Southeast Baltimore community to host summit with DJS over youth crime concerns
Youth violence continues to be a problem for Baltimore City, bringing about concerns from its residents. A community group hopes to bridge the gap between residents and city and state leaders.
The Baltimore Southeastern District Police Community Relations Council wants neighbors can share their concerns with Betsy Fox Tolentino, the Acting Secretary of Juvenile Services, Baltimore Police, and the City's State's Attorney's Office in the Southeast Baltimore Juvenile Justice Summit.
Arch McKown, who's on the community council, says in turn, those agencies will share how they're responding to crime involving young people.
"In terms of how these agencies are interacting and interfacing and collaborating with one another," McKown said.
McKown hopes Tolentino can share what changes she intends to make over the next few months while in charge of the state's Department of Juvenile Services. He added that neighbors deserve transparency, especially around the state's GPS monitoring system.
"Because that continues to be an issue when you see youth who are out there who've done multiple crimes," McKown said. "They're on a monitor, but they're still running around after hours."
McKown also listed some outcomes the community council hopes to receive, like data on restorative efforts, a 90-day action list, as well as a dashboard tracking diversion participation and GPS compliance.
"Then, what can we do as a community to help aid in the process?" McKown said. "The community needs to feel empowered."
The event takes place on October 16 at Hope City Church. It starts at 6:15 p.m.
Concerns in Southeast Baltimore
Some residents said they feel very safe in Southeast Baltimore.
"I feel probably the safest now than I have in a long time because everyone is looking out for each other," said Toni Holter.
Others said their neighborhood has been hit by youth crime.
"Some of what we call porch pirates," said resident Gianpiero DiVanna.
"Crimes of opportunity," McKown said. "So, that's everything from like larceny, which is like non-violent stuff, and then burglaries, which is more intrusive to robberies, carjackings."
"I got held up by four juveniles supervised by an adult," said Mark Adams, another neighbor.
Adams hopes that at the summit, officials can address increased patrols.
"They need to reinstate police patrols," Adams said. "All they do is respond to calls. I know they're short-handed, but I also know they have police doing a lot of things other than patrol. They should emphasize patrol."
