Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich has earmarked funding for intense safety lighting that will run along a heavily trafficked road in College Park to combat steady bouts of area crime, sources said.
The lights will run from downtown College Park along Guilford Road to the College Park Metro Station and will be funded out of next year’s state capital budget.
City residents and students have pleaded for more security measures in the city for years, including an independent city police force that has been discussed numerous times but remains far from creation. University and state leaders have lobbied for the lights for at least three months, sources said.
State Sen. John Giannetti (D-Anne Arundel and Prince George’s) was scheduled to announce the initiative at a Student Government Association meeting last night, but at the last minute said he was instructed by the governor’s office to stay mum on what he vaguely labeled a public safety initiative.
“I made it amply clear to the governor that one of the main concerns of off-campus students is security,” Giannetti said. “We can talk about adding more cops, or we can talk about taking the darkest streets in College Park and making them light.”
Ehrlich’s office would not comment on the initiative and referred questions to the Maryland Department of Transportation. A spokeswoman there said yesterday she could not provide information about the lights.
City officials said they have not been informed of the plan, but Director of Public Services Bob Ryan said the city prepared a capital improvement plan last year that would have created safer sidewalks by installing more lighting if the funds were provided.
However, some question whether lighting can deter criminals in College Park after eight students were robbed at the Metro station and another student was robbed in broad daylight on the campus.
“It can tend to deter one level of crime, but as we’ve seen recently with these daylight robberies, it can be a tossup,” said Aaron Springer, president of the College Park Neighborhood Watch. “In our area, it’s beyond lighting. The biggest problem for us is the surrounding areas just getting worse and worse.”
The funding follows the governor’s appearance on SGA President Aaron Kraus’ WMUC radio show last week. On that program, Ehrlich said that if area crime increased the state government would consider innovative measures to combat the problem.
Giannetti said Ehrlich plans to visit the campus to formally announce the plan next week; the governor last came in mid-October to give the football team a pep talk.
