$23K funding cut for Carroll crime prevention efforts explained by state official

A $22,583 cut in state grant funding to the Carroll County State’s Attorney’s Office this year is related, in part, to the county’s population size, an official with the Governor’s Office of Crime and Prevention Policy said in an interview Wednesday.

For the sixth consecutive year, Carroll’s SAO has been awarded a state grant as part of the Maryland Criminal Intelligence Network. Last year, the office received a grant award of $425,664; this year, the grant is $403,081.

The funding is allocated for the prosecution of criminal networks operating within the county, including drug trafficking organizations driving opioid overdoses.

Arinze Ifekauche, director of communications and legislative affairs for the Office of Crime and Prevention Policy, specified that the funding cut is not part of more than $148 million in budget cuts proposed by Gov. Wes Moore. Rather, when deciding how much each grant applicant should receive, the quality of the grant application, overall crime rate and population size, are scored and taken into consideration.

“There’s a pot of money, and we’re responsible for administering it,” Ifekauche said. “We rate the quality of the application and prioritize that funding. Then the next level, we’re looking at equity and what funding is equitable amongst the counties that need it.”

The state office had a total of $6,723,865 to award for fiscal 2025 and received a total of $8,518,171 in requests.

“We gave away every single penny, $6.7 million went out,” he said.

Carroll County received 5.99% of the office’s fiscal 2025 allocation.

In comparison, Anne Arundel County received $549,814, which equates to 8.18% of the money available. The City of Baltimore received $696,555 or 10.36%, and Baltimore County received $338,440 or 5.03% of the money available.

The population of each jurisdiction and crime trends are also factors, along with the fiscal responsibility of distributing the dollars where they’re needed.

According to the 2024 U.S. Census, Anne Arundel County has a population of 595,817, the City of Baltimore’s population is 559,266 and Baltimore County is home to 843,420 people.

In comparison, Carroll County has a population of 177,806.

Ifekauche noted that Carroll County did see an increase in funding in fiscal 2023. That year, the county received $425,664, a $40,000 increase over fiscal 2022. In fiscal 2024, the state’s attorney’s office received the same amount of funding as 2023.