Baltimore Police try new approach in neighborhoods where people are ‘essentially fearing for their life’

https://www.baltimoresun.com/2024/11/19/baltimore-police-safegrowth/

Gangs and gun violence plague shopping plazas off Frankford Avenue and Sinclair Lane. One Highland neighborhood block sees frequent illegal dumping and rampant homelessness. Another area in Park Heights has increasing car and property thefts.

All three are part of a new Baltimore Police Department effort to train police, community leaders and city agencies to improve small, crime-ridden “hot spots” by addressing the underlying cause of problems. A lack of street lighting and surveillance cameras might worsen the risk of robberies. Unreported vacant properties violating city codes might lure in other criminal activity. Community distrust of police may mean many problems are not reported.

“For example, you have an intersection where you keep going back over and over and over again because there’s a robbery trend. From a BPD perspective, why do we keep going back to that — you can keep making arrests as needed but that’s a problem with underlying conditions,” said Sarah Ritter, BPD’s deputy chief of community policing. “Maybe there’s a set of empty buildings people are using for cover. Maybe people are getting robbed because there’s not enough lighting. Maybe the business owner is not maintaining their storefront.”

One example used was the Frankford Gardens Shopping Center, a strip mall in the Frankford neighborhood. According to police, the area has been the site of 12 shootings since the COVID-19 pandemic ended. Police involved in the new program visited three times to speak to residents, shoppers and business owners. Gang activity and associated violence near the mall have been a growing issue for years.

“A consensus seems to be that everyone’s essentially fearing for their life while shopping there,” said Jazmine Talley, the data neighborhood coordinator for the BPD’s community policing section.

The BPD community policing team called for adding security cameras, agreed to increase BPD patrols and talked with business owners about improving private security. Another potential fix includes adding a police substation in the area. Officers also spoke to the owner of the plaza, who agreed to clean up and re-paint the parking lot.

The program is part of a strategy developed in Canada by the neighborhood safety group, SafeGrowth. The program’s developer, Gregory Saville, said the goal is to get police to work with residents and community groups to address the underlying cause of crime in a given location.

But, he said it’s not enough just to put in more cameras and lights.

“There are reasons why crime areas persisted as crime areas for many, many decades,” Saville said. “It has to do with a lot of things, like social programs and cultural issues and economics and jobs and so forth, many things in which the police have no control over.”

The city used a $50,000 federal grant to receive training from SafeGrowth and develop improvement programs. Saville said the organization training is being used in 30 cities, including Madison, Wisconsin and New York City, and a half-dozen countries.

Another community policing team is looking at the Highlands neighborhood in southeast Baltimore, specifically the 3400 block of East Baltimore Street, and North and South Highland avenues. The area has been the site of considerable drug activity, as well as violent crimes and property crimes. The area has also seen “a lot” of illegal dumping and unkempt alleys. Homelessness is another problem, as is the lack of sufficient lighting at night, according to the department.

The team did four site visits — two during the day, and two at night — and concluded there weren’t enough lights or security cameras. It also found unreported vacant buildings. The group enlisted the help of the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services to work with the unhoused living in the area.

The BPD presented action plans for three east and north Baltimore neighborhoods on Tuesday. Presentations for the west side will come on Thursday. The department estimates that each safety plan will take another 18 months to fully implement.

When Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley was asked how he’d measure the success of the program he said:

“I think you’ve got to measure all of the crime. We’re having a fairly good year this year,” Worley said. “But if the citizens don’t feel safer and aren’t more confident with out department, it’s a win, but not as big a win.” He added: “I guess the way I judge is I’m out among the citizens, and I get people telling me, giving us compliments, telling us how good the men and women are doing out there.”