Charles Village Watches Baltimore City Courts

Charles Village and several surrounding neighborhoods are working to see that criminals, such as the people accused of murdering a Johns Hopkins researcher in July, are kept off the street. 

After the murder of Stephen Pitcairn in the 2700 block of St. Paul Street, the communities have reinvigorated their Court Watch Program. The program is a coordinated effort that allow neighborhood members to track people accused of crimes in their neighborhoods  through the court system and to provide community impact statements to judges deciding their fates.

The communities have developed a comprehensive system to better follow criminal cases, a process that involves community stakeholders such as the Northern District police, the State's Attorney's office, the Charles Village Community Benefits District and all of the area community associations.

David Hill, executive director of the Charles Village Community Benefits District, said developing the process and reinvigorating the neighborhood's Court Watch Program has gone smoothly.

"Everyone on the [Safety Advisory Council] has been very active and working very hard on this effort," Hill said.

He said there were some challenges when first organizing the group such as getting all the information they needed, deciding what cases to review and devising a process for sending impact letters.

So far the group has been reviewing some quality of life cases such as prostitution, but it focuses the bulk of its efforts on more serious crimes such as assaults, robberies and murders. 

Since October, the communities have sent about 19 community impact letters to the courts.

"It's a little too early to know what impact our letters are having," Hill said.

Hill, however, was confident all of the community's efforts are producing some results.

"We're fairly certain the it's going to have some impact. The judges want to know what the community thinks," Hill said.

Now the major effort for these communities will be to keep the program going.

Sharon Guida, chairwoman of the community association safety committee, said that now residents have to understand that they can't just be spectators but must get involved if they want the program to continue.

"The safety piece has always been there but it's not the minds of too many people until something terrible happens," Guida said.

She said that the community group is hoping to see more residents volunteer to help keep Court Watch functioning so that the responsibility doesn't constantly fall to the same few people.  

"[Court Watch] requires steady, committed, constant attention. It's not just a rally you go to," Guida said.