"We knew there were a lot of services that were missing in the community, and so what I did with the board of the community association is sought out various grants," she said.
City officials say the attack provided a compelling story as they sought federal and state funding for programs. Two new substance abuse facilities were opened near Oliver after the fire, and one treats 1,500 people a day, said Greg Warren, chief executive of Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems.
"As we compete against other cities, other states, fortunately and unfortunately the Dawson story continues to be very helpful for us getting the funding and resources that that community needs," Warren said.
Cracking down
But witness intimidation remains a problem in Baltimore. Soon after the Dawson murders, the notorious "Stop Snitching" DVD, an amateur documentary produced by a Baltimore rapper known as "Skinny Suge," openly glorified witness intimidation.
Prosecutors highlighted the "Stop Snitching" video in pressing for a tougher witness intimidation law; it was passed by the General Assembly in 2005. This year, city prosecutors have brought 11 cases against people accused of intimidating or interfering with witnesses.
The police also adapted their tactics in neighborhoods such as Oliver in years after the fire, recognizing a need for a softer approach in some instances. Police have focused in recent years on tracking violent offenders, shifting from a "zero-tolerance" approach to minor crimes that netted many more arrests but soured relationships in some communities.
"What we did in the early part of the decade is we arrested everybody," Guglielmi said. "That didn't help at all, that as a matter of fact set us backward."
Former Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III got officers out of their cars and onto their feet, Guglielmi said. And the department launched social media accounts to explain to communities what police are up to.
The Baltimore state's attorney's office runs a program to relocate and protect witnesses, but Elizabeth Embry, who oversees it, said some people understandably do not want to be torn from their homes to help the government with its cases.
In fact, two weeks before the fatal arson attack on the Dawsons, a Molotov cocktail was thrown through the window of their home. The family escaped, and police said an offer was made to help relocate them, but the Dawsons turned it down.
Alice McNack, Carnell Dawson's sister, said she wanted to take the children into her home, but her brother thought police could protect the family where they were.
"He trusted the system," McNack said.
This year, the state's attorney's office has assisted 182 families in which someone was either the victim of a crime or witness to one. That puts the office on course to offer more assistance than in any of the past seven years, according to spokesman Mark Cheshire.
Embry said the relationship between police officers responsible for witness protection and their counterparts in the prosecutor's office is now much closer. The officers are based at the courthouse, making it much easier to involve them in cases, she said.
While the program's funding is relatively modest, the office has found ways to cut costs, and it can go over budget.
"We don't turn people away," Embry said. "We spend more money if we have to."
Embry said that while no one in the program has been harmed because of a connection to a crime — a woman was killed last summer, but prosecutors attributed that to a domestic dispute — protection does not ensure that witnesses will overcome their fear of retaliation.
"The fact that they've been relocated is no guarantee of cooperation," Embry said.
Although other cases of intimidation have resulted in federal convictions, witnesses continue to be attacked, including in several high-profile firebombings over the past decade.
The Rev. Marshall Prentice, pastor at Zion Baptist Church in Oliver, said residents have developed ways to report crimes to police without leaving themselves at risk of retaliation — making complaints through a church or a community organization, for example.
"They don't want to be visible and they don't want to be identified," Prentice said. "But they want to do the right thing."
