Wednesday, Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates announced his office is charging 20 juveniles in what he described as a first-of-its-kind collaboration in an effort to address juvenile crime in Baltimore City.

Following a 15-week investigation, Bates said his office worked with the Baltimore City Police Department to connect the dots of carjackings, armed robberies, and assaults; the youngest offender in the case is 12 years old, but some of the young people involved will be charged as adults, Bates said.

In an exclusive interview following the announcement, Bates said his office re-prioritized resources from the major crimes unit to work on this investigation. Major crimes typically works on violent crimes and gang-related cases, Bates said.

“This was a lot of work,” Bates said, adding that his prosecutors have spent “hundreds of hours” on the case.

Some of the juveniles involved have prior records, highlighting some of the concerns regarding the Department of Juvenile Services and the level of services available to young people who routinely break the law. Bates was asked if he would have had to divert resources away from violent crime to address these juvenile offenders if DJS was holding young people accountable.

“That’s a difficult question in a lot of ways,” Bates said. “If the system was working properly, no. DJS is one part of the system.”

Other parts of the system include the laws, he added, which many are being debated in Annapolis as the General Assembly prepares to wrap up their legislative session. Parental accountability is another part of the system, Bates said, which is why he had a message to parents and guardians in Baltimore City.

“From here on out, if you’re found to be contributing to the delinquency of a minor my office will be looking for you and seek to hold you accountable,” said Bates.

Bates said there is a law he plans to utilize to hold parents accountable for not doing what they can to ensure their children are not breaking the law. With services available to parents, Bates said it’s up to them to keep track of their children.

“I expect the parent to realize their child is out at 2, 3 o’clock in the morning when they get a call from BPD that they dropped their child off or from DJS to pick their child up, to make sure that their child understands there are rules, regulations and they cannot go back out. And if they do, the parent needs to call the police,” Bates said. “If you’ve done that, I’m not worried about you.”

I’m telling the parents if your children are going to go out and are going to terrorize, you better bring your pocketbook, bring your checkbook and you need to also make sure that you may need a lawyer because you could potentially get charged because you’re not doing your job under the law, Bates said.

The names of the juveniles involved have not been released due to their ages and Bates made it clear he won’t discuss specifics of the case, despite Mayor Brandon Scott sharing more information than Bates said should be in public. Bates said his team had a meeting with the judge involved in these cases, along with the public defender’s office, and the judge reiterated the importance of the confidentiality laws surrounding juvenile cases.

“Based on the information that I read, yes there is concern. We worked really hard and to open up your computer and read those facts – I’m not saying they are true, I’m not saying they’re not. I’m going to listen to the judge who enforces the rules,” Bates said when asked if the details shared by Mayor Scott compromised the investigation. “But yeah, it caused me great concern because it flew in the face of everything we were told we couldn’t do.”

Mayor Scott was not in attendance at the news conference, despite originally scheduled to attend. During a separate event earlier Wednesday, Mayor Scott said he would not be there. His office cited scheduling constraints, but Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Anthony Barksdale served as a representative. When asked if he believed politics were at play in the release of information – and not attending the news conference – Bates said, “I think you’ll have to ask the person who gave that information.”

“I can’t control that person. I was elected by the citizens to do one job and I try to do everything I can to work in partnership. I do everything I can to be as positive as possible and as supportive as possible. I will continue to do my best to serve the citizens as elected State’s Attorney of Baltimore City.”