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 on a pledge to finally end the city’s crime wave, which earned it a reputation as one of the nation’s murder capitals.

The city has seen a staggering drop in violent crimes through 2025, including a 22 percent reduction in homicides and 19 percent decrease 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 praised Bates’ approach and said more Democrat-led cities should adopt a similar strategy, arguing that many have followed soft-on-crime policies to be lenient to criminals from marginalized communities.

Bates agreed and noted that, ‘a number of the victims within the community were also minorities and African Americans, and they have a right to be safe and free in their house.’ The conversation came on the heels of Donald Trump attempting to deploy National Guard troops to a number of Democrat-led cities across the nation, which Bates said he did not necessarily oppose in Baltimore to maintain its drop in crime rates.

‘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. 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.’

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.