College Park crime has seen significant drops in nearly every area except theft, police officials said last week, indicating substantial gains toward curbing the city’s violent crime trends that peaked last year.
Maj. Kevin Davis, who last November was named commander of District 1 – the Prince George’s County Police area where College Park is located – said the creation and expansion of specialized police squads and a focus on community-based policing contributed to the decline in crimes like robberies, which plagued the city and the campus last year.
At this time last year, Davis said, city residents had reported 21 robberies in College Park. Fourteen have been reported this year, he said, and police have made six robbery-related arrests. That success is due in large part to the district’s robbery suppression team, which Davis said was increased in size earlier this year to more effectively combat the crime.
Commercial robberies have experienced the largest decrease of all city crime this year, with a 63 percent drop, Davis said.
“That’s big for the business owners,” Davis said. “Not for those eight who were hit, obviously, but those are some encouraging numbers.”
Davis said since people willing to commit robbery are often later involved in more serious crimes, the crime has always drawn strong concern by officials, particularly in College Park.
“[College Park has] a huge population of people walking around on foot, and when you have folks walking around on foot it presents an opportunity to criminals to prey on,” Davis said.
Davis said police have been directed to conduct frequent stops of suspicious people on foot, which he said leads criminals to second guess coming into the area. One hundred thirty-two suspicious people were stopped this year, compared with 92 at this time last year, he said.
The increase in stops was made possible by 14 officers added to District 1 after a large class of police recruits was graduated in August, Davis said.
“We’re getting younger officers, we’re getting more officers, and the more officers you get the more time they have to do more than just respond to calls of service,” Davis said.
Davis said 129 recruits began training in July, and another class of more than 100 starts in October, which Davis said should help drive continued downward trends.
“What that means is that a few months down the road I get another infusion of young police officers in District 1 and that gives me the ability to do things like create a second special assignment team and add manpower to the robbery suppression team,” Davis said. “It’s amazing what you can do with additional human resources.”
Citizen efforts have also contributed to the downward trend, with neighborhood watch efforts becoming centralized and more effective within the past year, said Kim Lugo, a College Park resident and coordinator of the city’s neighborhood watch program.
“I have to say it’s due to Major Davis organizing his shifts well and working with the community,” Lugo said. “He is a big supporter of neighborhood watch. I think word is getting out that we’re watching.”
The city took action this year as well, and increased funding to $500,000 annually for a supplementary police force of officers to patrol city streets. The force, referred to as contract police, is made up of Prince George’s County officers who work for about $50 an hour during times they aren’t scheduled to work for the county.
College Park Public Services director Bob Ryan said the funding is enough to pay for about 4 1/2 full-time officers.
The force “targets police services that the other agencies normally don’t have time to do because they are responding to calls or working on their other investigative assignments,” Ryan said.
The city also bought 10 bikes for the county police with about $10,000 that was left over from the contract police program budget.
“Police on bicycles gives them a better feel for what goes on in the area,” College Park Mayor Stephen Brayman said. “It also gives them access to areas that might be hard for them to breach in a cruiser.”
Davis said the bikes will also bring officers closer to the community, eliminating the barriers – both perceived and physical – that a police cruiser creates.
“You see cops on bikes that you’re more inclined to speak to and you’re more inclined to get out and talk to them,” Davis said. “You shouldn’t only talk to a police officer when you’re reporting a crime. Our guys are human beings, and I like them to be as approachable as they can be.”
Contact reporter Steven Overly and Will Skowronski at overlydbk@gmail.com.
