Homeland Association and crime information
The head of North Baltimore's Homeland Association wrote to me today to take issue with my column on Sunday on how his group distributes information about crime. Some residents of Homeland and others living in neighboring communities object to the association limiting its distribution list to dues-paying members.
They argue that the information should be more broadly published to help both keep people safe and catch those responsible. Amber Elburn, who refuses to join the Homeland Association, is taking information she gets from friends and reposting items on an alternative web site. That prompted Homeland to seek out attorneys regarding possible copyright violations.
I argue that crime information should be better distributed by the city to avoid each community posting separate blogs and email lists. But that would require a fundamental shift in the approach the city takes to giving out such information.
Here is the response from Homeland's president, Robert Fiore, reprinted with his permission:
I was sorry to see that your column has yet another article chastising Homeland for what is a voluntary service provided to its Association members. Also, I am surprised to see the statement you attributed to me in the October 5, 2008 article. I never told you that Homeland is “contacting attorneys to protect proprietary information”. What I actually told you was that Homeland’s e-mails were copyrighted, and that I had asked legal counsel for advice on how the enforce this right against those who repost or distribute Homeland e-mail content elsewhere without permission, using Homeland’s name.
Your blog and the Sun claim the same copyrights on the content of information they publish. Your own blog’s Terms of Service state: “You may not republish any portion of the Content on any Internet, Intranet or extranet site or incorporate the content in any database, compilation, archive or cache. You may not distribute any Content to others…and you may not reproduce, sell, publish, transmit, display or otherwise use any portion of the Content”.
Neither Amber Elburn, the Homeland resident who “steadfastly refuses” to join our Association as you wrote, nor Scott Vincent, who runs the Beeswax information exchange internet site giving Ms. Elburn a forum, are elected representatives of the Homeland Association, nor are they authorized to speak for the Association, not are they accountable to the Association Members for their actions. Mr. Vincent does not even live in the Homeland community. Yet both use Homeland’s name without permission. Like your blog and the Sun, Homeland has an interest in what is published using its name, holds an interest in the content it creates, and has an obligation to object to actions which may compromise either.
The simple fact is an Association member may call our office, (and the police, and the Sun, and their homeowners insurance company, and whomever else they chose), to report a crime or suspicious activity in our community. This information, (not “crime statistics” as your articles have labeled it), is distributed by e-mail as a courtesy to those Association members who choose to provide us with their e-mail addresses. Not all dues paying Association members elect to participate in the e-mail alert program, and a very few residents declining to pay the modest dues to join our Association likewise elect not to participate. Amber Elburn is one of those very few. The bald allegations in your articles that Homeland is “hoarding” crime statistics, or is concealing them to “keep property values from falling” as Ms. Elburn speculates, or “is making crime worse for everyone” as Mr. Vincent dramatically opines are regrettable. To the contrary, our Association is voluntarily publishing the crime information it receives and verifies from those who volunteer it to us.
Providing this information is not free. Some of the dues paid by our Association Members employ an Operations Manager whose myriad duties include receiving this information and verifying it, as well as compiling, maintaining and updating an ever-changing list of hundreds of Homeland e-mail addresses. A rather cavalier suggestion in your October 5th article is that our Association can “easily” gather and publish reports, and that Homeland should make its e-mails “widely available”. Who is to pay and be accountable for the person(s) Homeland must hire to do this daily work, on a large scale, and in perpetuity as is apparently being demanded? Certainly we cannot look to Ms. Elburn or Mr. Vincent for such financial help; neither of them even pay dues here.
Constructively working together to address complex community concerns such as crime is a difficult task, and we will always work together in that endeavor, to the best of our abilities. But appropriation of Homeland’s name and information content by unauthorized and unaccountable individuals is not a solution to the crime problem, and the imposition of time-consuming and financially unrealistic reporting requirements on our community Association is not a solution either. In response to the unfavorable light the Sun articles have attempted to cast on our Association, I couldn’t neglect this opportunity to set the record straight, and to tell you how proud we are of our City, our Association and its Members, and the constructive work we do.
Robert Graham Fiore
Comments
He asks who should pay to have these things done. No One. It is the neighborhood of all those who live there. What happened to wanting to help the neighborhood? So now one must be paid before they take action or take a interest and help out in the neighborhood where they live. Call me old fashioned but i know when I grew up (and i am only in my 40's the neighbors called my parents every time they seen me do anything they even thought i should not do. They watched over their neighbors homes when they went away No one paid them and no one paid dues. It is just what you do when you care about where you live. To think these people in this "association" feel that only they are important because they paid is just crazy. Than to even consider tearing apart the neighborhood even more by jamming up an already bust court system with these things is even further proof of what is wrong with Baltimore these days.
Posted by: Marie | October 9, 2008 9:59 PM
Marie wrote:
"To think these people in this "association" feel that only they are important because they paid is just crazy."
++++++++++++++++++
This is a silly statement. I grew up in Homeland (1966-1986) and know people who live there still. The Homeland Association has never thought this way. What it _has_ done is work hard to keep the neighborhood strong and vibrant. In my day there were and probably always will Elburns who didn't want to contribute, and yet they still benefit from the Association's work.
Posted by: jamie hunt | October 10, 2008 9:13 AM
I am finding this discussion fascinating as I send out crime alerts in my neighborhood, and am not compensated in any way, except in knowing that people appreciate the information.
Posted by: Anonymous | October 10, 2008 5:49 PM
Unless we build moats around each neighborhood, the city should share crime information for the protection of everyone. My company - SpotCrime.com provides incident information for Baltimore City and surrounding counties. The service is free to the users and to Police Departments. We send crime updates daily by email and sms text.
Posted by: colin drane | October 12, 2008 5:21 PM
It may shock Mr. Fiore to learn that some people live in Homeland and are not given the option to join his elitist association. My block, while firmly within the geographic area known as the Homeland historic district, does not fall within the boundaries of the association. Could this be because my house is not worth as much as the mansions just a block or two away? Could it be because my property taxes are a fraction of Mr. Fiore's? The fact is, I attempted to join the Beeswax site in order to be better informed about the rising crime in my neighborhood and was rejected by the neighborhood moderator on the grounds that my address is not in Homeland. If this person were being honest, what she would have said is my address is not in the rich part of Homeland. I have no doubt that Mr. Fiore and his ilk do in fact jealously guard their crime information in order to keep their own members more safe and aware of what's going on without reducing their precious property values. All this, of course, to the detriment of other residents. Their attitude is small town, insular, and childish, and yet another example of why nothing ever gets accomplished in Baltimore.
Posted by: T. Middlekauff | October 13, 2008 12:30 PM
It’s the City’s duty to make the crime data available and accessible. The Homeland Association summarizes it as a perq for members and I don’t see why they should be required to share it with non-members. It is all public data so non-members could go dig it up themselves if they so choose.
Posted by: Megan | October 13, 2008 4:48 PM
It has been established that the City is doing a poor job of getting crime data to the citizens. The police district in which a neighborhood resides gives information to the Association so the Association can get the information out to those that live in their neighborhood. When the Northern District does this in the case of Homeland the information stops for those that choose not to pay dues. The Homeland Association is withholding information on crime and suspicious persons in the neighborhood including someone that we know carries a firearm. They are not withholding silly information like an invitation to a picnic, or ice cream social.
Posted by: Anonymous | October 13, 2008 8:23 PM