Evaluation of the Swift, Certain, and Fair Program Implementation in Baltimore

The Maryland Crime Research and Innovation Center (MCRIC) is partnering with the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) and the Baltimore Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ) to conduct an implantation evaluation of the Swift, Certain, and Fair program, supported by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The goal of MCRIC’s planning support is to help BPD and MOCJ validate the problems that were targeted in the application, provide information on appropriate best practices given the community’s identified problems, and to assist in the development of an action plan for the initiative. 

In the early phase of the project, MCRIC will work closely with BPD and to collect comprehensive data and conduct analyses. MCRIC will also assist in the development of an action plan that will guide implementation and assessment of the SCF intervention. The action plan will identify a set of appropriate best practices given the nature of community, criminal activity, and resource constraints.

MCRIC will analyze crime, gun violence and gang surveillance data to monitor the progress of the initiative’s efforts and make suggestions as needed for any changes to the strategy, if challenges arise. In the last three months of the effort, MCRIC will conduct an overall outcome analysis of the effort focusing on the direct goals of the program: reduce violent crime, substance abuse, recidivism, and gun violence, and improve integration of community stakeholders. The following activities will be part of the outcome analysis:

1. Analyze trends in crime and intermediate measures affected by group violence intervention (GVI) operations.
2. Evaluate development of police and stakeholder practices related to gun crime, including new police practices to incorporate data generated by social network analysis, qualitative and quantitative data.
3. Produce, as needed, briefs or descriptions of regular analysis of crime and other data in order to inform and provide feedback to the program partners during planning and implementation.