Taking back a community, step by step
Citizens on Patrol hopes to start a movement in East Baltimore

By Sumathi Reddy, Sun reporter
October 27, 2007

As dusk settles, the glittering lights of downtown emerge, just a few
miles away -- but a world removed -- from one of the roughest areas in
one of the deadliest cities in the country.

A group gathers on the corner of North Patterson Park Avenue and East
Hoffman Street in East Baltimore, within blocks of the scenes of at
least eight homicides this year.

Police officers and representatives from the mayor's office, a mother
from South Baltimore and a couple hand-in-hand, two members of the
Guardian Angels in their signature red jackets and berets. Folks from
Brooklyn and Curtis Bay, Morrell Park and Key Highway.

They patrol their neighborhoods regularly, and now they're here for what
might seem like a simple thing, a Citizens on Patrol walk, but for a
neighborhood that has never seen one, it's a significant step. Symbolic,
if nothing else.

"Most of these people here are from other parts of the city," says Lt.
Col. Odis L. Sistrunk Jr., director of community relations for the
Police Department, as the group waits for the local representatives.
"It's really not at the point where this is a community event. When
people in the neighborhood here see the walk ... eventually you'll have
more people getting involved."

Minutes later, Charlene Bourne arrives with about a half-dozen fellow
Eastern District Police Community Relations Council members bearing
T-shirts advertising the walk.

Bourne, 50, is president of the Eastern District council. She lives
slightly north of here. Most of the other East Baltimore residents also
don't live in this area, which is well-known for drug and gang activity.

Residents gave her a list of hot spots and other areas to walk through.

"Sometime people are a little leery of retaliation," she says.

Jack Baker, president of the Southern District Police Community
Relations Council and a proponent of these walks, calls everyone
together. Members of the group grasp hands and stand in a circle.

Holding a flashlight, Baker stands in the middle.

"We're more effective if we're seen as a group," he tells them. "We're
going to make an impact."

Across the city, Citizens on Patrol groups consisting of residents armed
with flashlights and accompanied by police are seen as a potential
deterrent to crime and a visible symbol of community resistance to drug
dealers and other criminal elements.

In Northeast and Northwest Baltimore, longtime, well-organized citizen
groups patrol, often by vehicle. And in South Baltimore, Baker and a
tight-knit group walk in neighborhoods from Otterbein to Cherry Hill.

But the culture of COP walks in East and West Baltimore has never been
sustained.

Notorious for high homicide numbers and rampant drug activity, East
Baltimore is among the most dangerous parts of the city.

It leads the city's other police districts with 41 homicides as of Oct.
8, an increase of 11 percent from the corresponding time last year, and
98 nonfatal shootings, an increase of 17 percent.

"We've had some issues here this year," says Maj. David Cheuvront, who
oversees the Eastern District. "Gang activity, drug dealing, homicides."

Baker, 64, of Otterbein says he's working to help jump-start programs in
East and West Baltimore.

Last month, Baker and others joined Western District Police Community
Relations Council members in their first COP walk. Two have followed.

"These are districtwide COP walks because people are so afraid in those
two districts," Baker says. "Those two districts haven't had a COP walk
because people wouldn't come out after dark. This is a way to stop that
and to help our cops."

Inez Robb, president of the Western District Police Community Relations
Council, says the walks were helpful. Frederick H. Bealefeld III, now
the city's police commissioner, attended the first walk.

"He gave us pointers on what to look for, things to notice," says Robb,
59, who lives in Sandtown-Winchester. "We shut down one illegal
business, a carwash that didn't have a license."

Partnering with and follow-up by police are critical to having a
successful COP organization, says Sheldon Greenberg, director of the
Johns Hopkins University's Division of Public Safety Leadership.

"Some groups are extremely effective, and then you have some that are
show and tell, that exist only in name," he says.

The groups are less effective in combating crimes such as homicide and
serious assault than with preventing things such as auto thefts,
nuisance crimes, vandalism and loitering, Greenberg says.

"COP is an incredible tool in improving neighborhoods," he says. "They
are an invaluable extension of the Police Department but not a
replacement for effective policing. They can make life so miserable for
the bad guys that they get tired and move on."

That seems to be the case on this recent warm evening. East Hoffman
Street, usually a hotbed of drug activity, is eerily quiet.

Children and senior citizens sitting on steps and porches stare
perplexed at the parade of 30-plus strange faces walking by.

"Whatcha' all doing?" screams a man.

"We're Citizens on Patrol," a woman hollers back.

They nod in approval.

Across the street, two police officers hand out yellow fliers on the
mayor's Operation Crime Watch program, including contact information.

"People want to see people," Bourne says.

Warren Branch, a city public works inspector who won the Democratic
primary in the City Council's 13th District, is walking next to her.
"This should have been done years ago," he says. "We're large enough to
send a message."

The group walks past carryout restaurants and convenience stores, rows
of boarded-up rowhouses, barking dogs, children playing and storefront
churches.

"We'll stop business for a little while, anyways," a man says.

Maria Wallace is one of the few residents out tonight who lives in the
neighborhood. Her mother and several other elderly women live on Hoffman
Street, and she worries about them.

"On a normal day, [the drug dealers are] out there on the corners," says
Wallace, 45. "This is definitely not the norm."

"I pray to God this happens and more people take notice," she says as
the group winds its way back to the starting point.

Baker and Bourne gather the group again.

"Did you like it?" they ask, and everyone seems to says yes.

"You gonna do it again soon?" Baker asks.

"Yes," they holler back.

Then most make their way back to their cars to drive back to their
neighborhoods.