Delivering Results

Lowest Crime Rate Since 1975

Protecting Our Children

Proven Crime Fighting Strategies

DNA Fingerprinting

Public Safety Dashboard

Violence Prevention Initiative

License Plate Recognition Software

Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force

Anti-gang Initiatives

Unprecedented Interagency Cooperation

Reducing Domestic Violence

Homeland Security and Public Safety

Equipping Our Correctional Officers

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Lowest crime since '75

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Improving Public Safety

Governor O'Malley understands crime-fighting strategies used by law enforcement to crack down on violent criminals and make our communities safer. As Mayor of Baltimore, Martin O’Malley supported neighbors and police to reduce crime by 40%. Now, Governor O’Malley is helping law enforcement utilize the latest technologies and strategies, including DNA fingerprinting, to drive Maryland’s violent crime rate down to its lowest level since 1975.

Using the latest technologies, Governor O’Malley helped to facilitate unprecedented information sharing between state and local governments and law enforcement agencies to help make our communities safer.

Governor O’Malley signed tough bi-partisan legislation to protect our children from sexual predators and take firearms out of the hands of domestic abusers. To support our Correctional Officers, Governor O’Malley closed the violent House of Corrections and provided our officers with stab-proof vests.

While our crime rate is the lowest that it has been in years, Governor O’Malley will continue to use his proven strategies to make our communities even safer.  

Broken Promises Under Bob Ehrlich

Even though the technology was available, Bob Ehrlich’s administration failed to analyze 24,000 DNA samples – valuable evidence that could have led to the capture of hundreds of violent criminals.

And Bob Ehrlich allowed even more violent criminals to run free on our streets when he broke his 2002 campaign promise to end parole for violent offenders; instead Bob Ehrlich tried to pay paroled prisoners not to break the law.

Under Bob Ehrlich, attacks on our Correctional Officers went unchecked even as officers worked under violent conditions without the proper equipment.

O'Malley-Brown: Delivering Results

Lowest Crime Rate Since 1975

• Maryland’s violent crime rate is at its lowest level since modern crime-tracking began in 1975, according to 2009 crime data. Total crime declined to its lowest level since 1975, as have homicides, dropping 12 percent since 2008 with 57 fewer people murdered last year in Maryland than the year before.
• Since 2007, Maryland has seen the steepest three year reduction in homicides since the 1970s.

Protecting Our Children

• Governor Martin O’Malley signed tough new legislation to protect our children from sexual predators.
• Governor O'Malley signed bipartisan legislation to increase mandatory minimum sentences for sexual offenders and require mandatory lifetime supervision of sexual predators.
• In the State of Maryland, juvenile homicides are down by 46%. Governor O'Malley has led efforts to reform the state's Department of Juvenile Justice, creating a statewide Juvenile Violence Prevention Initiative to identify and appropriately supervise juveniles who are at high risk of becoming victims or perpetrators of violent crime.

Proven Crime Fighting Strategies

• Under Governor O’Malley, the State of Maryland has formed new partnerships with local governments and is utilizing new technology to share information and fight crime. After serving as Mayor of Baltimore for 7 years and reducing crime by 40%, Governor O'Malley understands what tools and strategies law enforcement needs to crack down on violent criminals to make our communities safer.

DNA Fingerprinting

• After inheriting a backlog of 24,000 unanalyzed and 15,000 uncollected DNA samples, Governor O’Malley allocated the necessary resources to eliminate the backlog leading to case closures and arrests of violent fugitives. In 2009 alone, 103 murderers, rapists, and other criminals who might otherwise be walking the streets, were arrested thanks to DNA technology.
• Under Governor O'Malley, Maryland is leading the way by moving from an outdated patchwork of fingerprinting systems to new state-of-the-art digital fingerprinting technology that is leading to tens of thousands of positive fingerprint matches. Governor O'Malley advocated for an expansion of Maryland's DNA fingerprinting law to convict violent offenders.

Public Safety Dashboard

• A database of life-saving information shared with 16,000 law enforcement officers and government servants in more than 100 agencies. This innovative approach to information sharing currently registers between 25,000 and 40,000 hits per day.

Violence Prevention Initiative

• The Violence Prevention Initiative is an innovative approach to managing and supervising the most violent offenders has driven violent crime down in Maryland to its lowest levels since 1975. Crime data show these individuals have the greatest propensity for committing future acts of violence.
• Governor O'Malley has set the goal to reduce violent crime in Maryland 20% by the end of 2012.

License Plate Recognition Software

• Motor vehicle theft dropped 23 percent statewide last year compared to 2008, through the application of advanced license plate reader technologies. This new technology is delivering real results to crack down on auto theft.

Unprecedented Interagency Cooperation

• As a result of efficiency reforms implemented by the O’Malley-Brown Administration, the Department of Parole and Probation, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Juvenile Services, and local law enforcement cooperate and communicate at unprecedented levels, ensuring low recidivism and high rates of supervision for the most violent offenders.
• Since taking office, the O’Malley-Brown Administration has increased funding for substance abuse treatment and prevention programs by $47 million, helping to eliminate the scourge of addiction that plagues too many of our families and neighborhoods.

Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force

• Through innovative cross border collaboration, the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force comprised of law enforcement agencies from Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, has issued 1,000 warrants to help make neighborhoods in the DC Metro area safer.

Anti-gang Initiatives

• Resulting from reforms championed by the O’Malley-Brown Administration, Maryland agencies now share gang intelligence information among over 100 partner agencies within Maryland and with regional partners.
• Earlier this year, Governor O'Malley signed the Safe Schools Act of 2010, sponsored by Speaker Busch, into law to improve communication between law enforcement and school officials to address gang-related activity in schools.

Reducing Domestic Violence

• Governor O'Malley and Lt. Governor Brown worked with countless stakeholders and advocates to take firearms out of the hands of domestic abusers in Maryland.
• Governor O’Malley and Lt. Governor Brown were honored by the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence for their work during the 2009 legislative session to remove firearms from the hands of domestic abusers. The legislation passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by the Governor provides judges with an additional tool to ensure the safety of Maryland’s families by granting them authority to remove weapons from homes early during domestic violence proceedings.
• Governor O’Malley also signed legislation into law that allows a tenant who is a victim of domestic violence or sexual assault to terminate a residential lease or request that their locks be changed with certain written notice, including a final protective or peace order. Lt. Governor Brown, the administration’s point person for domestic violence policy, worked with legislators and stakeholders to pass the bill.

Homeland Security and Public Safety

• The O’Malley-Brown Administration is continuing to lead the way forward in homeland security, earning a near-perfect score for the second year in a row from the U.S. Coast Guard for port security.
• Since taking office, our port has improved from a system of sleeping guards and wooden decoy cameras to state-of-the-art integrated system of TWIC identification, biosurveillance, CCTV systems and more, so our State is ready to weather any storm, natural or man-made, and protect the safety and security of our people.
• Governor O’Malley signed an executive order establishing the first Interoperability Program Management Office in an effort to make Maryland one of the first states in the nation to build a statewide, interoperable communications system for public safety radios that connects every public safety agency and first responder in Maryland. After a decade’s worth of previous efforts, the state of Maryland is moving forward within this new system to help law enforcement.
• Governor O'Malley has set a goal to make Maryland the National Leader in Homeland Security Preparedness by the end of 2012.

Equipping Our Correctional Officers

• Governor O'Malley met with Correctional Officers in Annapolis prior to signing the State Correctional Officers’ Bill of Rights to establish a defined set of rights for the employment, investigation and discipline of state correctional officers in Maryland. In the last fiscal year the O'Malley-Brown Administration drove down serious assaults against correctional staff to 50% of where they were in fiscal year 2006.
• Maryland Correctional Officers play a vital role in keeping our communities safe and our violent offenders locked up. Early in his term, Governor O'Malley ordered the closure of the House of Corrections—Maryland's most violent prison. Governor O'Malley has also provided funding to make sure our corrections officers have stab proof vests while on duty.