Mayor says more cops!

Just heard on the news tonite the Baltimore's Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake is going to hire 100 new police officers by the end of this year, and 300 by the end of next year.

Hmm.. Maybe next year is an election year?!

When I was in graduate school, I took a course in Municipal Financial Planning taught by an adjunct, Mr. Lloyd Jones, who was then the budget director of Baltimore. He said, among many other things, : you, as a political official don't mess with the boys in blue, police and fire, or the teachers. Woe be unto the politician that does and wants to get elected.

Well, yes, but the rank and file think the our Mayor SRB has messed with them plenty (Buz doesn't totally agree, but gets the unions' point).

But perhaps she fully believes that the city will dramatically win the lawsuit the unions have lodged against the city because of the pension. Or, the announcement will simply keep the wolves from the door till after the election. Or the economy will suddenly get tremendously better. Who knows?

Re-locating to Baltimore? Consider your security along with other factors.

Relocation to Baltimore: I've been reading lots of posts on the City-Data forum site-many of which are from people re-locating to Baltimore from out of town for jobs at Hopkins and other major employers, and expressing some concerns for security. Some of the responses are a bit disconcerting. If the person expresses concerns about his/her safety, I don't think it's wise to tell them the entire city is wonderful, and they can go walking about this neighborhood or that at any time of the day or night. 

I don't know who sponsors the site, but it appears to be affected with unbridled civic boosterism and a willingness to attract people to neighborhoods in which they probably will feel uncomfortable. Now, I know there are good neighborhoods in Baltimore where the trade offs of pluses outweigh the negatives.  But Baltimore is still one of the highest crime cities in the country, and many persons living in safer areas need to be careful in where they live here.

Many relocating professionals would do well to employ the services of an independent relocation consultant to help them weigh the positives and negatives of any particular location.

And they have to weigh any potential risks of crime discomfort against other factors, such as the cost of rent, schools, quality of apartment, etc., not to mention commute times, and closeness to desirable areas.

"Crime Decline" in Charm City

Well, so far, it seems Baltimore is hanging on to its "low crime" start of the year. We had the lowest number of homicides in January in many years. Is the criminal justice system turning around? Or is this some wretched pure randomness? We'll see. The criminals, it appears, are just starting to prepare for their "spring offensive".  Though the numbers are down, there are plenty of violent incidents still out there.

We can speculate that Commissioner Bealefeld is following some of the policy prescriptions of David Kennedy, whom I heard speak at Friends School last fall. Fred Bealefeld was there to listen--though he left about halfway through (accompanied by Adam Walinsky of Police Corps fame.)

Kennedy is famous for his implementation of the Boston CeaseFire Project--which dropped their homicides dramatically. (They went crazy last year when their murders crept back up to 60). His key points were: that there are only a small number of extremely active, extremely violent individuals (i.e., more than 35 arrests) who lead violent groups. And unless these individuals are brought under control, violent crime will be difficult to reduce.

New Developments in Security around the Baltimore area

1. Apparently, the burglaries at Bryn Mawr and Boys' Latin earlier in the year have evolved into becoming "whodunits": it now appears that unless the stolen property suddenly appears somewhere, this case will never be solved. I wonder about what, if anything, the two schools are doing with their contract security service-Abacus.
2. Buz suggested that the rear door of Alonso's needed additional securing after a server was robbed on a smoke break a couple of weeks ago. Eddie installed several powerful lights and video cameras in the immediate area.
3. The rape of the Roland Park woman  last summer has apparently become a "whodunit" along with that of the GEDCO employee, and now the city school student who was reportedly waiting for a bus at 33rd and Greenmount.
4. Article in the Sun reports that landlords have a website they can go to to find out about bad tenants. Consultant feels that if proper tenant checking is done, one will not have to  use such a website--usually. The first step is getting good ID and security deposit from the tenant, as well as a check of employment and past references. Try not to rely on phone numbers the prospective gives you for employers.
5. Did you know that landlords are the most-sued of all businesses?
6. The Reader's Digest just did a survey of college security situations and our Johns Hopkins Homewood came out #1 in the country. Loyola was #14. Kudos to former Secret Service honcho Ed Skrodzki at Hopkins and "Colonel" Tim Fox at Loyola.
7. MICA is looking for a new Director of Campus Safety. Applications close this week.
8. The Sun had a chilling article that the murder of Correctional Officer David McGuinn may have been ordered by corrupt guards--his colleagues. Buz wondered why no one could explain, right after his murder, why or who ordered his return to the tier after threats were made against him. And everything about that was all hush-hush. What's up with all that. Now the AG's office doesn't want anything released to the killer's defense attorneys about the alleged CO's personnel records. Well, forget that..........what about the killer's allegations. Of course, all those cell phones the gangsters in jail buy, and have, and use have to somehow get into and be used in the institutions somehow. Hmmmm.
9. Poor new fire chief Clack is coming to Bmore, and making the same mistake former Commissioner Frazier did. He's not bringing in several new command staff members to watch his back. I wish him well, but the signs area not hopeful, especially since they don't believe in para-military style discipline in Minneapolis (though it has failed us several times in Baltimore recently.)
10. Dan Rodricks has another article over the weekend about prisoners wanting help to get jobs, etc. when they get out. Buz suggests one solid thing which might help: DOC should ensure that each inmate, before they get out, has a Maryland State ID, and a Social Security card. I see lots of ex-offenders who don't have either or neither. Also, the first week they are incarcerated is the time to start working with them to get ready to get released, not their last few weeks: I'm talking GED, drug treatment, and life skills. I've learned that the vast majority are not interested til they start thinking near the ends of their sentences. Well, people make decisions!

Charles Village Safety Team

Apparently, they had their two community meetings regarding the CVCBD Safety Team and its possible future changes. Buz has learned that these meetings were not at all well-attended: 10 folks at one and 7 at the other. Apparently, the board is now soliciting community input via email.

Buz has lots of thoughts on the CVCBD; I spent 2, almost 3 years managing their Safety and Sanitation teams. It is difficult to make decisions on such a complex issue, without sophisticated input--and cannot be done in a method resembling Athenian democracy.

It is not clear at all on what the Benefits District will do now that it has divested itself of housing and economic development programs, and is attempting to concentrate on Safety and Sanitation.

We'll keep our eyes peeled on how this all turns out.

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".

Buz Crime Alert

Buz has learned that there has been a wave of burglaries of businesses in the Hampden area, including a number on "The Avenue"--36th Street. They generally have been overnight and through the backdoors. Taken has been anything which can easily be sold or pawned: jewelry, cash, etc. Many of the buildings in this area are old and the structures are not terribly secure. Plus, many of these small businesses are struggling, so they don't have sophisticated alarm systems. In one case a rudimentary alarm was easily disabled by the burglars, who apparently have some construction-type skills.

Sophisticated alarms are no guarantee, though. One Hampden business was broken into 3 times last year by the same burglar. He looked right at the sophisticated camera while he put the owner's gun down his unsophisticated pants. He did not care about all that noise the alarm siren was making, either.

(They probably cannot get construction-type jobs, for the most part, though, because they cannot pass drug tests, and have buried themselves with lousy criminal and work records.)

Buz suggests taking a hard look at your business security hardware, and think about how the burglar will get it to steal your hard-earned stuff.