PCRC Recap: Captain Reports No Robberies Yet In 2011, Council Plans to Help County Canine Unit

A few civic-minded citizens learned a lot of good things about their police department Tuesday.

So far, 2011 looks to be on the heels of "a very good year in crime" as the area has yet to report a robbery since Jan. 1, said Capt. Matt McElwee at the monthly Police Community Relations Council (PCRC) meeting.

"As of today, this district has not experienced a robbery — commercial, residential or otherwise," McElwee said.

More than a dozen people were in attendance at the meeting for the Franklin precinct, which serves Owings Mills and Reisterstown. The group's guest speaker, detective Tom Insley from the county's criminal intelligence division in Towson, was an officer at Franklin from '96 to '06. He said the area has notably changed for the better.

"From having 120 to 140 robberies in Garrison to zero now — that's great," he said.

Insley was there to give the group a brief overview of his job description, which he said ranged from the secretive to the mundane. One of his main tasks is to predict and report the next criminal trend for the county, he said.

Notably, his office sifts through intelligence, handles threats to the county executive and county council and coordinates a witness protection program that's become a reputable source of security, he said.

The presentation was typical for the council, which is comprised of interested citizens, area leaders and local business representatives. A PCRC, which each precinct has, is what the county's website describes as a place to resolve issues that exist between them community and the police department, recognize officers' achievements and organize fundraisers for any needed equipment, among other things.

In member business, a motion was approved to donate $100 to the county's canine unit to purchase an infrared beacon positioning system, which will help responders in locating an officer who's otherwise combing a large area, such as the woods, said Sue Kessler, the PCRC's director.

The council also approved a motion to purchase 10 teddy bears, the idea being for each officer to have a bear on hand in their squad car as a way to provide comfort to a child should they ever come across one who needs it, Kessler said.

In announcements, the PCRC made a call for applications for the 30th Citizen's Academy, a 12-week course that allows Baltimore County civilians to experience a condensed version of an officer's day-to-day in the police academy. Classes, held for three hours once a week, range from trips to the shooting range and a forensics lab to role-playing a response to a call for service.

The council also tentatively scheduled an inter-departmental Officer Appreciation Day for sometime in June.

In issues, one citizen noted that she called the police Saturday night after she saw a group of young people trespassing near a development site off Berrymans Lane in Reisterstown.

And in improvements, Capt. McElwee reported that he's living up to his New Year's promises and has begun a project to repaint many of the walls in the precinct.

Capt. McElwee also requested a moment of silence for Baltimore City police officer William Torbit, who was accidentally shot and killed by police Jan. 9 while responding to a fight at a nightclub downtown.

Torbit's funeral service begins at 10 a.m. today at at The Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in the 5200 block of N. Charles St., according to the Baltimore Sun.

Editor's note: Franklin's PCRC meets at 7:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month at the .  Its next meeting is Feb. 15.