When questioned, Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley dismissed claims that Mayor Brandon Scott ordered the police department not to enforce City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates’ Citation Docket Initiative.

“No, that is not true,” said Commissioner Worley on Tuesday morning.

The question arose after strong statements were made by both leaders during separate and opposing endorsement announcements for Baltimore’s upcoming mayoral election.

During his endorsement of former Mayor Sheila Dixon, City State’s Attorney Bates said he ran on the promise to prosecute all laws on the books, with a focus on quality of life crimes, a philosophy he believes Mayor Scott does not share.

“The more I began to have conversations with the Mayor, it was clear he wanted to have the policies of my predecessor. He did not want us to enforce that,” said Bates.

However, during a separate endorsement event for Mayor Scott, the mayor denied supporting former City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s policies.

“Well, that’s just a flat-out lie,” said Scott. “I was not involved in her policies then. I’m not involved in them now. Despite his words today, my police officers who work for me as the mayor of Baltimore and go out and fight crime, we’re going to continue to send them cases.”

Bates argued that actions speak louder than words. In June, he launched the ‘Citation Docket Initiative,’ which requires violators of offenses like dirt bike offenses, disorderly drinking, aggressive panhandling, and drug possession to be issued citations with the offer to complete community service and access wrap-around services. Failure to comply would lead to prosecution.

In February, Bates’ office raised concerns that out of 279 total citations issued since the initiative’s inception, only 37 came from the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) and made it to court.

During Dixon’s endorsement, Bates suggested the lack of support stems from Mayor Scott, who controls the BPD.

“Quality of life was one of the main things I ran on,” said Bates. “If it was one of the main things I ran on and your philosophy is I do not want to focus on quality of life, I was fine with my predecessor. I’m saying we must focus on quality of life, and then we look to find the BPD, who the mayor has said time and time again they’re going to do what I tell them to do. They’re not writing citations. But I have every other jurisdiction, agencies writing citations. Actions speak louder than words.”

Commissioner Worley acknowledged the BPD’s challenges with the initiative, citing restrictions and policies, such as the requirement to issue warnings before citations. He also mentioned the logistical difficulty of transitioning from electronic citation systems back to paper-based citations.

Worley added, “We may not be writing the citations. One of the things that happened with the citations is that we finally got all of our officers away from pen and paper. We can do everything electronically. We go back to citations, and we have to give them pen and paper, and they have to write down the charges. It’s a change where we’re trying to come up with a better way to do that. We could do a better job, and we will do a better job. I think it’s working because the calls for service are down, and those quality of life issues we’re not getting anywhere near the complaints in those districts from our citizens.”