Midtown crime study
The Midtown Community Benefits District has taken a survey of its 3,200 property owners and concluded that crime is a top cocern. Not exactly earth-shattering news, but there are a couple of interesting tidbits here.
Finding most people are more scared of their neighborhood during the night than the day, the district plans to work for more lighting and to boost police patrols in the evening hours. In fact, over the next four weeks, the taxing district is spending $25,000 to pay overtime to eight Baltimore officers to patrol Mount Vernon, Bolton Hill, Charles North and Madison Park.
One number I found interesting was that a majority of those surveyed felt that crime was encroaching into their communities from the periphery, but a majority also felt that people who lived elsewhere unfairly malign their neighborhoods as unsafe.
"People see crime coming from all sides," said Peter Merles, the executive director of the benefits district. He admitted that a lot of the cocern was based more in perception than hard numbers. For example, he said residents are seeing more homeless people, and associate that, rightly or wrongly, with more crime.
Crime is always and issue. A series of rapes have frightened residents, an increase in car break-ins make commuters using Penn Station wary, attacks of students puts Maryland Institute College of Art on notice. The area is the heart of the city's nightlife community, filled with bars, restaurants, shops and museums, and the city is trying to revitalize the Station North area, which could improve North Avenue.
These are all important issues that can't be ignored, and the residents of the benefits district have taken matters into their own hands to help curtail violence keep an important area of our city safe.
Back in 1998, Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos complained that city police were neglecting the downtown area and he and other business owners shelled out $700 a month to pay overtime for officers to walk up and down Charles Street. The initiative cost $100,000 a year; I called Angelos to see if he could tell me whatever happened to the program and whether it worked, and I'm awaiting a call back.
At the time, Angelos summed up the problem: "I'm not saying the downtown isn't safe. There is police protection. But you need more than a police office driving by in a vehicle. Perception is key."
Comments
Remember Jill Conklin ? Decompossed body found on Elkridge Landing Road in 2007 ?
Here are a few thoughts on the death of 23-year-old daughter Jill Conklin.
As a parent, my heart weeps for her mother Gina Adams. With all the advances in science I find it hard to believe that any medical examiner can not tell what a person died of in great detail. Just watch some of those shows on the Discovery Channel. I saw one where researchers examined a 2000 year old mummy and could tell, what the mummy died of. So why not a girl that had been dead for a few days, weeks or months ?
Sometimes I feel the answer is the death of this girl was not a high enough priority. The higher the priority the more resources are allocated to solving the crime. If anyone has any doubt of what I just said, think about it. Police departments are on a strict tight budget with limited time and resources available. This is a sad fact of life. As long as this continues to be the norm we will have more and more unsolved deaths. And this increases the odds of not getting caught. Criminals start to think that they can't lose, the odds favor them, so they take the gamble. Maybe her death was a overdose, maybe it wasn't. I know a mother who wants to know. (please keep her case alive)
Posted by: John P | December 5, 2008 11:26 AM