With budget week continuing in Baltimore, the top prosecutor’s office is on the docket for Monday and City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates is requesting more resources to help prosecutors take cases to trial and shore up the office in terms of resources: both physical and personnel.
Baltimore City Council Ways and Means Committee will hear from the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office June 5. Included in Bates’ budget request is more than $800,000 for upgrades and training for staff. That funding request is further broken down by asking for $300,00 for more resources to help the office process and review body-worn camera video; the rest would be used for staff training, according to Bates.
Industry-standard calls for every 100 officers on a local police force, there should be one person reviewing the body-worn camera video, Bates said.
“Baltimore City has four [people],” Bates said. “We need to make sure we have the resources to get the people to review the body-camera footage.”
Jason Johnson, former deputy Baltimore Police Department, said the state’s attorney’s office has an obligation to review all the video evidence, which he said could result in hundreds of hours of video that needs to be reviewed.
“Some of these cases involve multiple officers on a scene, all simultaneously recording what is happening on the scene. All of that material is discoverable, potentially,” Johnson said. “Unlike a stationary piece of evidence or a report that can be read, it has to be reviewed in real-time.”
When it comes to the staffing needs, Bates assumed the office with dozens of vacancies for staff prosecutors. Bates asked for more funding to help with recruiting and training to ensure the office is rebuilt and ready to tackle handling the caseload that comes with job.
Mayor Scott’s budget proposal does include the funding for the body-worn camera video technology upgrades but does not include the funding for staff training. Bates and his team are scheduled to sit before the council committee at 7 p.m. on June 6.
The council has new budgeting powers this year. Previously, the council could cut funding from the budget, but not reallocate funds within. The new power does not allow the council to exceed the total spending proposal for the budget from the mayor.
The city’s budget must be approved by June 26, 2023.