Crime and Security in Baltimore: random thoughts

A lot of crime and security stuff going on in good ole Baltimore:

• Two people murdered in Federal Hill in two days. The neighbors are upset! One woman gave the reasons for concern as: this is the "high rent district", we have the Ritz and the new Silo condos, Jenna Bush, etc. In other words, this is unacceptable. Yes, it was a rough weekend in Fed Hill, but the community association Prez, Paul Robinson, kinda summed it up: they're just not immune to the problems occurring in other parts of the city, and the community needs to come together to support the city and the police.
• Buz wonders if the thugs are engaging in some sense of eco-sensitivity by not driving all the way out to Leakin Park to drop off their dead. Or could it be the price of gas? Dirty little secret: Federal Hill is very close to high crime areas, Hanover Street is sort of the DMZ. One poster on Sunspot said heavy drug activity emanates from a Section 8 property at William and Warren. Dunno. I didn't see any last time I was in the area, but haven't been in the early morning hours for a while (barhopping is often past your consultant's bedtime at this time).
• I'm sure these two cases are "Red Balls" on the board down at Homicide at 601.
• Speaking of Homicide, there is an ad on Craigslist business jobs for the Commanding Officer Homicide Section, Baltimore Police. I am not making this up. It was posted June 9th. Perhaps one of my readers or Baltimore Crime readers or John Galt might apply.
• Members of campus law enforcement officers have spent all this money on emergency notification systems since V-Tech, but are still puzzling over how and when and who decides to use them. They're great for warning the student body of impeding thunder storms!

"Sales People" on ListServes

Recently one of my colleagues on a Campus Law Enforcement List Serve bemoaned the fact that "sales people" troll the list serve and somehow look for clients, thereby are harassing him, and he is tired of it. (I'm paraphrasing here.) Another person chimed in agreeing wholeheartedly. A third person exclaimed "Dito! Dito!" (his spelling).

 

Well, gee, the person did not give any evidence of the abusive behavior, if any, of this sales person or in fact what they were  selling. And, gee, he could politely say he is not interested, and hang up, or ignore the letter, or ignore the email.

And: news flash for members of the list serve: the "contractors, vendors, and sales people" would not be on the list serve unless your association gave them access. And these "associate members" , like me, pay big bucks to be such. I doubt IACLEA's management would agree to kick them off the List Serve.

Living is selling. Many small business people, like myself, subscribe to professional organizations in order to keep up with what's going on in the field, and yes, to get leads for possible business. If you notice, McDonald's, Pepsi, and your local car dealer never stop advertising.

But perhaps these folks are in secure, stable, employment making big bucks so that they'll never need to retire or start a second career, or, even start a business where they have to sell something. So, Buz understands, and asks for their compassion--at least a little. On the other hand, the consultant has compassion for them, too, since unwanted sales attempt can be annoying.

Guns on Campus

Some higher education campuses are moving toward an armed security force, at least partly as a result of the Virginia Tech shootings. Nice solution to the problem, but it did not help at Virginia Tech which had a sworn and armed campus police force. As in most of these campus shooting rampages, the suspect took his own life before police arrived on the scene.

Buz thinks most schools would be better off, and save a lot of money, if they did not introduce firearms to their security force. The cost and the risks are enormous--unless you are in a high crime area, and have a fairly large number of officers working as backup.

On the other hand, there are schools which should have armed police officers and don't. They don't because of philosphical objections or want to play the game of using off-duty police officers--so any liability gets thrown on the local jurisdiction where the officer is employed.