Kingswood Civic Association

Hakim Muhammad in the Gazette!!

Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009

Gang violence, robberies top community concerns

Acting county police chief addresses issues during community meeting

by Elahe Izadi | Staff Writer

Residents and community leaders from central and north Prince George's County rated gang violence, robberies and break-ins as top public safety concerns during a Jan. 22 meeting with Prince George's County Acting Police Chief Roberto Hylton.

Hylton met with residents during a District 3 community meeting organized by County Councilman Eric Olson (D-Dist. 3) of College Park. District 3 includes College Park, Riverdale Park, New Carrollton and other municipalities.

Hylton said the county police department will soon open up its training to municipal police departments in the county and that he envisions opening a "fusion center" which will be a collecting point for all drug and gang information. It would be manned 24 hours a day and could track crime patterns in the county.

Hylton also said that since he took over the department in September, its gang unit has increased from about 8 to 20 officers, partly because of a departmental merger with the narcotics unit.

Hylton said in an interview after the meeting that "gangs, guns and drugs" are the county's biggest public safety problems.

"These gangs are the one who are utilizing the guns," he said.

During the meeting, Hylton also called for tougher consequences for criminals and said that much of neighborhood crime is being committed by the same people.

"Every single level of the judicial, the justice system, needs to be held accountable," he said.

Many residents said they were concerned with burglaries and foreclosed homes turning into hotspots for crime.

"We're experiencing an increase of residential burglaries that's happening a lot during the daytime now," said Hakim Muhammad, president of the Kingswood Civic Association in Lanham, during the meeting.

Larry Jackson, president of the Princess Garden Hickory Hill Neighborhood Association in Lanham, said since Hylton took over the department, police have been responsive to calls of break-ins and boys gambling in the middle of the neighborhood's streets.

"We have had a quick response to calls," he said. "For years we didn't have hardly any response because it was a really safe area."

Olson said he particularly wanted community leaders at the meeting so they could voice their concerns directly to Hylton. Among the 50 people in attendance were a number of civic association presidents and elected officials from various municipalities.

Olson said residents have told him for months they're concerned with criminal activity around vacant homes and gang-related violence in the district. He advocated for community-policing, neighborhood watch programs and youth programs.

"We need to have prevention and really work on getting young people involved in productive, constructive activities outside of school," he said. "Those are things that strengthen our neighborhoods and ultimately making our neighborhoods safer."

E-mail Elahe Izadi at eizadi@gazette.net.