Council chairman supports Balto. Co. PAL move
Baltimore County Council chairman John Olszewski Sr., said he’s comfortable with plans to remove recreation centers from police supervision starting next month.
Officers will remain connected to the centers and serve as mentors for youth, Olszewski said.
“It’s not like they’re bailing out 100 percent,” he said. “One of the major concerns for everybody is public safety. Our police department is doing an outstanding job, but at the same time I think they also believe it is important for them to continue to be role models.”
Michael Gimbel, the county’s former director of substance abuse, said he recalled discussions about moving the centers over to the parks and recreation department occurring almost annually. While a move was attempted during former county executive Dennis Rasmussen’s administration, officials decided that putting police in charge improved public perceptions and had a greater impact on children, he said.
With county crime rates improving, it’s important to consider the role of PAL centers along with school resource officers and programs like D.A.R.E., Gimbel said.
“The real reduction in crimes comes from prevention as much as it comes from police work,” Gimbel said. “Having police officers in the schools, in the PAL centers has an impact on the reduction of juvenile crime. It all makes a difference but we all understand the dilemma the chief is in, the county executive is in.”
For the move to be effective, recreation and parks workers will need more intense training in counseling, drug and alcohol prevention and other interventions, he said.
“Really, the PAL officers were more than just police officers playing baseball with the kids,” Gimbel said. “They did a lot more.”
Comments
Police involvement in PAL Centers is and has been more than what was depicted in this article. I recently heard our police force announce boldly...crime is down by a marked amount in Baltimore County. Yet, we need to have more police on the streets is the reason for the transition of the centers from the police to Rec. & Parks. Police are trained and connected to 911, youth and family counseling units, emergency counseling police assessment counseling team, ethics, de-esculating violent scenarios and are directly connected to the police data records and patrolmen with current community crime.
There is no way the Rec. & Parks staff will ever be able to measure up to those valuable resources at the youth centers, which are located in high transient residential regions and communities with increased crime stats.
Police presence at a PAL Center, randomly dropping by the facility, will NOT connect officers to the youth as mentors. The youth have connected with the police previously in the canters, and once again feel discarded by society, because budget cuts look at youth programs FIRST to save money.
Youth are the future of our communities, bullying is a national problem and concern, directly connected to youth-on-youth violence. Police at PAL Centers engage adolescents, provide role models, mentors and exemplify a standard of non-violent behavior in the community facility.
This drop-in program will be challenged to provide the level of service and safety to the youth and families of the community. Staff will be challenged with the ratio of students to staff, to provide accountable, safe programs during the operational hours. Homework time currently is challenging to maintain a lower volume in the center with the police there, the volume in the center will rise because youth rebel simply that way first to see who notices them, and what happens.
Finally, last I checked, DARE has been nationally evaluated, and was found to NOT be an effective prevention program for youth, unless coupled with a parenting program for the youth's parents. Baltimore County DARE programs do not offer this component for parents currently.
It is unfortunate this was the final decision, for it is our communities and youth who lose out in the long run. Crime in these communities will reflect the "bottom-line" of this decision, and sadly that translates into adolescent risky behaviors correlated to drug use, violence, school drop-out, community disconnectedness and gangs.
Posted by: Concerned | May 10, 2011 1:10 AM
One of the basic, if not important things that is not being considered in keeping the police officers in the Pal centers is the raised eyebrow psychology. Sorry if my analogy is not meeting my point, but think about it. Having just a trained individual that is a versed in child psychology for many of the children already participating in the program, are probably already in counseling themselves. They do not need to feel that they are being dogged by another counselor and I mean this as no disrespect to the counselors themselves.
A police officer that can be at the Pal centers is in a way, means to back what the children are discussing in their sessions with the counselors in a subliminal way; the raised eye brow. The D.A.R.E. program is laughable to many of the children and teens in high school now. What do you think this is going to do to the stats in juvinile crime in Baltimore County?
Posted by: DCMerkle | May 11, 2011 8:13 AM