VoteBYoung - Crime

Crime is on the rise in Harford County. This must be met with a true tough-on-crime public policy. The increasing emergence of gangs in Harford has brought the idea of organized crime to our home. We must ensure that this organized crime is met with a far more organized, coordinated plan by all of Harford’s law enforcement, judicial, legislative, and citizen forces.

Crime in Harford has long been treated as a municipality issue. There are many stereotypes- Edgewood is where most of the crime is, methadone’s home is in North Harford, Bel Air is where the biggest payoffs lie. This is certainly no longer the case (if it ever was). We are a growing county, and there is no question that criminals understand this as well as the rest of us do.

Even if these stereotypes were true, the ease of moving about the county let criminals know they can commit crimes around the county, regardless of where they live. Crimes are becoming increasingly more shocking—the smash and run jewel heist of Kay’s in Harford Mall, the attempted car jacking of an elderly woman at Upper Chesapeake Hospital, the purse knapping at knife point of a pregnant woman in Bright Oaks, and the as-yet unsolved Portofino Bay rape case. The number of sexual offenders within our district has also increased in recent years.

This is why tough-on-crime laws, such as the recently passed “Jessica’s Law” are necessary. We must combat this kind of behavior and make it clear that criminal behavior will not be tolerated in Harford County.

We must increase penalties, ensure that agencies work together, and make our county and state known as being tough-on-crime. Crime can no longer be viewed as a municipality issue. We must ensure that this county, as a whole, works together to combat crime.

We need to ensure that the Sheriff’s office has all of the resources necessary to be able to fight crime. In a recent Aegis article, it was revealed that there are no undercover officers currently operating in an attempt to infiltrate criminal organizations in Harford County. Funding such efforts to stop crime before it happens is one of the efforts I will fight for in my effort to attack crime from the Harford County Council.

I will also support the initial funding of a task force to conduct stings along the Route 40 and 95 corridors to capture drug traffickers making runs through our county. This task force will pay for itself with the thousands of dollars that could be seized, and could pay for increased crime prevention efforts. More importantly, it will ensure that Harford County is known as a place where crime is not tolerated.

The partnership with the County Council and the Sheriff’s office, as well as the municipality departments, needs to be strengthened to include greater debate and planning, and more talk over the proper strategies for action to combat crime.

A stronger relationship between the council and law enforcement—the most important concern of government—will provide greater oversight and partnerships to fight not just crime, but the difficulties that the Sheriff’s office has faced in recent months and years.

Debate, Planning, and Action is what is needed to bring a tough-on-crime stance to crack down on the recent increase of shocking crime in Harford County.