Made Baltimore City A Safer Place
O’Malley was elected on a mandate to make Baltimore safer. Under his leadership, Baltimore achieved the steepest reduction in crime of any major city, while bringing homicides below 300 per year for the first time in a decade. O’Malley also expanded services drug treatment, doubling funding and leading the way to a 30% drop in the number of overdose deaths.

Policed the Police
O’Malley’s administration took strong steps to police the police – increasing minority hiring, improving accountability, and fully staffing a civilian review board. Under his leadership, the city reduced police shootings to their lowest level in a decade.

Revitalized Baltimore’s Economy
As crime dropped under O’Malley’s leadership, commercial investment and housing values doubled. O’Malley also improved Baltimore’s schools, taking steps that increased graduation rates by 25% and made impressive gains in student test scores. Under O’Malley, Baltimore’s decades long population slide finally ended.

Restored Fiscal Management
O’Malley brought the city’s budget under control, producing the first surplus in decades, while cutting property taxes to their lowest levels in 30 years. These efforts in “very strong fiscal management” earned Baltimore a bond upgrade from negative to positive.

Achieved a Public Safety Trifecta
Under Governor O’Malley, Maryland drove violent crime down to 30-year lows, incarceration to 20-year lows, and recidivism down by nearly 15%. He signed legislation banning the box for state employment, expanded state partnerships for re-entry programming, and approved a process for automatically expunging criminal records where arrests did not lead to charges.

Decriminalized Marijuana
Governor O’Malley decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana, allowing police to focus on addressing serious crimes.

Common Sense Gun Protections
Governor O’Malley made broad, common-sense reforms to reduce gun violence, including implementing a handgun qualification license requiring fingerprint background checks, an assault weapons ban, and a magazine capacity limit.