Shaken by a brazen burglary in which her sliding glass door had been shot out and items taken from her Montpelier home — all while she slept on her couch — Gloria Hynes found an outlet in monthly meetings with Prince George's County Police.
The police wanted Hynes and others like her, not necessarily victims but senior citizens, who would come out for coffee, education and an exchange of information, so they began the Coffee for Seniors program in each county police district.
In the Laurel-Beltsville area, what began two years ago with four people in a coffee shop has since grown considerably. On Dec. 1, about two dozen local residents came out to Coffee for Seniors at the new Laurel-Beltsville Senior Activity Center.
"I felt like I needed to get much more involved," said Hynes, 71. "I had taken it for granted that I had done all the things in my home to protect myself."
District 6 community police hold meetings each month at two different Laurel facilities, bringing in guest speakers and sometimes offering presentations to go along with the season.
Last week's meeting included an extended discussion on safe holiday shopping, starting with keeping a home safe when out shopping. Police suggested locking windows and doors and keeping lights, a television or a radio on to give the impression that someone is still at home.
Seniors were told to be aware of their surroundings while shopping, not to carry too much cash, to carry purses close to their bodies and to hide valuables in their cars.
Tips on staying safe while shopping continued all the way through to how seniors can handle suspicious people when walking back to their vehicles.
"If you feel uneasy, what do you do?" asked Ofc. Kenneth Hibbert, who coordinates the district's meetings with seniors.
"Sound your panic button," answered Lucy Grimes, 78, of West Laurel. "Scream. Yell 'Fire!' "
Making connections
This was the first meeting for Peter Brown, an 80-year-old longtime South Laurel resident, and it would not be the last.
"I found it absolutely fascinating. It was so useful," he said. "The things that I am doing to keep myself and my family safe in this community have been addressed today. I learned some things about how I can do that, and I look forward to learning more."
That is just one of the reasons for the meetings, according to Hibbert.
Not all senior citizens have access to knowing everything that is going on within the area. Those who come to the meetings can be better informed, he said.
But the meetings also set up a connection between the police department and those they serve.
"They're our eyes and ears during the daytime and at night," Hibbert said. "Ninety percent of the people that come to the meetings are retired. They know what to look out for, and they also tell their friends."
Said Hynes: "They really want to get our input. I find out information about what's going on and I clue them into what's happening that they may not be aware of."
People who have come to the meetings have called in reports of suspicious activity that have subsequently led to arrests, he said.
"We're only as good as our relationship with the community," said Prince George's County Police Chief Mark Magraw, who was the featured guest speaker at the meeting. Improvements in crime statistics, he said, "comes back to meetings like this, sitting down, knowing each other and getting to know each other as people.
"A uniform's a uniform," he said. "But knowing us as people opens up the lines of communications. We need you. You see things way before we do. And if we can take care of the little things, they don't get to be big things."