Building Trust & Reducing Crime

Review Nick’s Police One Pager

Without safe communities, nothing else is really possible.

While violent crime in Baltimore City has fallen sharply, Baltimore County has experienced the opposite trend since the pandemic. NIBRS data from the Baltimore County Crime Dashboard shows violent crime incidents increased more than 40% between 2019 and 2025.

Towson reflects this broader challenge. Since the pandemic, the area has experienced a noticeable increase in incidents compared to the County overall, contributing to concerns about public safety and the vitality of our civic center.

There are signs of progress. Incident rates have declined since peaking in 2023, including an 8% drop from 2024 to 2025. But the broader reality remains: Baltimore County is still experiencing significantly more violent crime than before the pandemic.

Real safety is more than just crime statistics—it’s about people feeling protected where they live.

When people feel unsafe, it has real consequences. Families start looking for safer places to live. Businesses hesitate to invest. Neighbors stop trusting each other and communities lose their sense of connection. In fact, the last census showed that for the first time in a century, Baltimore County’s population has declined. Most recently, we have seen Towson lose numerous jobs as a result businesses leaving the Mall because of safety concerns. We cannot afford to let fear drive people away.

This is why marginal improvements year of year are not enough. We must have leaders willing to take bold action to improve the safety of our communities in real terms. 

As the only candidate with a law enforcement background and whose wife serves in leadership at ATF, Nick understands firsthand the realities our officers face every day. Nick’s public safety plan is shaped by direct conversations with the officers and first responders on the front lines. We cannot keep recycling the same policies. Real reform begins with listening to those doing the job and acting on the real challenges they face every day. Together, we can strengthen the morale and capacity of our force because a confident, well-supported department is the foundation of a safer Baltimore County for everyone.

Nick’s Plan to Foster Safe Communities:

Support Officers and Prioritize Recruitment

• 600 New Officers: In view of our major officer shortage, we will attract 600 new high-qualified officers while retaining top-tier police officers, ensuring they have the training, resources and equipment needed to protect residents and boost morale. Our process must be rigorous and competitive, but we also have hundreds of vacancies that must be filled, which is why we will also commit to the Green Shirt Program by rehiring retired officers on a part-time basis.
• Build Cadet Programs: We will work with high schools, universities and colleges to create integrated police cadet programs so that there is a clear career path for young graduates who want to serve their community.
• Respect Officers and Retirees: Institute and budget predictable COLAs for Police pension plans. We must work with officers, BCPD leadership and the FOP to consider a more effective and uniform shift scheduling scheme.
• Equip Officers Properly: We must deliver take-home vehicles. The promise was made, and the law passed, but execution has been lopsided. Nick Stewart will ensure all officers, whether employed before the agreement, onboarded afterwards or those new to the department, have the opportunity for a take-home vehicle.
  • Also, the department needs to address resource shortages for officers by issuing more sets of uniforms to new officers, updating body protection, installing encrypted radios in cars, and fully staffing mental health services to ensure all referrals are accepted and processed promptly.
  • Finally, we must acquire more licenses for critical software like NIBIN, eTrace and others so that officers no longer have to share logins. 
• Property Tax Support for Police: Establish a property tax program – whether a stipend or a credit – to make it more affordable for police officers to buy a home and live in Baltimore County.

Modernize & Optimize the Department

• All Hands Review: We have to conduct a complete review of all law enforcement resources and reimagine how we optimize these resources in the county relative to our peers.
  • We must evaluate the relationship between our Police, Sheriffs and civilian law enforcement staff.
  • We should modernize our parking citation systems and our shoplifter and trespasser data sharing platforms to ensure officers have all of the data they need to do their jobs efficiently.
  • Critically, we will evaluate how civilian support roles such as crossing guards and minor accident responders could be utilized, along with part-time and flex schedules, to relieve officers and ensure an efficient, orderly and unstressed police department. 
• Revamp BCStat into CrimeStat: On the first day, we will perform a comprehensive review of BCStat, our crime reporting system, and set standards for the consistent and correct classification of crimes. We will also prioritize and invest in creating CrimeStat. Crimestat is more than a reporting tool. It should be the fulcrum of our crime fight, driving strategic decision-making, promoting inter-agency and cross-agency collaboration and, most importantly, fostering accountability with the community using public-facing resources. 
• Strategic & Responsive Policing: Focus prosecutorial resources on the small number of individuals responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime. This includes targeting violent cross-jurisdictional crime by partnering with law enforcement counterparts, using joint task forces and embedding County officers with other agencies and vice versa to hold repeat offenders and perpetual bad actors accountable. 
• Expand Programs for At-Risk Youth:  Steer youth away from crime before they enter the system—because kids deserve support, not criminalization. This means supporting organizations like Roca Inc and the UMBC Choice program and investing in Community Schools and leveraging proven restorative justice and community engagement programs that hold juveniles accountable while giving them a foundation for safe, productive lives. A big part of that effort is making juvenile crime data public through CrimeStat.
  • Summer Youth Employment: We should revamp the SYEP program to borrow from the best practices of the City’s Youthworks program so that our teenagers have great opportunities in the summer months.
• Expand Anti-Crime Technology: Law enforcement already has very difficult and dangerous jobs, so the government has an obligation to provide the best technologies and tools that keep our officers and our communities safe. Officers can do their jobs more effectively and with greater morale when they are properly equipped. This requires a concerted investment in the latest technologies as well as systems, policies and ordinances that guarantee usage and efficacy. Among these technologies are CCTV cameras and car tag trackers, NIBIN for tracing gun crimes, and Nighthawk LEOVision for collating CCTV and tracking data across agencies.
  • These technologies, paired with a revamped CrimeStat and improved staffing, will integrate actionable leads in real time that lead to safer streets and more effective interventions. 
• Public Safety Academy: Design and build a state-of-the-art Public Safety Academy that can train police, fire, and EMS under one roof with the latest techniques and dedicated training staff.

Special Provisions for Towson Mall

In recent months, there have been disturbing incidents in Towson that have left us reeling.  Towson is the County’s downtown and a vital core for our civic, economic and educational foundations.  We must take action to ensure Towson, the Mall and the surrounding areas are safe and secure at all times.

In coordination with law enforcement experts, we will:

• Stand with victims, including interpleading in cases when necessary to protect their rights.
• Create an MOU with Towson Town Center requiring enforceable mall safety standards in exchange for additional County security support.
• Establish a police substation at the Mall and expand police patrol coverage to formally include the mall, with increased presence during peak hours and known hotspots.
• Evaluate Special Police Officer status for mall security, similar to CCBC campuses, to strengthen on-site enforcement.
• Revitalize Towson’s core through safer streets, slower traffic, improved transit, and more family-friendly public spaces that improve safety through activity and presence. Learn more here.
• As discussed above, we will reassign the Sheriff’s Office to prioritize warrants, summonses, peace orders, and protective orders—freeing police to focus on policing, particularly in the Towson Town Center.

Across all of these efforts, we must dedicate ourselves to rebuilding trust between residents, police and policymakers by creating open conversations and real collaboration to ensure public safety efforts reflect what communities actually need.

Public safety isn’t just about crime rates— it’s about people feeling safe walking in their neighborhoods, sending their kids to school and supporting local businesses.

With smart policies, real accountability and strong partnerships, Nick will make sure Baltimore County is a place where families can live, work and thrive—without fear.

For more on Nick’s vision on improving public safety, check out his op-ed below:

Baltimore County needs rational policy to bring down crime | GUEST COMMENTARY

Baltimore County needs to establish an environment of trust and pursue rational policies to be effective in fighting crime, writes Nick Stewart.

Baltimore Sun