have.’
‘If you lock up violent repeat offenders, you hold them accountable.
‘We invoke the mandatory minimum that allows it under the law: five years without the possibility of parole. There’s no discretion.
‘The judge must give a violent repeat offender five years…. When you send those individuals to jail, the community is safer at that moment in time, and they can get themselves together, but they will be held accountable.’
Baltimore has seen a staggering drop in violent crimes through 2025, including a 22 percent drop in homicides and 19 percent decrease in non-fatal shootings
Bates said he would not oppose President Trump if he sent the National Guard in to help police Baltimore further
Asked about Trump’s threats to send the National Guard to Democrat-led cities including Baltimore to clamp down on crime, Bates said he was already, ‘working very closely with all federal agencies.’
He noted that Maryland’s Democrat Governor Wes Moore has also deployed members of the state police to Baltimore to help his crime reduction efforts.
‘We’re working together,’ he said. ‘We can always use the financial support, the financial help, but we’re moving in the right direction.
‘We’re moving together as a team, and my thing is, when we’re moving the ball down the field, let us score because we’re going to win,’ he said.
