Brown argues that police and prisons do not make communities safe and that addressing the conditions underlying crime is a better use of public resources. They cited $277 million in Baltimore County police spending this year, saying that level of funding had not solved crime.

“If elected, I would advocate for putting less funding into Baltimore County Police Department, and more funding into social services and schools and healthcare,” Brown said in an interview.

Brown has also described abolition as a long-term goal, saying a world without crime or violence would not need police. Asked whether that outcome was realistic, Brown said it would require people to make it happen.

Republican Delegates Kathy Szeliga and Ryan Nawrocki, who are also running in District 7A, challenged Brown’s position. Szeliga said people who are victims of crime need police to respond, calling the proposal irresponsible. Nawrocki argued that prisons are necessary to keep some people who commit serious crimes off the streets.

Doug Jess, president of the Baltimore County Fraternal Order of Police, said eliminating police and prisons would endanger public safety. He acknowledged that both systems have flaws but warned that abolishing them would amount to anarchy and would not make children or schools safer.

Asked whether prison abolition would mean releasing people convicted of violent crimes, Brown declined to discuss individual cases or hypotheticals. They reiterated that incarceration had not stopped crime.

The debate puts public safety spending and the role of policing at the center of the District 7A contest. Voters will decide whether Brown’s proposed shift toward social services and schools, or the opposing candidates’ defense of existing institutions, better addresses safety in the county.