Letter to the Editor: Creating Safety and Security in Our Communities

Crime in our community is a difficult problem to solve.  Even if, as statistics show, crime has gone down in the community over the past few years, many people say they feel less secure in our neighborhoods than they did years ago.  As people experience break-ins and theft, it has an impact throughout our community, not just to the victims.  Few things are as important to people as the ability to feel secure in their own homes, and any break-in in our community threatens that feeling of security.  Unfortunately, College Park has recently experienced a spate of break-ins, which have caused many in the community to lose their sense of security.

There are a number of ways that the community can work to restore a sense of security.  One is to have an active, engaged police force that is patrolling the neighborhoods and watching out for our homes.  Another is to have a close community of neighbors who watch out for each other and help us keep an eye on our homes.  Yet another is to boost the security in our own homes and take steps to ensure that thieves who attempt to break into our homes are deterred or caught.

In the past, many residents have been distrustful of the police in Prince George's County, the primary agency meant to protect and restore security for residents.  The Prince George's County police have had an unfortunate history and reputation of, at best, not responding quickly to crimes and not patrolling our streets, and at worst, taking actions that themselves have harmed residents and threatened the people they have been intended to threat.  Recent high-profile incidents such as the beating of University of Maryland students, as well as occasional difficulty getting information from the Prince George's County police about crime in our neighborhoods have contributed to distrust and skepticism about the ability of the police to protect us.

On the other hand, the City and the County have been working to improve both the amount and the quality of police protection in College Park.  The City has expanded its contract police force over the years, providing three full-time police officers and a rotating stable of over twenty part-time officers to provide additional patrols in the neighborhood.  Many of these officers have gotten to know College Park and its residents well, and the contract police provide a level of community control and oversight of police officers that has not existed in the past.  The City is also pursuing closed-circuit cameras and license plate readers to help prevent crime and catch criminals in high traffic areas around the City.  Also, the Prince George's County police have taken recent steps to become more responsive to community concerns – by hiring Community-Oriented Policing (COPS) liaisons to communicate regularly with civic associations and residents, by engaging directly with residents through community forums, and by following and responding to concerns expressed in neighborhood listserves.

The City is also now undertaking an effort to improve security in our community in other ways, by encouraging neighbors to watch out for one another and by giving residents tools to protect themselves from crime.  The best way to do this is through the Neighborhood Watch program.  By establishing a network of volunteers who report crime to one another and patrol and monitor our neighborhoods, Neighborhood Watch ensures that residents watch out for each other's homes.  By educating residents about the best ways to protect their homes and by, for example, allowing residents to engrave their valuables so that they are easily identifiable if stolen, neighborhood watch helps residents fight back against criminals.  Recently, many neighborhoods in College Park have had difficulty maintaining their neighborhood watch programs.  We are currently looking for new leaders to help build neighborhood watch around the City.

We will never be able to stop crime completely, and we have a long way to go before people will fully trust in the capabilities of the Prince George's County police, but the City and the County are taking steps in that direction.  Crime in Prince George's County as a whole went down about 6% so far this year, and much of this improvement is due to new leadership and a demonstrated commitment to responsiveness and communication with residents.  We hope to continue working with residents to take steps to improve our sense of security in our community.