Come Closer, Stay Away!!!
When the Baltimore Police say it's important to build community relationships, do they really mean it? Like so many times before, today their actions spoke louder than words. The message sent was not very encouraging.
This afternoon police announced the grand reopening of the front entrance to the Northwestern District police station. But apparently no one at the station got the memo. Despite the community being invited to stop in, when I got there, the doors were locked. No sign, no explanation, nothing. Just a cold, empty, uninviting lobby that I couldn't get into.
Citizens of Baltimore would be shocked to know many police stations are totally inaccessible from the front doors. In a panicked emergency, you might fumble and stumble around for a while before discovering a virtually covert side, or rear entrance as the only public entry.
Making matters worse, most of the time there's no one manning the desk inside the station.
If Baltimore Police really want the community to come to them, more thought should be put into making the stations open, inviting and accessible. God forbid if you were an actual crime victim, and your phone was stolen, leaving you no way to call 911. With walking into the station your only option, the results would not be good.
Today I took a field trip to the Northwestern District station. What I found was quite disappointing. We truly deserve better.
Click here for a full account of our trip to the seemingly abandoned police station, including a great video clip.