Baltimore City State's Attorney Ivan Bates spent nearly two hours in front of the City Council's Ways and Means Committee wrapping up just before 9 p.m. Monday night at City Hall, making his case for a budget increase.
The city's new top prosecutor is asking for more money to focus on two main areas in his office - upgrading technology and to hire more prosecutors.
"My goal has been to have 50 new state's attorneys since the election. We've already reached out to now that we have 40 new assistant state's attorneys, 12 of which left the office and returned since the election (in January)," said Bates.
Bates is asking Mayor Brandon Scott for an additional $800,000 in the budget, which must be approved by the City Council.
He also said about $300,000 of that funding request is needed to help offset the required resources to review police body-camera footage. It's evidence gathering that Bates said takes much time and can slow the progress of prosecutors working other cases. Bates wants those duties to done by support staff, paid for by the money he's asking to receive.
"For instance, homicide prosecutors may spend almost 70, 80, 100 hours on a murder case, 40 of which could be reviewing body camera footage," said Bates.
Bates presenting his case, but council committee members also asking questions, namely about his new Citation Dockett starting this month to address several offenses, including dirt bike charges.
"What is your office going to do to ensure that it's enforced fairly and equally throughout the city," asked city council president Nick Mosby.
Bates acknowledged those concerns and said he expects his office to monitor the matter.
After his presentation, Bates told FOX45 News that he's confident he'll get the funding he needs.
"We feel very confident that we're going to get the money because I feel at the end of the day, we've been able to lay out what we've been doing, that we're working hard and we're going to have citizens' best interest," said Bates.