Information about Police Pilot Program

Police Pilot Program Up for Discussion in July

by Council member Tom Eldridge

Starting last September, the Town hired Chevy Chase Village Police officers to perform certain kinds of traffic enforcement work in Somerset. The program ran for five months, and was extended in February through the end of June 2006. Decisions about the nature of the enforcement and schedule were made by a task force of three Town Council members.

The initial plan was to have the Village Police focus on traffic enforcement - stop sign and speeding violations. The Town hired the police to provide 8 hours coverage a week at $36.50 per hour for 5 months at a total cost of $5,840

As of the February meeting, the police had issued more than 40 tickets to people for stop sign violations on Cumberland, Deal, Devon, Dorset, Essex, Falstone, Surrey and Warwick. Although some residents were stopped, none were stopped twice.

Following a number of vandalism incidents in Town, including at the school, the Task Force requested that the police spend more time in January patrolling the Town, which they did. They also investigated a number of suspicious incidents.

In February, the Council approved an additional amount up to $8,600 for the program, equating to 12 hours per week for five months. However, the Village Police were short of personnel during the first three months of the program and could not provide 12 hours a week of coverage.

Then, at the May Council meeting, residents petitioned the Council to increase police presence in Town following a number of burglaries and attempted burglaries in Somerset in April. In response, the Council gave the Mayor the discretion to hire off-duty police for no more than 40 hours, and added $25,000 in the budget for the next fiscal year for hiring police

During May, the Mayor did contract for 40 hours of work by an off-duty Montgomery County Police officer who patrolled the Town and issued a number of parking tickets. The Mayor also requested and received increased patrols from on-duty Montgomery County Police.

Also in May, in response to these security concerns of residents, the Task Force sought and received increased hours from the Chevy Chase Village police, and requested that the Village Police spend time patrolling Somerset to help deter criminal activity. As a result, although the Village Police increased their time spent in Somerset during May, they issued only one traffic citation in Town. For reasons that only the criminals can answer, we had no more burglaries in May.

As this Journal is going to print, we have not received from the Village Police cumulative statistics for the program through the end of June. In light of this -- and contrary to the suggestion in the agenda item published in this month’s Town Journal -- it is unlikely that there will be any action taken regarding the Chevy Chase Village program at the July Town Meeting. Rather, the pilot program will end in June, and the final results of the program will be published in the Town Journal thereafter.

As residents have pointed out at Town meetings, both traffic and security concerns have been addressed by committees in the recent past (the report of the Security Committee is on the Town website at www.townofsomerset.com/securityreport.pdf). The task force agrees that hiring police should be part of a broader security and traffic safety program, including the work of these committees.

Residents are encouraged to provide input to the Council about whether they favor continuing on a more permanent basis the Town's relationship with the Chevy Chase Village Police Department, or pursuing another alternative­ such as having no additional hired security, or leaving to the Mayor's discretion the hiring of some amount of additional security on an as needed basis.

Somerset Security

There is a big difference between feeling secure and being secure. Both my professional and personal  experience lead me to believe that many concerned residents in Somerset are confusing their perception of being secure (by knowing that police are around town, somewhere) with the reality of being more secure, I, for one, would take real security over perceived security any day of the week.

How do we achieve real security? By going back to basics.

The police will to do a free assessment of everyone's house, and discuss the best type of locks that are needed on windows, door, back gates… How and where to store ladders… When to use burglar-proof acrylic (looks like glass) in a door instead of real glass… Where to place a fake video camera (blinking red light and all – for just $20.00)... Whether to install motion-detector or light-sensitive perimeter lights (electricity/light is your cheapest, most effective protection…)

A few pro-active, creative ideas can go much farther in deterring crimes of opportunity than random policing.