Prince George’s County Residents Meet To Provide Solutions To Community Crime

Sherman Hardy and Monique Anderson-Walker play a news clip they used in their first panel discussion. Photo by Delonte Harrod

Landover, MD – Prince George’s County has been thrust into a conversation about crime, particularly juvenile crime, when County Executive Angela Alsobrooks announced a 30 day curfew early last month. On Oct. 6, community members gathered at The Sports And Learning Complex in Landover, near the Commanders stadium, to talk about what comes next after the curfew.

The meeting was organized by Sherman Hardy, former 2022 candidate for County Executive, and Monique Anderson-Walker, 2022 candidate for Lt. Governor. Hardy moderated the meeting. This was the second listening group the two organized around juvenile crime, and community solutions. Hardy said the first meeting was for teenagers, and this one was for adults.

“ We don’t want to be reactive,” said Anderson-Walker of the meeting. “ We actually want to get solutions.”

The meeting was headed by panelists: Prince George’s County Deputy Chief James McCreary, Hon. Judge Michael Pearson, Deputy State's Attorney Jason Abbott and Nicole Martinez, a mental health practitioner who works with children in Prince George’s County Public Schools.

Panelists talked about the impacts of the curfew, mental health, fielded suggestions from community members about solutions on how to deter juvenile crime, and talked about current juvenile law.  McCreary said, without evidence, that the curfew has had a positive impact. In his opening remarks he mentioned the reasons behind reinstituting the juvenile curfew. He said there were 25 murders in August, which was a slight increase in more than a decade. “It was the most murders that Prince George’s County had seen in its history,” said McCreary. “Prior to that, the closest we’ve had was 21, which was in 1991.”

They were concerned as well as many community members. So County Executive Angela Alsobrooks along with Prince George’s County Police Chief Malike Aziz announced a curfew. 

“The initiation of this curfew was to come up with a method to try to stop the violence we were seeing through the month of August,” explained McCreary. “ We are still in the midst of the curfew. I don’t want to jinx it. You know, us police officers tend to be superstitious. The numbers are down. We are seeing a significant reduction in the violence we have seen in August.”

The County Executive, the local police department and local journalists have repeatedly amplified the narrative that the curfew has and is working to deter crime in communities. This sort of narrative began to spill out just a few days after the 30 day curfew began.  Local carceral institutions have not provided any data to show that this is true.

During the meeting, Hardy replayed a news story that entailed a comment from Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy. Braveboy mentioned that most juvenile crime takes place during the day time. I asked McCreary about this. He said it is true that a lot of crime is committed during the day hours, but also at night, which is what the curfew was aimed towards. He said that the department ordered  patrol cars to be positioned at gas stations to deter crime. That seemed to work, he suggested. But carjackings then, he said, moved to residential areas.

Martinez mentioned that we need intervention programs before youth start committing crimes. She said by the time we call the police, it’s too late. In addition, Martinez believes parents play a key role in helping to deter youth from criminal activity. She suggested that parents develop a deeper relationship with their children. “We have to start communicating with our children,” she said. Something as simple as asking: ‘What did you do today?’” These interactions, she said, aids with giving them a sense of purpose. It helps them to understand that someone cares. 

There was also a discussion of getting more trained mental health counselors into schools. PGCPS has allowed outside counselors to work with students, but there aren’t enough. Traditional school counselors are more common in public school settings. Traditionally, their jobs are to help students with choosing a career, and the college admission process. However, Martinez said they are not trained to medically diagnose children. Only  a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) is able to do so. Without such personnel in a lot of schools, teenagers have less immediate access to trained professionals. However, recently, the Prince George’s County Public School system has partnered with a telehealth organization to provide students with mental health personnel.

Community members talked about the role community gardens can play in providing more activities. Hardy, the moderator, said gardening has been transformative for him.Vandy Kennedy, pastor at Walker Mill Baptist Church, agreed saying that he has built some community gardens that help that could help to give teenagers and other community members more opportunities. Kennedy said he had 35 parcels across from Walker Mill Regional Park. He started the project after a woman was murdered in the neighborhood. He said working in the gardens could give latch key kids something to do outside of going to school. During the curfew, recreation centers have remained opened for longer ours, but it is not clear if this has been an effective tool.

Anderson-Walker lamented the lack of educational opportunities as well as recreational opportunities. She mentioned that Prince George’s residents pay a lot in taxes, but over the years there has been a “retraction” in many recreational activities.

“We don’t have physical education in schools anymore, so that restricts that outlet,” she said. “ We don’t have mental health support, and that needs to start very young. We also don’t have [educational] pipelines that get our children real careers, so that they are licensed, have clearances, and the ability to gain certifications while they’re in high school. When someone feels like they are working towards something,…they have hope.”

She said recreational activities aid with helping teenagers express themselves through sports. “There’s that energy that all children need to get out in a healthy way,” she said. 

Part of this community meeting also entailed a conversation about juvenile law. Hardy asked Pearson to explain the law governing juvenile crimes. Honorable Judge Michael Pearson said the laws concerning juvenile crime are rehabilitative, and not punitive. Pearson said the law is slow moving. “It doesn’t change overnight.” However, Pearson indicated, that the 2020 summer protests global protest for police reform and against police brutality, changed that kind of approach to law. The Maryland legislature, he said, made “sweeping and drastic” changes to juvenile law.    

“In Maryland, if a juvenile is found involved in a misdemeanor, their probation period can never be longer than six months. If they're found involved with a felony their probation hearing can be longer than 12 months,” explained Pearson. “If a kid is accused of a carjacking and it doesn’t involve a gun,…not a real gun, but a BB gun. Though, the victim may have thought it was a real gun. If it was not an actual handgun, The Department of Juvenile Services is not permitted to detain that individual until there is a court hearing.”

Pearson said if the incident occurred on Friday, by Saturday it is possible that the same kid will be back in the same neighborhood. “Then you wonder what is going on.” Pearson said the court's mandate towards prosecuting juveniles is different from adult criminal cases.  “Our mandate is rehabilitation and accountability, not punishment,” he said.

“Even when a child is detained, I have to review the case every two weeks to determine if that child should continue to be detained,” he explained.

“ The mindset that we have is to rehabilitate the child. That is ideal, but we have to understand that there are some ramifications. We cannot just lock a child up,” explained Pearson, who also heads a drug diversion program.

This was an important explanation of the law. At that press conference, Alsobrooks and Aziz blamed juvenile courts for implementing a “catch and release”, an immigration phrase deployed by the Bush Administration. Aziz called for more aggressive laws to keep teenagers that have committed crimes in police custody. Such an approach to the law has yielded the detainment and continued surveillance of Black youth, without the possibility of societal rehabilitation. A local news report announced that Judge Peter Killough was replaced. But it doesn’t state why he was replaced. However, it’s not clear what law the judge actually broke. Additionally, no other judges have been removed or reassigned for misabusing the law. 

Moving forward, Hardy said, they hope to establish working groups around community issues.