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Capital-Gazette Guest column:
As I write this, another homicide has just occurred on a property owned by the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis. As in other murders profiled recently by The Sunday Capital (Jan. 28), the victim did not live in Annapolis, and was banned from Housing Authority property. This problem is deeply disturbing to all of us who are working to improve Annapolis' public housing. We will not reduce the problems of drugs and crime in Annapolis unless we stem the daily flow of persons entering the city from elsewhere to buy and sell drugs and engage in crime. Such activities impact all of Annapolis, but have a particularly bad effect on neighborhoods with public housing and other rental housing for those with low incomes. A Housing Authority analysis of Annapolis Police Department data from 2006 shows that, last year, only 5 percent of the arrests in the city involved public housing residents. Since public housing residents represent 6 percent of the city's population, that means they actually have fewer arrests per capita than the general population. The Housing Authority screens all applicants for public housing to ensure that they are law-abiding when admitted. It evicts residents who engage in criminal activity. Judging from the low level of arrests of public housing residents, the Housing Authority's selection, screening and eviction policies seem to be working quite well. In 2006, 7 percent of all serious crimes in the city occurred on Housing Authority property. The figure is 16 percent when adjacent neighborhoods are added. While the vast majority of city crimes - 93 percent - take place off Housing Authority property, violent crime and drug offenses are more concentrated on public housing property. Nearly 30 percent of violent crimes (murder, rape and aggravated assaults) and 26 percent of drug arrests are on Housing Authority property. The new data show that: Although we are awaiting more complete data from the city police, it appears that crimes on Housing Authority property are commonly committed by those who don't even live in the city. We must get tougher on people who come into Annapolis to commit these crimes. We desperately need the courts to help by providing greater certainty of penalties for those convicted. This problem is complicated because those who are arrested often have connections to public housing residents, through extended families or other relationships. Illegal visitors are a significant problem on Housing Authority properties, and action has been taken to deal with this. Housing Authority residents now have picture IDs. Residents' cars have stickers. The number of persons banned from the properties has tripled. The number of evictions of residents involved in criminal activities is up. The lease requirements dealing with illegal and banned persons have been strengthened. All properties are posted for no trespassing. This enables police to arrest unauthorized people. Communities now have on-site property managers. Security guards and improved lighting and locks have been added. Aggressive efforts to get banned and unauthorized people off our properties will continue to be a key focus of the Housing Authority. Through a jointly funded Public Safety Plan, the Housing Authority has worked with the city police in recent years to increased police presence on the properties by using officers working on overtime. The mayor's support for the funding and her support for the Public Safety Plan have been essential Under the community policing approach, police walk the properties, are assigned to specific communities, and get acquainted with and gain the trust of residents. The Housing Authority added a public safety director to oversee the safety activities and coordinate with the police. Unfortunately, the sporadic availability of police manpower has made it difficult to have the same officers regularly on Housing Authority properties - a key principle of community policing. So we are working with the mayor and city Police Chief Joseph S. Johnson to push for a separate full-time city police detachment that will work exclusively on Housing Authority properties. This jointly funded unit would allow the Housing Authority to have officers dedicated 24 hours a day and seven days a week to protecting public housing properties and reducing crime and violence. Through foot patrols, the officers would be a constant presence in the properties they serve. They would work closely with the Housing Authority's public safety director, the on-site property managers and residents to ensure an aggressive and coordinated attack on crime and loitering on public housing properties. --- The writer is the chairman of the board of commissioners of the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis.
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