The head of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, who oversees a swath of Baltimore anti-violence initiatives, will step down, effective June 30.
Shantay Jackson, who has led the office since Mayor Brandon Scott created it at the start of his term, announced her resignation in a news release Thursday afternoon. The release did not include Jackson’s future plans or who would serve as director beginning July 1.
“It is with mixed emotions that I have chosen to resign … as I enter into my next chapter of service to our City,” Jackson said in the release. “I do not take this decision lightly, and it has been an honor to serve the city I love.”
She added she has “full faith” the MONSE team will “carry on this transformational work” and said she would work with Scott on a smooth transition. In a tweet, Jackson wrote that she was not asked or told to resign and that “nobody’s fabrications” informed the decision. “Stay tuned!” she wrote.
MONSE coordinates Baltimore’s flagship anti-violence initiative, Safe Streets, and has played a key role in the administration of the mayor’s Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan. It’s also partnering with the police and other groups in the city’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy, which is embarking on an expansion effort after successes in the Western District.
Scott called Jackson an “integral part” of his administration’s work treating violence as a public health issue.
Daniel Webster of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions said Jackson took on a “monumental task” in reconstructing an office focused primarily on criminal justice responses to addressing problems in a more “holistic way.”
“To state the obvious, it is imperative that Mayor Scott fill that position soon with a capable leader who shares his vision for making communities safe,” Webster said.
The MONSE director’s departure is the latest in a series of mayor’s office staffing shake-ups. Earlier this month, Scott’s chief of staff and communications director were ousted. Both had held their positions for less than six months.
The city also has seen departures of the deputy mayor for public safety, two deputy city administrators and the city administrator.
Niles Ford, the city’s fire chief of nearly a decade, resigned in December following the release of a damning report on a fire that killed three city firefighters.
Jackson, who previously served as executive director of the Baltimore Community Mediation Center and was a community liaison to the policing consent decree between the city and the U.S. Department of Justice, was tapped by Scott in 2020 to lead the newly created MONSE, which replaced the Office of Criminal Justice. At the time, Scott said he anticipated the office would work with law enforcement agencies including police and the state’s attorney, as well as coordinate with other city agencies.
In practice, the office has been one of the city’s most visible. Scott has leaned on Jackson to lead efforts to redirect some of the city’s public safety spending into more holistic initiatives, a key promise he made during his 2020 campaign for mayor.
In October 2021, Scott dedicated $50 million of federal American Rescue Plan dollars to the office, making it one of the first to get a piece of the $641 million Baltimore received from the coronavirus relief program. With that funding, Jackson has overseen efforts to prevent gun violence, the introduction of reentry support for formerly incarcerated residents and community healing efforts for those exposed to violence.
The staff of MONSE expanded under Jackson’s watch. About $6 million of the coronavirus relief money was used to create 20 new positions in the office. Multiple city employees moved from the mayor’s office to join Jackson’s team.
Jackson has overseen the city’s introduction of the Group Violence Reduction Strategy, a program that aims to intercept individuals deemed most vulnerable to becoming shooters or victims and offer them services to avoid becoming involved in crime. Those selected for the program are offered social support to assist with stepping away from criminal activity and are connected with community members to impress upon them the risks involved.
The strategy, which has been tried twice before under previous mayoral administrations, was piloted by MONSE last year in the city’s Western District, one of Baltimore’s highest crime areas. Late last year, Scott announced the program would be expanded citing reductions in violent crime in the Western District that city officials attribute to the pilot.
The expansion is set to begin in the Southwestern and Central districts. The Eastern and Southern districts are due to be added by the end of 2023.
Asked about Jackson’s departure, longtime community organizer Ray Kelly stressed that anti-violence initiatives existed “before there was a MONSE” and that recent success with the pilot GVRS initiative in the Western District was a “team effort.”
“It will take the continued commitment of funding and community investment by the administration to ensure these proactive approaches to crime and violence reduction maintain [their] positive momentum,” said Kelly, who leads the Citizens Policing Project.
Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates said in a statement that Jackson’s partnership has been essential and he looked forward to continuing to make progress.
“I commend Executive Director Jackson for the groundwork she laid for the Group Violence Reduction Strategy work, the progress she made in the historically volatile Western District and the expansion of the strategy into new sectors of our city,” Bates said.
Jackson has at times been a polarizing figure, particularly with members of the Baltimore City Council, some of whom have been dissatisfied with the pace of the GVRS rollout.
Last year, a coalition of council members, led by Councilman Eric Costello, publicly called for new solutions to address city crime. The group demanded information from Jackson about the status of the GVRS and threatened to delay the passage of the proposed budget if satisfactory answers weren’t provided.
Jackson defended her efforts during council hearings, arguing the program was off to a strong but methodical start.
“You all may remember me saying this wasn’t going to be a champagne bottle burst off the side of a cruise ship, but rather a very concerted, methodical effort around what it was going to take to get GVRS right this time for Baltimore,” she said at the time.
Councilman Mark Conway, chairman of the council’s Public Safety and Government Operations Committee, said he learned Thursday of Jackson’s impending departure with everyone else, adding that she has a “very tough job.”
Conway said he expects the team working on GVRS to be able to continue its progress, but that he’ll be paying close attention to the continuity of other MONSE work, particularly early pilots such as school-based violence interventions.
Adam Rosenberg, the executive director of the LifeBridge Health Center for Hope, one of the organizations MONSE contracts with to operate Safe Streets sites, called Jackson an “ardent advocate” for a safer Baltimore.
“We appreciate all she has done as part of our shared mission to reduce crime and violence, which are leaving lasting impacts on our communities,” Rosenberg said. “We wish her the best in her next endeavor.”
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