973 - Baltimore's Record Low in Homicides
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 6 November 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
About this episode:
Since taking office in 2020, Mayor Brandon Scott and his administration have embraced a public health approach to reducing gun violence. The results include an unprecedented reduction in the number of homicides and other violent crimes. Baltimore's homicide rate is now the lowest that it has been in decades. In this episode: Mayor Scott shares what is behind the city's progress and what comes next.
Guests:
Brandon M. Scott is the 52nd mayor of Baltimore, serving his second term. A lifelong Baltimorean, he previously served as President of the Baltimore City Council.
Host:
Dr. Josh Sharfstein is distinguished professor of the practice in Health Policy and Management, a pediatrician, and former secretary of Maryland's Health Department.
Show links and related content:
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Baltimore homicides down 31% from 2024, Mayor Brandon Scott says—Baltimore Sun
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How Baltimore's violent crime rate hit an all-time low: 'This is not magic. It's hard work'—The Guardian
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Group Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS)—City of Baltimore
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A Sharp Decline in Homicides—Public Health On Call (June 2025)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, |
| 0:05.9 | where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges. |
| 0:16.3 | If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jh.h.u.edu. |
| 0:23.8 | That's public health question at jh.u.org for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:31.5 | Hey listeners, it's Lindsay Smith-Rogers. |
| 0:34.0 | Today, Baltimore's historic drop in gun violence. |
| 0:55.9 | Mayor Brandon Scott joins Dr. Josh Sharfstein talk about the city's tremendous efforts to curb gun violence, including a complete rethinking of how to approach the complex problem. Mayor Scott talks about an evolution of this public health strategy that's brought Baltimore's violent crime levels to an all-time low. |
| 1:02.4 | Let's listen. Mayor Brandon Scott, welcome to public health on call. I'm so excited to have you here to talk about what's been happening on violence and homicide in Baltimore and how we got here. How are you? |
| 1:09.1 | I'm good, Dr. Shafting. I'm glad to be here. Thank you guys for having me. |
| 1:13.2 | So at first, I prepared all these numbers, and then I realized you're really the person who should tell the story. |
| 1:21.2 | Where is Baltimore today? What kind of progress is the city making? Well, Dr. Shafzine, we have made |
| 1:26.4 | tremendous progress around this longstanding |
| 1:29.9 | public health challenge in Baltimore known as gun violence. No one knows that better than you of being a |
| 1:34.3 | former health commissioner here in the city of Baltimore. As you and I are talking right now, |
| 1:39.8 | Baltimore has a hundred and nine homicides. Wow, for me, that's 109 too many. |
| 1:44.8 | That is down 30% from last year, which was an historic, one of the historic lows, |
| 1:50.5 | second Lewis on record for Baltimore. |
| 1:53.0 | And when you think about what I'm saying to you is that Baltimore, as you and I are talking right now, |
| 1:58.8 | has the fewest amount of hom homicide through this date of any year |
| 2:03.2 | in recorded history. And we got here by understanding that we had to throw away the outdated |
| 2:10.3 | ways of thinking and broken policies of the past and really focus in on how we could tackle |
| 2:16.3 | this issue from a viewpoint, from all aspects of city government and community, |
... |
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