Message on Public Safety – July 2016

Dear Fellow Roland Park Community Members- as I am sure all of you are aware, our community has experienced some violent crimes in recent weeks. Indeed, I can only imagine the shock that Molly Macauley’s family, friends, and colleagues are still going through. Obviously, these events are unusual in this safe community we know and love, which has caused me – and many of you – some serious concern and to question what we could and should do to enhance our public safety. To that end, I plan on dedicating our next scheduled RPCL board meeting [Wednesday, 9/7/16, 7PM, RP Presbyterian Church, 4801 Roland Avenue] to discuss and define the problem and options.

I invite you to join us, as we, the board, need to capture all perspectives on this important issue.

At present, we are working on gathering information to define the problem and options; the former to include Police reach-out on crime statistics and trends, and the latter, for instance, on investigating additional actions we may take, such as hired security or citizens’ patrols. Just recently, at a Northern District Police event, I connected with Homeland’s citizens’ patrol leader, and I will be connecting with Guilford leaders to learn more about their community-paid security service. I realize some of these topics have arisen in the past, and while we need to learn from that past, we also must address our current situation.

Finally, although this has been a truly awful time, I now have the benefit of firsthand knowing that our Police, led by Major Gibson, are there for us and will do everything in their power to secure our safety and work with us. For that, I am very thankful. I hope to see you in early September. In the meantime, please feel free to contact your RPCL Plat representative (contact information here), be safe, and look after your neighbors.

Thank you….Ian MacFarlane, RPCL president