Public Safety Update
Here are a few items that were discussed in our recent general meeting. Also, there are a few others that weren’t discussed due to me running over my time limit. Hope you find this post to be helpful as we continue to work to increase public safety for residents and guests in our neighborhood.
If you want to volunteer on our amazing team, or if you have a question for our team please feel free to email us at fhna.publicsafety@gmail.com. Also, if you want to hear more about these issues you can listen to this podcast with the guys from Southbmore.com.
Late Night Issues
There continue to be well documented issues surrounding late night entertainment in the area which overlaps FHNA and Federal Hill Main Street (FHMS). Over the past several years there has been an environment of lawlessness that has been allowed to grow unabated. Examples of this chaos are seen via social media posts as well as from the stories neighbors tell expressing their concern. The video linked above was posted in August 2022. That same month FHMS wrote a letter to elected leaders on behalf of the business district expressing concern and asking for sustained response. Sadly, an eye-witness to the shooting that took Deputy Demby’s life on 9/29/23 described a scene that was similar to the video from August 2022. Our team does not believe that we should just accept this as our new “normal”. We believe that we can do better and that our residents, business owners, industry employees, and patrons deserve better. We are committed to working alongside our elected officials, community leaders, business district representatives, and business owners to seek a sustainable solution.
In the spring of 2022, Sam Cogen (prior to being elected Sheriff) and I began to draw attention to a sustainable and measurable solution that has been successfully implemented in the French Quarter (New Orleans). The French Quarter is a unique business/tourist district that was experiencing similar issues to what we have in our business district. Rather than allowing lawlessness to continue they addresses the issue with a proper deployment of law enforcement officers. What they have experienced over the past 6-7 years has made it clear that this solution has been successful.
Obviously, BPD is under staffed and that directly impacts our district, our sector, and our post. On a regular shift we have one post officer assigned to the post which contains the business district (Post 934). There are roughly 4,000 voting residents in Post 934. But when you consider the number of patrons coming to our business district on any given evening that number could grow by 2,000 or more. Back in 2021 there was a game played at Camden Yards that only had 4,965 paid attendance. Imagine walking into Camden Yards with only one law enforcement officer assigned to ensure public safety. It would never happen because everyone knows it doesn’t work. But in our community this is the plan we continue to rely on expecting successful results.
The data supports our proposed solution. First, as our team has tracked 911 calls for service we know the most calls for service come on Thursday-Sunday evenings. Also, as we map those calls to the blocks in our community we can see that the calls are being placed from blocks within our business district. Additionally, as we track crime by block we can see that many of those calls for service translate into crimes reported on blocks in our business district. This leads us to believe that a proper deployment of highly visible and proactive law enforcement officers during times of need will be successful in reestablishing a safe environment for everyone seeking to enjoy the amenities in our business district. This type of clear and measurable response is what we are seeing out of Bowie State and Morgan State following the shootings they experienced recently. (source)
Is the deployment of law enforcement officers the only thing we can do to address this issue? No! There are many things that we can be doing and should be doing to ensure we have a safe and successful business district. Here are a few suggestions:
We need a strong coalition of neighborhood leaders. Following incidents of violence there is always an “immediate” response, but in my experience there hasn’t been a steady and consistent coalition seeking to work on issues that impact multiple groups. We have that in place now and it is my commitment to not let this fade away. The groups that are direclty/immediately impacted by lawlessness in the business district are: Federal Hill Main Street, Federal Hill Neighborhood Association, Federal Hill South Neighborhood Association, and South Baltimore Neighborhood Association. Recognizing these groups as being the epicenter of impact is not meant to cut any other groups out. The current coalition of leaders will expand to include other community groups as we are able to set a vision for what we want to see happen.
We need a strong partnership between neighborhood leaders and political representatives. In our recent general meeting, Delegate Lewis said, “I am your employee.” This is true. Our political representatives work for us and need to be aware of what we are experiencing and what we expect from them as our employees. Following the incident that took Deputy Demby’s life I led an email campaign created to get our representatives attention so that they would meet with us. That meeting took place on 10/9 and it was a nice first step in ensuring that each of our representatives are aware of how we want to see them steward their power for good in our community. They need us and we need them. Additionally, I have met with Councilman Costello to speak about action items his office can take and they are getting the ball rolling on those items now. I have also spoken with Senator Ferguson’s chief of staff (Tyler) to seek the Senator’s office to support issues as they arise.
We need a strong partnership with local business owners. This is an area that is not as strong as it might have been in the past. There are certainly a complex reasons as to why there is an absence in communication and collaboration between some businesses and community groups. But if we are going to work together to address the issues we are facing now things from the past need to be let go so we can address issues facing us in the present. The coalition of neighborhood leaders look forward to an opportunity to sit down with business owners to hear from them and find a way to work together. We think that we all have the same desire (a safe and successful business district) but at this point we don’t have any real connection points. This is one of the action items Councilman Costello has agreed to facilitate for us.
We need to address other issues that will help have a positive impact. One of the easiest ways to address the ongoing lawlessness would be for us to actually have parking enforcement taking place in times of high need. From what our team has found by pulling publicly accessible data for parking tickets there simply is not a proper deployment of ticket enforcement officers in RPP9 or the business district. If the city properly stewarded the responsibility to enforce the posted laws this would begin to communicate that our business district isn’t a place where lawlessness is permitted or encouraged. The issues with unpermitted parking aren’t just felt by residents seeking parking near their homes. This extends into the business district where cars illegally impeding traffic cause flash points of frustration that have exploded in violence in the past. Sadly, our efforts to engage with the Mayor’s Office and Baltimore City Department of Transportation have been slow at best. Data shows that there are fewer tickets being written now than when we shared our audit report with their offices earlier this year. It begs the question as to why the city can’t enforce laws required by the city charter. This is the number 1 option to address issues that wouldn’t require law enforcement officers.
What about after school/afternoon crime?
One area where we have seen a substantial uptick in crime recently is in the after school/afternoon time frame. These incidents seem to be happening in bursts where there are multiple incidents in a small geographic area. They are usually armed robberies or robberies where the suspects insinuate that they have a deadly weapon. In some cases these crimes have been committed by students who are visibly wearing their school logo. Our community is home to the 3rd largest high school in Baltimore City. An overwhelming majority of those students show up to school each and every day and do the right things. However, there is a small percentage of students who for whatever reason seek to engage in activity that is unlawful. This was the motivation for Zac (FHNA President) and myself to seek a meeting with the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement. In our meeting they shared that there will be a new school based intervention program rolling out in the near future. It will seek to engage students and redirect them away from poor choices to good opportunities. Principal Jackson is an amazing community partner and she is eager to have the community engage with the students. What can we do to make a positive impact in a students life?
Consider how your skills might be a platform to engage and equip students. Having opportunities after school is an amazing way to engage with students and give them opportunities to engage in healthy choices. Have you considered how your skills or passions might align with the school’s desire for after school options? How could you volunteer to make an impact in a students life?
Consider how our local businesses could engage with students. Another idea being discussed is what it might look like to pursue grant funding to create a program in the Federal Hill business district similar to youth works. Students walk to bus stops in/around the business district after school so why couldn’t we secure funding to enable local businesses to hire 20 or 40 students? This job training and experience could be a great way to engage students in our community.
Halloween Pub Crawl
Another issue to be aware of in the near future is the possibility of a pub crawl on October 28th. This event is being promoted by Joonbug Promotions as Baltimore’s Largest Halloween Party. The main issue is not that there are local bars desiring to have a pub crawl, but rather that permits don’t appear to have been secured in the proper timeframe before promoting the event. On October 3rd some community leaders started to see the promotions so we engaged with leaders from BPD, DOT and the Liquor Board. Sadly, no one could 1) clearly communicate the process to us or 2) give us an accurate update as to where this event was in the process. As of October 17, the Southern District Command Staff still had not seen a security plan which is required for a permit to be issued. We are currently well beyond the legal time for requesting/securing a permit which is required but no one has officially spoken about the status of the event. In 2016 the Maryland General Assembly passed a law which is very clear in what it requires from bars and promotion companies for events like this. The question is whether or not anyone will uphold that law or simply allow this to slip under the radar. A similar experience from BPD Command Staff was communicated to community leaders in March as well. It appears this is not a one time mistake but a pattern.
Little Things
If you are looking to get engaged with the effort to increase public safety but have limited time here are a few little things that could make a big difference:
Get to know your neighbors
Built a communication tool to communicate with your neighbors in case of emergency (text thread, email list, social media group)
Look at installing cafe lights on your block
Work together to pick up trash on your block regularly
Have a block party
Have a regular happy hour on your stoop
Building and cultivating a sense of community within neighbors may seem like a small step but it is an investment worth your time.