By HEATHER RAWLYK; Staff Writer
The Capital (Annapolis, MD)
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — With a record eight homicides in the city last year, three more so far this year, and with violent crime at its highest level in six years, a renewed public debate about stopping the carnage has emerged.
Many residents and politicians call for city police to fill vacancies and get more “feet on the street” in public housing and other high-crime neighborhoods.
City police say community involvement is the first step, from residents reporting crime to simply taking pride in where they live.
Prosecutors say judges need to impose longer sentences instead of giving some convicts chance after chance, while judges say they don’t want to give up on people who can be saved.
And others are coming forward with innovative ideas, such as installing cameras in troubled areas and license plate scanners in public housing communities.
While the debate continues, guns, drugs and violence continue to plague the city’s 10 public housing communities and residents are left wondering if the city’s leaders will ever get a grasp on the problems.
To Trudy McFall, chairman of the Annapolis Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, the solution is simple: community policing.
She’s been watching high-crime cities like Baltimore, Washington, and Richmond implement adopt-a-block and other programs that rely on police foot patrols to take to the streets - and they’re working. So she’s confused as to why city officials won’t jump on board.
“I think Annapolis is going to have to overcome its resistance to the idea,” she said. “My frustration is people in Annapolis are acting like it’s some outlandish idea that doesn’t deserve careful discussion.
City police say they have to protect the entire city and officers are too busy responding to nuisance calls to spend extra time walking the most dangerous neighborhoods.
Alderman David Cordle, R-Ward 5, who is chief investigator at the county’s State’s Attorney’s Office, said filling even half of the police department’s 22 vacancies would give the police chief what he needs get more feet on the street.
“If you had just a 10-person increase, that would allow two more (officers) per platoon,” he said.
He said he and Chief Joseph S. Johnson have a difference in opinion about the vacancies.
“The chief says he has sufficient manpower,” he said. "…But we need to field more officers to have more of a police presence here - you have more community outreach that way.”
When asked what he would do if he had double the manpower, Chief Johnson said: “I don’t need twice as many officers.”
Mr. Cordle doesn’t understand his logic.
“I’d say sure,” he said. “I’ll find something for them to do.”
Chief Johnson said the problem of violence and drugs in Annapolis is “fixable.”
“And I don’t think it requires a lot of capital investment,” he said.
Or more officers on foot patrol.
“I believe that just investment of human volunteers with a sincere desire to change the conditions can bring about change relatively quickly,” he said. “If a good group of human resources goes into an area, I believe we can change the minds and the residents to a larger extent.”
He said a concerted effort has never truly been made to get residents engaged in their communities.
Residents need to be willing to act as partners with police, he said. They need to call when they see a drug transaction in front of their home. Turn in a neighbor who they saw shoot somebody. Take pride in where they live and most importantly - take their neighborhood back.
He said drugs aren’t the only thing plaguing Robinwood.
“It’s a lack of commitment and involvement,” he said.
With today’s technology, the idea of having a license plate scanner to keep track of who comes in - and out - of dangerous communities isn’t far fetched.
Many city officials said that scanners would not work in several of public housing communities because they are located on public streets. Others say it isn’t fair to residents.
But Ms. McFall thinks it could work for some communities, such as Robinwood, and may help to cut down on drive-by shootings and drive-through drug markets.
Another idea is to put cameras in public housing communities, and throughout the city.
“We had cameras in Bay Ridge Gardens five years ago,” Mr. Cordle said. “They worked pretty good.
“It’s something we haven’t tried before on a city-wide scale. There is crime all over the city that can be managed with use of cameras”
Ms. McFall said she’d be “delighted” to have city police try putting up cameras.
Police said the ideas of license plate scanners and cameras are crazy.
“People talk about cameras when we have 32,000 pairs of eyes and ears in this city,” Chief Johnson said. “And certainly they’re going to catch more real-time than cameras.
“People need to stop selling people on all this craziness that doesn’t sound good and doesn’t do any good.”
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