Baltimore Witness

Overview

Baltimore Witness is a nonprofit news outlet that tracks homicide and non-fatal shooting cases through the Baltimore criminal justice system, from arrest through court adjudication, to increase transparency and accountability.

History

Baltimore Witness launched in 2021 as a sister site to D.C. Witness, which founder and publisher Amos Gelb established in Washington, D.C. in 2015 as an internship-driven effort to track violent crime cases through the courts. Trained reporters and interns attend and document every hearing in covered cases, building a database that as of 2021 tracked more than 100 categories of information across each stage of the criminal justice process.

Notable works

Baltimore Witness has used its court-monitoring data to help identify repeat violators of domestic-violence protective orders for the Baltimore mayor's office, and Media Bias/Fact Check has rated the outlet's reporting as least-biased with high factual accuracy.

Key personnel

Founder and Publisher: Amos Gelb
Editor-in-Chief: LaTrina Antoine

Audience

Baltimore Witness serves Baltimore residents, victims' families, legal professionals and other local news outlets seeking data-informed reporting on the city's criminal justice system.

Location and contact info

Address
Baltimore, Maryland
Website
https://baltimorewitness.org