Well attended is probably an understatement when it comes to describing last night's Community Safety Meeting at the Walden Country Club in Crofton, MD. Some estimate the audience at being around 500. I don't know how many were actually there, but I do know that it was standing room only, and there were a lot of people listening to the meeting from the outside deck as well. Even the rain that showed up during the meeting didn't deter the Greater Crofton Area residents from hearing what County representatives had to say.
The impetus for the meeting was the unnecessary death of a Crofton teen, Christopher Jones, last Saturday. Chris died from injuries sustained as a result of a beating he received from individuals in his neighborhood.
The room at the Walden Country Club got quickly heated, from the number of people, as well as some of the comments from the public.
After the obligatory opening statements from County Executive, John Leopold, County Police Chief, James Teare, and School Superintendent, Kevin Maxwell, the meeting was turned over to residents for comments and concerns. And boy, were there a lot of them.
During the opening comments, the County Executive and Police Chief did indicate that a mobile command unit would soon be operating in the Greater Crofton Area. Although the initiative was understandably shy on details, residents in attendance were appreciative that the County was adding additional resources. The big unspoken Elephant in the room was, why it had to take the death of Christopher Jones for this initiative to begin? Apparently, some gang activity has been active in this area, and while the police have been aware, it is relatively unknown to most of the public.
The list of grievances by community residents during the public portion of the meeting was long and often times very personal. The County representatives often had to sit in silence while the stories of mis-management of individual cases were brought to light. I do believe that most residents understand that this is a pretty unfair forum to air these types of grievances. To believe that the School Superintendent is going to be personally knowledgeable about every incident that happens in every county school is unfair. Nonetheless, the red faced Maxwell did sit there and occasionally responded to a presenters complaint.
I'm a local Crofton resident and here's what I took away from the meeting. Residents want more information about what is going on in their community, and especially in their schools. It was painfully obvious that there is a major disconnect between what is available to the public and what is available to County and School representatives. Of course, there has to be a balance between individual privacy and public availability of information. That being said, there still appears to be an information disconnect that needs to be addressed.
While the residents of the Crofton area applaud the new policing initiative, it remains to be seen how long it will last. Nothing said by County representatives indicated that there was going to be any additional personnel added, it appears to be a reassignment instead.
I'm not being cynical here but I've seen this before. The community who complains the loudest gets the resources. When the Greater Crofton area settles down, the next community on the other side of the County will have the resources deployed into their area. The cycle just keeps going on because there isn't enough resources for everyone.
Despite this recent incident, the Greater Crofton area is still one of the safest and most desireable communities in which to live.
It's really up to local residents to get involved and stay involved in what is going on in the community. The police can't do everything.
Richard Iarossi, REALTOR®
Long and Foster® Real Estate, Inc.
Crofton, MD 21114
410-451-6255 Office
443-995-9595 Cell
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