Odds and Ends from scraps of thought re: crime and police and security in Baltimore

Buz has not posted for a while since he's been a busy beaver with several security-related projects. However, there's been a lot going on in the crime/police/security world in Baltimore (and everywhere else, too).

So, some random, eclectic thoughts:

• Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police members are voting on a new contract offer today. This is the first offer that I can ever remember, after 30 years working on the city police force, that the city offered a reduction in pay (in this case 1.95%). In exchange, the officers get 5 more days off in 2012. Part of ongoing strife between the city and FOP.
• A small nonprofit Christian school in Hamilton got broken into, and all of their recently purchased (from a grant) computers were stolen, along with a lot of other items. Wonder why they think it's an "inside job"? Large scale computer room thefts associated with burglaries are not unusual. We can think of several, all unsolved: Bryn Mawr, Boys Latin, UMBC, a lawyer's office in Mt. Washington, et al. And I agree: in most cases, there is at least some inside connection, if only with information.
• Recently, a whole tractor trailer loaded with new laptops bound for a Wal-Mart was stolen from a trucking company in Southeast Baltimore. The tractor was found not too far away, in Rosedale. The empty trailer was found a the Maryland House rest stop on I95. Betcha some insurance company is upset. Buz drove around the site and saw only very modest security arrangements. The Christmas season has begun! (This case almost certainly involved inside info!)
• Speaking of non profits, I once wrote a letter to the head of a foundation, announcing the kickoff of my security consulting business. He wrote a nice letter back, saying he couldn't think of anybody who might use my services. Yet, like the nonprofit school mentioned above, many grant recipients get money to buy computers an other things, but have scant security measures in place to protect the foundation's investment. Nonprofits are especially vulnerable, me thinks, to criminal activity of all kinds.
• The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations was supposed to have received a report from Johns Hopkins Hospital by now discussing the incident recently where a patient was shot and killed, and the shooter, her son, took his own life. I wonder what Hopkins' Risk Management wrote as to what processes they will put in place to see that an incident like this is not repeated. The Joint Commission only rarely gets involved in crime issues--mostly medical issues--but in this case a patient died. Magnetometers to check for firearms at Hopkins and most hospitals would be difficult to implement, costly, and of dubious effectiveness.
• Your consultant recently was mentioned on the Mt. Washington list serve as a resource for people wanting to better secure their homes against burglaries. As a result Buz performed 3 residential security audits for homeowners in that beautiful community. Everybody was really nice and easy to work with!
• Over the last year, we've made presentations to community associations on this very subject, home burglaries, including folks in Rodgers Forge and Bellona-Gittings in North Baltimore.
• One doctor who works and teaches at Hopkins medicine had his house broken into and almost all his lectures were on the laptop which was stolen during the burglary. However, he said the police were very nice, and spent several hours processing the scene. And detectives came to his house almost every night during the next week to check on him and followup for any new leads or information. Well done!

Crime and Security Update for Passover

• A friend called to say one of her co-workers in Anne Arundel county had her house broken into and a lot of stuff was taken. Burglars are active everywhere.
• Buz learned that during the Friends school burglary, the alarms did work, but they were silent, so the dummies didn't get scared away from the oldest building on campus. The Facility Director, who lives on campus, arrived and saw the criminal's' flashlights inside. He called the local gendarmes, who were already responding (this is 3:30 in the morning, so some of them were awake). Apparently, about 8 Baltimore po-leece (this is Balamorese:) responded. They insisted, however, that they were going to wait for a k9 unit, before going in the building. Good move, guys, but if you're going to wait, ya gotta surround the building. The miscreants got away, and took a projector with them. Buz thinks they spotted the Director of Facilities and left right away, probably before the first officer arrived.  These burglars don't like to work normal jobs, but they always plan their escape when they break into someone else's property. Their biggest concern is getting caught!
• A lot of people on Baltimore Crime blog (Baltimorecrime.blogspot.com) really are into this concealed carry stuff. This is worth a whole blog post by itself, but I think the idea that somehow, on the street, you will shoot it out with street thugs is kinda ludicrous. You're more likely to shoot an unarmed street thug. Yuck for you. Remember, street thugs have nothing to lose; law-abiding citizens have everything to lose.
• The nice neighborhoods of Bellemore Road and Poplar Hill continue to be victimized by burglars, sometimes losing a lot of stuff.
• The Soundscape store on West Coldspring Lane was broken into by smashing the glass front door with a rock. Again, this was about 3:30 in the morning; betcha the alarm went off; betcha they didn't care; they got several pieces of electronics before the p0-leeces got there. Buz always wondered about that glass door (and doors of glass at other places too, with computers and such perfectly handy.)
• Buz wonders if our blogger Carol Ott has witnessed Pigtown fighting Pratt Street yet this year. When I was a young officer on post in Pigtown, I saw this huge crowd of kids coming down Carey Street and over the railroad tracks. When I could get one of them to talk to me, she said oh, it's nothing, just Pigtown fighting Pratt Street: we do this every year. Oh. Buz wonders if this quaint practice is still going on each spring.
• There will be a crime conference at Goucher this Thursday. Sanford Ungar, the President, will moderate. The panel will include Marci Brennan, creator of Baltimore crime blog, Judge John Prevas, a good, stand-up guy, a WYPR reporter, and Margaret Mead, one of Bmore's top defense attorneys.
• There's a story about Baltimore in the Economist this week. Don't know if I agree with the writer's declaration that Baltimore has "a couple" of bad areas, but the rest of the city is nice. Yeah, Baltimore has a lot of nice areas, but more than a couple bad ones. And the picture of the officer with an M-16 was kinda weird and misleading. We don't, even here, have cops standing around with assault rifles. Clearly a high-profile bad guy was coming into the federal courthouse.

Burglars ripping and running

It's come to my attention, that, apparently, a lot ob burglars simply take the siren of your residential alarm and rip it off the wall--to shut the darn thing up. A resident of Mt. Washington just told Buz about this happening during a burglary at his home a while back.  Apparently, this was done recently at several burglaries during the recent wave of B&E's in Pigtown. The consultant recommends that prevention against burglaries be a defense in depth. Alarms have to be supplemented with good doors, windows, locks, and lighting systems. One will not be able to deny them entrance completely and indefinitely, but the object is to deter, delay, and detect their intrusion.

Many burglars, research has shown, shy away from houses which have alarms, but, of course, it is unknown how high this percentage is. But most hard-core burglars will know that they have a window of 5 to perhaps 15 minutes before arrival of police. The siren is only useful at times. So, it's important that alarms be such that the intrusion is detected pretty early, and your locks or grates keep the perpetrators out so long that they don't want to risk apprehension or simply give up and go somewhere else.

Buz Crime Alert-burglaries in Pigtown

I've seen that our dear friend and Blogger Carol Ott had her place broken into the other day, a week or so after her neighbor's house got broken into. Don't have many details about it, except that it appears to be a growing trend: active burglars in some parts of the city. Pigtown's current wave started several weeks ago.

There has to be defense in depth against these cretins. Alarms are only one chink in the armor. Some neighborhoods, frankly, are not terribly defensible. The decent people go to work, and the thugs are watching and waiting. And no one is calling and no one is snitching. And the cops are in court or working night work to stop the shootings and killings--perhaps detailed to the Eastern and Western Districts. Daytime burglars rely on this lack of "natural surveillance".

I hope Carol can give me a call to discuss her situation. As one of Bmore's famous lawyer's said: "let's talk about it".