Morale remains high among Bel Air police officers as they patrol the Harford County seat, the day after five officers were killed and seven more wounded Thursday night in Dallas, but they are still experiencing some "noticeable anxiety," according to their chief.
"We all feel the pain when that happens," Bel Air Police Chief Charles "Chuck" Moore said Friday afternoon. "We put ourselves in the shoes of the police officers in that community, and it causes some noticeable anxiety."
The Bel Air Police Department has 31 sworn officers who serve a community of about 10,000 people, and Moore stressed they remain focused on protecting the community, but they are "a little bit more watchful, a little bit more observant when they're out on patrol."
"Not that they were complacent before, but they're a little more alert [now]," the chief said.
He sent a department-wide message Friday encouraging officers to "be watchful, be vigilant and just watch each others' backs."
Bel Air officers, as well as their counterparts across the state and the nation, will wear black shrouds across their badges through next week, and flags at town facilities are flying at half staff, Moore said.
Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler authorized his deputies to wear shrouds, too. His agency was rocked earlier this year by the Feb. 10 murders of two deputies in Abingdon.
Gahler honored the officers, Senior Deputy Patrick Dailey and Deputy First Class Mark Logsdon, during a ceremony Wednesday, when a section of Route 924 running past the Boulevard at Box Hill shopping center, the scene of the shootings, was dedicated as Heroes Highway.
"While this vicious and senseless attack [in Dallas] remains under investigation, it is clear we witnessed heroes in action as they ran toward the shooting, shielded the innocents, rendered aid while being fired upon and gave their lives in service to their community," Gahler wrote in a message posted Friday on the Sheriff's Office Facebook page.
Twelve officers and two civilians were shot in what Dallas police have described as a planned sniper attack during a peaceful protest in the city's downtown area. Officers with the Dallas Police Department and Dallas Area Rapid Transit were providing security and crowd control as people protested the shooting deaths earlier this week of civilians Philando Castile in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La., after confrontations with police officers.
The deaths of Castile and Sterling, who were both black, have prompted protests across the nation as people express outrage over what they see as the targeting of black people by police officers, with tragic results.
"I've heard a variety of comments, ranging from disbelief to frustration to fear," said the Rev. Baron D. Young. "There's a lot of anxiety."
Young is the pastor of St. James AME Church on Green Street in Havre de Grace and the religious affairs committee chair for the Harford County branch of the NAACP.
He noted relationships between police and the African-American community in Harford are better than many other parts of the U.S., as county and municipal police officials maintain strong ties with community and religious groups.
Young said Harford residents still feel anxiety, though, because of what they see happening in the rest of the country.
"Sadly, there are persons in our culture and our country that speak rather harshly about encounters with white officers and black citizens," Young said. "If you happen to be watching, particularly the national news, you see these images and these words repeated over and over again."
The pastor said his church has a history of fighting for social justice, and he encourages parishioners to seek change through the political process and demonstrate "teachings of love and peace among human beings that the founder of our faith, Jesus Christ, taught about and died for."
Jesse Bane, Bel Air's town administrator and a former Harford sheriff who spent 42 years in law enforcement, said Friday that he was talking with a retired Maryland State Police trooper at Wednesday's highway dedication ceremony, and they reflected on times during their careers when they came close to losing their lives.
Bane noted the most challenging situations are when an officer does not know a threat is imminent.
Bane said "it's very difficult, if not impossible" for officers to protect themselves from unknown threats, such as the ambush in Dallas, despite extensive preparation for known threats.
He is still working to help Bel Air officers protect themselves, though. Three new police cars are equipped with ballistic shields built into the door panels. The shields cost $1,500 each, but Bane set aside funding in the fiscal 2016 budget, as representatives of the town police union requested additional safety equipment.
"If it's something we can afford, we would be remiss if we didn't honor their requests," Bane said.
The Bel Air Police Department and the Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company are coordinating an active shooter drill scheduled for July 17 at Bel Air Middle School.
The county's municipal SWAT unit, which has tactical officers from the Aberdeen, Bel Air and Havre de Grace, police departments and representatives of Harford County Public Schools will also participate, Bel Air PD's Moore said.
He said the drill is the idea of Bel Air Fire Chief Rick Davis, so police, firefighters and EMS workers can practice a coordinated response to an active shooter.
The drills were planned well before the tragedy in Dallas, Moore said, explaining: "[We want] to build up the confidence of our officers and see how we react under a stressful situation."