Crime & Safety

Police to Substantially Increase Presence Around College Park

In light of a recent surge of robberies, more police will be on patrol in the area

Police are responding to a recent spike in robberies by significantly increasing their presence around College Park, said District 1 Police Commander Maj. Robert Liberati.

In the interest of keeping criminals unaware of police activity, Liberati declined to comment on the actual number of officers that would be patrolling the streets at any given time. He did, however, say that the number of county police, university police and Maryland Park police on patrol in College Park would increase substantially for the foreseeable future.

"We'll be doing it until we make some inroads in these cases," he said.

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The spree of robberies has plagued communities from Old Town to Lakeland, and Liberati said that police presence will be distributed throughout College Park accordingly.

"We're going to be everywhere," Liberati said. "I can't say that we'll be standing at each intersection, but we'll be moving through the area."

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College Park has seen five robberies in the last month, two of which were aggressive muggings, and three of which involved weapons.  Liberati said at least two of the cases, the set of armed robberies that occurred Monday night, were likely linked. Police are  also investigating whether Saturday mornings's robbery on Hartwick Road was related as well, despite the suspect in that case not carrying a gun.

Liberati said that investigators were also taking another look at the suspects arrested for mugging three UMd. students in the parking lot of Clarion Hotel on Baltimore Avenue. Though two of the suspects were caught, one was released on bail shortly after his arrest.

Despite the spate of crime, the overall number of robberies that have occurred this year is roughly equal to last year's numbers. Five robberies occurred from Aug. 7 – Sept. 7 this year; four had occurred in the same time frame last year. 

In fact, numbers for the year are down slightly from last year. In 2010, 19 robberies have occurred since Jan. 1. In 2009, 22 robberies occurred in the same period of time.

Given that crime generally goes up at the beginning of each school year, Councilman Patrick Wojahn (Dist. 1) thinks police should plan on bolstering their numbers at the end of August annually as a preventative measure. 

"Generally, crime increases at the beginning of the school year, and until it calms down, we need that increased police presence," he said.

The city is also in the process of installing security cameras throughout the Old Town neighborhood, which, though it won't necessarily deter crime, will help police identify suspects and connect crimes that happened throughout the city, Wojahn said.

In the meantime, police caution residents to be careful.

"Take basic precautions," Liberati said. "Go out in groups, and don't drink to excess," he said. "It makes you an easy target for crime."


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