Getting young men to stop killing each other — getting men and women of any age to stop killing each other, to get violent notions out of their heads and guns out of their hands — I can’t think of a tougher job in Baltimore, or anywhere else.

But Safe Streets, Roca and other organizations are devoted to that mission in the hopes of reducing shootings and homicides in a city with deep scars from an epoch of violence.

They appear to be succeeding, and to a significant degree.

It’s becoming clearer by the week that Mayor Brandon Scott’s approach to violent crime — intervention at its root level, conducted on back streets and other settings far from public view — is paying off.

It’s possible that 2024 will end in Baltimore with fewer than 200 homicides for the first time in 11 years and one of the few times since the early 1980s.

Here’s the cold math: As of this writing, there have been 175 killings across the city, according to the Baltimore Police Department. At this time last year, there were 230. The pace in 2023 was 21 homicides per month. This year, the monthly average is about 16.

Last year, there were 262 homicides, the first time police recorded fewer than 300 for the year since 2014.

If the lower pace holds or even drops a bit between now and New Year’s Eve, we might see fewer than 200 homicides for the first time since 2011, when Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was mayor and Fred Bealefeld was police commissioner.

Also significant: Year over year, there have been nearly 200 fewer non-fatal shootings.

Good police work is certainly a factor; making arrests is critical to getting “bad guys with guns” (Bealefeld’s term) off the streets. So kudos to officers and detectives who’ve made cases under the present commissioner, Richard Worley.

An equal salute to prosecutors under State’s Attorney Ivan Bates. Last year, Bates’ staff recorded 125 guilty verdicts or pleas in homicide cases against 17 acquittals and three dismissals. That was significantly ahead of the total for 2022. It appears that trend continued into 2024, with so far 111 guilty verdicts or pleas in homicide cases against 17 acquittals and four dismissals.

Another salute to the U.S. Attorney Erek Barron, who coordinates federal agents with police to make even more cases. A long city-federal investigation recently led to the indictments of two men, Cornell Moore and Keith Russell, in a murder-for-hire operation that allegedly included a shell corporation to hide their profits.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Julie Rubin sent 39-year-old Larry Benner to federal prison for 75 months after he pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a loaded handgun and a drum magazine with another 35 rounds.

Those are just two examples out of many.

When police make arrests and prosecutors get convictions, obviously there are fewer felons on the street, reducing the potential for violence. In that respect, cops prevent loss of life. But it’s prevention after the fact — that is, after someone gets wounded or killed.

Prevention before the fact is what we get from Safe Streets and Roca. That’s the goal, anyway. And, based on reports, some significant goals are being reached.

Safe Streets’ Brooklyn operation this week reported 408 days without a homicide in the zone where its front-line workers operate.

Four other Safe Streets locations — Belvedere, Park Heights, Penn North and Franklin Square — earlier reported a year without a homicide within their boundaries.

Safe Streets at Woodbourne-McCabe went 393 days without a homicide.

Now in its 17th year, Safe Streets operates in 10 locations, employing violence interrupters to detect brewing conflicts and act as mediators to prevent gunfire. “Stop Shooting. Start Living” is their plea.

A couple of years ago, a study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that almost all Safe Streets zones experienced reductions in shootings and homicides.

In addition to saving lives, the study concluded, the program saves dollars: “Given the extraordinarily high cost of gun violence, we estimate [$7 to $19] in economic benefits for every $1 invested in Safe Streets.”

Researchers from the Center for Gun Violence Solutions noted that three Safe Streets workers were murdered over a 14-month period in 2021 and 2022. Given the risks they take to intervene in potentially deadly disputes, it should be no surprise that the guys on the front line want to keep a low profile. It also should not surprise anyone that their mediation reports would be confidential.

Safe Streets is not an investigative agency; it neither charges nor prosecutes. The frontline workers, acting on rumors and tips, quietly keep Baltimoreans from killing each other. We should want them to keep doing that, which means they need to stay alive. If that means we don’t get detailed reports of what they do to stop trouble, fine with me, as long as they operate within the law.

For the greater good, we should want to see Safe Streets workers thrive and make a wage that recognizes the risks they take and the value of their service. The program is making a difference. It should get additional funding and support.

Roca’s work in Baltimore is making a difference, too. But its most recent report confirms that changing lives — getting young men away from criminality, the threat of violence or arrest — is the hardest work in the city. More on that in a future column.

Have a tip? Contact Dan Rodricks at drodricks@baltsun.com, 443-600-6719, or on X @DanRodricks.