FOX45 News questions if Safe Streets workers use employment to avoid law enforcement - Fox Baltimore

BALTIMORE (WBFF) — After a former Safe Streets employee used his affiliation with the program to evade law enforcement and avoid arrest, FOX45 News continues to investigate the program operated out of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood, Safety and Engagement, or MONSE.

In September 2021, Ronald Alexander, a 50-year-old man from Baltimore, was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for distributing drugs in Baltimore. Prosecutors said he used his position in the Safe Streets program to try to stop investigators from tracking him.

As detailed in his plea agreement, on August 5, 2020, a Baltimore Police officer conducted a traffic stop of Alexander after Alexander rolled through a stop sign. During the encounter, Alexander used his affiliation with Safe Streets and the Baltimore City Mayor’s Office to try to deter further police investigation.

Alexander called an associate afterward, and said:

Yeah. Police hopped on me. Told me to get off the phone. You know they scared, you know they scared of the Mayor Office, I said man I work for Safe Streets from the Mayor Office. I was just coming from one of my participant house, in need with this, it was in need of food due to the pandemic. He say oh, ok ok.

On August 14, 2020, search warrants were executed at locations related to the investigation, including Alexander’s residence in the 1200 block of North Augusta Avenue and a second residence where Alexander sometimes stayed in the unit block of North Culver Street, in Baltimore.

Alexander was located at his residence where law enforcement seized a 9mm semi-automatic pistol and six cartridges of ammunition, a digital scale and drug packaging material, suspected cutting agents, and Safe Streets apparel. At the residence on North Culver Street, investigators located 80 grams of a heroin and fentanyl mixture, more than 100 grams of powdered caffeine, and a digital scale.

Shantay Jackson, director of MONSE, has not agreed to an interview with FOX45 News. In lieu of an interview, questions were sent to her office asking:

• Are you aware of any policy or practice, written or unwritten, for Baltimore Police Department officers not to interfere with Safe Streets workers?
• Have you been informed of any instances where Safe Streets workers have used their status with the program to avoid arrest?
• Is there any written document Safe Streets workers can use to identify themselves? If so, who provides this documentation? Is it a badge or letter?

No answers were provided to FOX45 News.

After an internal review of the Safe Streets program, more accountability and oversight measures are supposed to be implemented to the program, according to the report. But details of what those measures will be and how they will be implemented have yet to be announced.

FOX45 News continues to investigate where the money goes once the City authorities send it to the various community-based organizations operating the Safe Streets locations, who is responsible for the accountability measures and how employees are screened during the hiring process.

Follow Political Reporter Mikenzie Frost on Twitter and Facebook. Send tips about Safe Streets to [email protected].

source: https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/fox45-news-questions-if-safe-streets-workers-use-employment-to-avoid-law-enforcement

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