Council Corner: The Urgent Need to Boost Public Safety

There are five overall approaches I have supported.

First, one of the most important tasks we can implement is to work to eliminate the causes of crime by improving job opportunities, helping vulnerable residents, and strengthening our neighborhoods.

Second, we need to provide robust funding in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget to retain and hire new police, firefighters and paramedics, support our volunteers, and consider expanding the program that allows police officers to take home police cars.

Our Baltimore County Police Department, in particular, has dozens of vacancies, with urgent and growing public safety needs in our communities.

Third, we can support badly-needed capital improvements. I worked with Councilwoman Bevins and private donors to advance the new White Marsh fire station, which opened in 2018. Similarly, Kingsville has benefited from a new fire station that serves northeastern Baltimore and southwestern Harford Counties.

Baltimore County should support new volunteer fire stations for Bowleys Quarters and Middle River, as well as a replacement for the Essex police precinct.

Fourth, we should expand our neighborhood watch programs. The police cannot be everywhere all the time in our communities.

Finally, in our schools, we should be supporting more School Resource Officers, psychologists, and other support staff in our schools—which we were able to boost in recent years—and resist efforts in the Maryland General Assembly to weaken penalties against violent offenders.

I was in office when there was a horrific shooting at Perry Hall High School in 2012. We should do everything possible to boost school safety.

I look forward to working with all our neighborhoods and public safety personnel in the year to come.