Mayor Declares Local State of Emergency

 March 19, 2020

Dear Baltimoreans,

Today, I declared a local State of Emergency that went into effect at 12:01 p.m.

This declaration helps remove roadblocks, and allows Baltimore to speed up its ability to quickly and forcefully respond to the evolving threat from COVID-19.

The emergency declaration helps us more easily procure goods and services in order to better support and protect our residents and first responders.

My emergency declaration will remain in effect for at least 30 days, and may be renewed based on how the virus progresses.

A key area of focus for the City as we navigate the state of emergency remains the expansion of our ability to provide meals to students out of school and to our older adults.

We recently convened an Emergency Food Insecure Response Team of key agencies and community partners that are coordinating their work through the city’s Emergency Operations Center. We are using a strategic, coordinated approach to provide coverage, and will continue to grow the number of food distribution sites across the city.

We also unveiled a new interactive map for the public that displays citywide food distribution site locations.

On the first day of the city’s emergency response, 60 school and recreation center sites distributed more than 2,000 meals to young people, age 18 and under. In partnership with City Schools, Recreation & Parks, the Family League, the Department of Housing & Community Development (DHCD) and other community partners, the city is rapidly growing its effort, and increasing daily the number of sites and meals distributed at schools, recreation centers and mobile delivery route stops.

Starting today, DHCD is adding three mobile routes to our food distribution lineup for young people, and on Monday, March 23rd, it will bring five community-based meal distribution sites online. The City of Baltimore is aggressively pushing to scale-up this effort while also being very mindful of all the public health requirements associated with social distancing.

Baltimore’s current emergency food response for older adults is prioritized to provide food to residents ages 60 and older who live alone, have disabilities, have limited access to food, and do not have a family member in the Baltimore area to help. This week the focus has been on best practices for serving that population.

This strategy has four main components:

• Residential senior housing facilities

• Home-delivered meals to homebound individuals

• Online food delivery through the Virtual Balti-Market program

• Fielding requests through the Maryland Access Point

Baltimore’s seven City operated senior centers have been designated as pickup points where seniors can receive a boxed lunch.

Our Emergency Food Insecure Response Team is coordinating with Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland, and delivered more than 1,400 meals to residents just yesterday.

The Virtual Balti-market program has seen an increase in the number of orders placed as more residents practice social distancing and stay in their homes. This week the program has scheduled 152 deliveries to nine senior housing sites across the city.

Any City resident age 60 and over, or a family member concerned about an older relative without food, should call Maryland Access Point at 410-396-2273 (CARE).

For more information on the COVID-19 virus, click here.

Sincerely,

Mayor Young

Blueprint for 2020 and Beyond

Baltimore residents seek violence prevention, mental, and behavioral health services as path to safer streets

Thank you for your participation in the OSI Baltimore Survey. The most important way to improve Baltimore neighborhoods, according to respondents in the Blueprint for Baltimore survey, is by creating safer streets. Asked how the city should allocate resources to respond to violence, respondents said city leaders should expand the Safe Streets program, improve access to mental health and substance use services, and improve witness and victim support. Respondents overwhelmingly said youth programs should be the top priority in the city budget. The information collected in this survey will be used at upcoming mayoral forums in order to guide discussions on implementing policies. If you are interested in participating in an upcoming mayoral forum, please follow the link below.

https://www.osibaltimore.org/blueprint/

Police Department proposed departmental policies

In 2017, the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) entered into a court-approved Consent Decree with the United States Department of Justice to promote fair and constitutional policing through a set of comprehensive, specific, and transparent reforms. Adoption of the Consent Decree’s recommendations is a multi-year process. Throughout this process, the BPD is seeking feedback to ensure transparency and rebuild trust in the BPD. The BPD believes that community members and members of the Department should have an opportunity to review and comment on its draft policies before they are submitted to the Court for approval and adopted by the Department.

On the BPD Website, you will find drafts of proposed updated departmental policies. You are invited and encouraged to inspect these draft policies and submit feedback. All comments will be reviewed, and – as appropriate – may lead to changes in the policy.

To provide comment, click on the “Let’s Hear Your Feedback” button. Please include the policy number with your comments.

If you wish to leave contact information so that members of the BPD may follow up with you about your comments, please feel free to do so; otherwise, your comments will be anonymous.

Thank you for your lending your voice to this process.

https://www.baltimorepolice.org/transparency/draft-policies

Click to see which policies are available for Public Comment