Changing residents’ perceptions about safety is as important to the success of downtown Silver Spring as ongoing measures to reduce crime, county officials said Wednesday.
“Until every person and every business in our community feels safe and is safe, then we have a lot of work to do,” Montgomery County Council President Andrew Friedson (D-Dist. 1) said at a press conference at the Silver Spring Civic Center.
Friedson, along with County Executive Marc Elrich, County Council Vice President Kate Stewart (D-Dist. 4) and Police Chief Marcus Jones, spoke about the safety measures the county has enacted to combat recent crime increases in the downtown area and how the county can shift residents’ perceptions of safety.
“We just want people to know we’re taking this seriously,” Elrich said. “Most importantly, we’re making sure that in whatever we do, we’re making sure that residents of this county are as safe as we can possibly make them.”
During the press conference, Jones said that crime increased 10% in the county from 2022 to 2023. He added that in 2023, out of the six districts, the Third District, which contains Silver Spring, accounted for 23% of all crime in Montgomery County.
Elrich discussed measures the county has taken to combat crime, such as the Drone as First Responder Program that allows police to respond more quickly to a crime scene, increasing the number of surveillance cameras in public parking garages and implementing license plate readers to catch suspects in carjackings and auto thefts.
Stewart noted that while employing the new technology is important, people feeling safe while in public places is what will revitalize the community.
“Technology has its place, but for me, it’s not a replacement for really activating our public spaces and having people out and feeling safe and enjoying the best that we have to offer,” Stewart said.
Stewart, whose district includes Silver Spring, also mentioned the bill the County Council passed Tuesday that will ensure that hookah bars will now close at 2 a.m. during the week and 3 a.m. on weekends—as establishments serving alcohol are required to do.
She said passage of the bill was important because some business owners in the downtown area have expressed concerns about safety and how that will affect them.
Between 2022 and 2023 there was a 53% increase in calls regarding disorderly conduct between the hours of 2 and 3 a.m. in the downtown Silver Spring area, according to Councilmember Evan Glass (D-At Large).
But Stewart noted that other businesses haven’t been deterred.
“You don’t have a Uniqlo or a Nike come into a community unless they know they’re going to be successful. Those are international businesses,” Stewart said of companies that have recently opened locations in the downtown area.
Jacob Newman, director of the Silver Spring Regional Center, said the way that the county police department’s Third District reports crimes may contribute to the perception that downtown Silver Spring is not safe.
“I think that Silver Spring is challenged by the fact that broadly, it’s nine ZIP codes,” Newman said.
For example, a crime that occurs in the White Oak or Burtonsville area is often classified as Silver Spring.
“It amplifies things, and people then have a misconception of what the reality actually is,” Newman said.
Jones noted that carjackings and homicides have decreased in the county, including in downtown Silver Spring, this year when compared to last year’s numbers. Such statistics can indicate the effectiveness of safety measures, but the police department’s priority is to make residents feel safe in their communities, he said.
Steps the department has taken to achieve that goal include assigning Third District officers to patrol specific neighborhoods and to engage with community members. Seeing police patrolling shopping centers and public areas can make people feel safer, Jones said.
County Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Earl Stoddard said the county will continue to work to improve safety in the downtown area.
“This is not a victory lap. This is not an endpoint. This is an update. We expect that there are going to be more changes that need to occur in downtown Silver Spring to make it safer,” he said. “We expect that [county officials] and the people throughout this community are going to be part of that solution and moving us forward.”