Four "community policing stations" that recently opened at Harford County 7-Eleven convenience stores are not police stations and their primary focus is not to deter crime, business and law enforcement officials said last week.
The stations will give deputies on patrol places to stop to fill out reports, make follow-up telephone calls in investigations and save time they often spend driving to the sheriff's office in Bel Air to carry out those duties.
The stations, which officially opened Tuesday, are at 7-Eleven stores in Fallston, Jarrettsville, Abingdon and Edgewood.
"These substations have worked very well in Philadelphia, St. Louis and elsewhere since 1987," said Mark Nevins, loss prevention manager for the Northeast Division of the 7-Eleven Stores, a division of the Southland Corp.
Some people perceive 7-Elevens as "stop-and-rob stores," Mr. Nevins said.
"The truth is, since 1976, robberies at 7-Elevens are down 46 percent and our number of stores has increased 48 percent," he said.
Mr. Nevins said the community policing stations -- a podium or desk, chair and telephone for police use only -- will become a beacon to the public that 7-Elevens can be a haven 24 hours a day.
Lynne A. Battaglia, Maryland's U.S. attorney, echoed that sentiment, citing a case she prosecuted recently in which two officers in a Baltimore community policing situation captured a man with a loaded sawed-off shotgun.
If the officers had not been in the community at that time, she said, "I shudder to think what that young man with the shotgun might have done."
County Executive Eileen M. Rehrmann and Joanne Parrott, the county council president-elect, praised the cooperative efforts of business, the community and the sheriff for trying "something different" to enhance life in the communities.
Donald Hefner, the 7-Eleven franchise operator at 2400 Pleasantville Road in Fallston, said the periodic presence of deputies at his store will have some effect in deterring crime.
"Deputies will stop in, but it's not like they will be parked here," he said.
Mr. Hefner said his rural store has become a community center for information. People stop there to get directions or to check on road conditions in inclement weather.
"Now, if people know there's a chance of catching up to a deputy here, they may roll in to ask a question or seek help," Mr. Hefner said.
Sheriff Robert E. Comes, who approved the community policing stations concept in March, said the inexpensive cost was a major consideration in establishing the neighborhood facilities.
Joseph P. Meadows, the sheriff-elect who will assume command of the county's main law enforcement agency Dec. 5, said he would like to see volunteer auxiliary police manning the community policing stations around the clock.
"They could take complaints, file reports and mainly keep the deputies on patrol," he said.