Sarbanes crime plan to focus on patrols, treatment

The Baltimore Sun

City Council president candidate Michael Sarbanes will unveil today his crime-fighting strategy, which includes shifting from specialized units to neighborhood patrols, salary increases for officers of 6 percent to 8 percent, and more money for drug treatment programs.

"I feel a huge sense of urgency around this," said Sarbanes. "We can't as a city fall into a deadly trap of low expectations where we think that ... 'Well, we just are a violent city and that's just the way things are.' Things can get much safer in neighborhoods."

Pointing to his 15 years of "practical experience" in fighting crime on both a grass-roots level and state level, Sarbanes called his policy "Reclaim Neighborhoods Save Lives."

The four-part plan includes prioritizing neighborhood patrols, reclaiming high-crime areas, combating violence cycles and providing youths with alternatives to gangs and drugs.

Sarbanes, who served as the executive director of the Citizens Planning and Housing Association and as an attorney with the Community Law Center, is running for the four-year term in the Sept. 11 Democratic primary.

He faces competition from current City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake, who was elected to the position by council members in January, City Councilman Kenneth N. Harris Sr. and Charles Ulysses Smith, a frequent candidate.

Rawlings-Blake has in recent months come out with her own crime-fighting strategy, which includes using $2 million from the city's surplus funds for police recruitment.

Rawlings-Blake "is committed to solving the police staffing crisis, engaging the law enforcement community, and focusing resources on the capture of violent fugitives," said Shaun Ademec, a spokesman for the council president.

Harris said he will release his own crime-fighting strategy. Harris has long called for shifting officers from centralized units to the city's districts.

Sarbanes said he would reclaim high-crime areas by engaging public and private groups to clean up blocks and ensure that signs of disorder, such as vacant houses and graffiti, are eliminated.

For ending cycles that produce crime, Sarbanes is calling for expanding violence-intervention programs at hospitals, increasing drug treatment programs, such as buprenorphine, and increasing job opportunities for ex-offenders.

To combat gangs and drug, Sarbanes supports increased public and private funding for recreation centers and summer jobs, and working to see whether Maryland can get Medicaid to cover certain therapies for youth, which it does in some states.

sumathi.reddy@baltsun.com

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