In the wake of a recent spate of crime in Silver Spring, Montgomery County officials and residents came together Sunday afternoon for a community forum and a safety walk.
Montgomery County Council President Evan Glass, County Councilmember Kate Stewart (D-Dist. 4), Montgomery County Police representatives, and other county officials were on hand at the Silver Spring Civic Center to discuss increased proactive patrolling, using technology such as license plate readers to catch stolen cars, increasing police recruitment and working with businesses to put safety legislations in place.
Montgomery County’s Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Earl Stoddard discussed the measures that were put in place in response to Silver Spring crime.
“Our DCAT or SAT [Police Saturation Teams] teams… are teams of individuals…. who are doing proactive policing,” Stoddard said. “They would rather spend a lot of their time in the downtown area, focused on proactive policing, engaging with businesses, engaging with people [and] walking around, meeting patrons of businesses, trying to understand what their concerns are, and address issues before they happen.”
Stoddard said the Silver Spring Urban District has brought on six new personnel “to help increase their visibility, have more people out and about, [and] more eyes and ears on the ground.”
“They’ve also established an escort system so if you’re in the downtown and you don’t feel particularly safe at a certain point, you can get escorted from place to place [and] they can help you get there safely as well,” he said.
The county has also instituted license plate reader systems to screen and flag stolen vehicles, Stoddard said.
“We’ve [also] been doing inspections of businesses because we want to work with our business partners to make sure that they’re operating in a manner consistent with regulation and law and make sure that they’re doing what they can to help keep their spaces safe,” Stoddard said.
As mental health and public safety are closely linked, to address mental health issues in the population, county officials said they have invested in increased mental health response teams as well funding for homeless providers to ensure additional pathways for success for the homeless population in the downtown Silver Spring area.
Abigail Hurst, deputy director of survivor advocacy at the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety, shared statistics to show more insight about gun violence in the state and the county.
According to data shared by Hurst, 796 people die on average each year due to gun violence in Maryland, and the state has the 31st highest rate of gun violence in the country. With a rate of 8.9 deaths per 100,000 people, Maryland also has the ninth-highest rate of gun homicide deaths in the United States, Hurst said.
Montgomery County, however, “has seen some of the lowest rates of firearm deaths…. and that is 4.8 deaths per 100,000 residents,” Hurst said. Montgomery County had 201 total deaths from 2018 to 2021, compared to 494 deaths in the neighboring Prince’s George’s County.
In Silver Spring, four homicides have been reported this year. On Sunday, an 18-year-old was shot and killed in the Fairland area of Silver Spring. A 20-year-old Takoma Park man was shot and killed on March 7 in White Oak, and a man was fatally shot March 5 on Bonifant Street. On Feb. 1, a woman was found dead after a welfare check at the Paddington Square Apartments in Silver Spring.
Last year, a man was shot at a Wayne Avenue parking garage on Dec 21. A gas station attendant was killed in the White Oak area of Silver Spring Dec. 8, and a search of suspect Torrey Moore’s apartment led to police discovering the decomposed remains of a pregnant woman.
At a community listening session at White Oak in January, residents called for increased policing and safety measures in response to the incidents. To increase safety across the county, County Executive Marc Elrich and other officials announced the Late Night Business Safety Plan, which aims to establish new rules to increase safety around nighttime businesses.
The Montgomery County Police force has been facing ongoing issues with its staffing, recruitment and retention of officers. A county report showed resignations and retirements of police officers increased 64% from 2021 to 2022. The police force has a current sworn officer vacancy rate of 10%, with 129 openings from 1,281 authorized officer positions. To increase recruitment, the county and the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #35 are offering a $20,000 signing bonus to new sworn police recruits.
Residents who attended Sunday’s forum expressed concerns about the need to implement strategies to reduce violence across Montgomery County neighborhoods, ensure nighttime businesses with alcohol licenses are monitored to reduce noise levels and loitering in the area, and asked whether changes in zoning to increase density in Silver Spring may have contributed to the increased crime in the area.
Officials reiterated the importance of increasing patrolling, working to recruit more police officers, as well as working together to make Silver Spring less attractive as a target of crime.
“I share with many of you the desire to make sure Silver Spring continues to be a place where young people, children, families, young adults, older folks all come and feel safe, enjoying all the things that we have to offer here in Silver Spring, and to do this, we all need to be working together,” Stewart said.
