Crime numbers in College Park have fallen significantly in comparison to last year – robberies have not only fallen 33 percent, but a higher number of the perpetrators have also been arrested. It would not be unreasonable to attribute part of this improvement to the doubling of money allocated to the contract police force to $500,000 in the current city budget. With this money, the city has been able to increase manpower and patrols to the apparent benefit of all.
Nonetheless, there’s no time to celebrate. Saturday, several fights broke out around Route 1, and there were reports that multiple shots were fired outside Cornerstone Grill & loft. These incidents, among others, are all-too-common examples of a serious violent crime problem in the community. It’s also important to note that, despite the drop in citywide numbers, on-campus crime numbers have not followed to the same extent.
But momentum is still on our side. Besides the recent improvement in crime figures, College Park won a huge political victory in the Democratic primaries last week. Multiple candidates with significant ties to College Park now are poised for likely victories in November. Given their special understanding of the problems plaguing the community, we hope these candidates will continue to support the city and university on a county and statewide level.
Along with continuing to seek increases in the number of police and identifying where they would best be placed, the city needs to consider what the best policing structure for College Park would be. Instead of using off-duty Prince George’s county cops, it may be better to create a city police force with officers who are dedicated to this community alone and can build deep institutional knowledge of the area.
The budget increase has delivered promising results – this increase in money really did deliver. As long as crime efforts remain well-supported and executed, both financially and politically, there is no reason why the decrease in crime cannot continue.
