Police were more visible at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda this past weekend, following a string of robberies at the popular retail center. In one instance, as seen above in the Dining Terrace food court, a uniformed police officer joined a mall security guard making the rounds of the property. Montgomery County police recently responded to three robberies in a nine-day period at the mall, on January 26 and 27, and on February 4. In the January 27 robbery, the victim was a business inside the mall.
Last year, assaults - not robberies - were the primary type of violent crime taking place at the mall. Eleven assaults were reported at the mall in 2024, up from five in 2023. The last assault was on November 12, 2024. A new leadership team was brought into the mall by parent company Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield ten days later. No assaults have been reported at Montgomery Mall so far in 2025.
There's no question that a visible police presence can not only deter criminals, but also make mall patrons feel safer. A sense of lawlessness, such as thieves being permitted to escape with large armfuls or bags of merchandise, only attracts more serious criminals as word spreads of easy pickings. TV news reports of New York City Police Department officers on subway platforms and trains, as that city's mayor announced that at least two officers would patrol each train during overnight hours, would give passengers a high degree of confidence in riding the MTA system.
The newly-deployed NYPD officers are in addition to the existing ones patrolling MTA stations and platforms. Meanwhile, back in Maryland, the Montgomery County Council has defunded the police since 2020. Heckuva job, Brownie!
8 comments:
"the Montgomery County Council has defunded the police since 2020."
MCPD budget FY2020: $295.2 million
MCPD budget FY2025: $329.4 million
6:36: Wrong. The budget always appears to go up, but it's not actually paying for more police on the street. The increases are for administrative costs and salary and benefits increases for existing officers.
As of 2024, there were
* 194 fewer officers since the Council began defunding the police in 2020
* 179 vacant officer positions
* 137 admin staff vacancies
* 64 911 call center vacancies
* 17% increase in police response time due to understaffing
* and the County Council eliminated the entire personnel of the central auto theft section
Heckuva job, Brownie!
Robert correct again. Recruiting and morale are way down and early retirememts are way up. I know a few long time MoCo police officers and they say it's worse than you think. Soft on crime policies result in this kind of stuff. And yet, MoCo, PG and Baltimore City voters keep electing people like Elrich & Co who are way out of their league not to mention McCarthy in Rockville who has a "job for life" supposedly fighting crime. No, they get shown the door the next morning if they ever do get locked up in the first place.
Too bad one cannot quantify the overt cockiness of the perps: they know our bark has no bite.
"County Council" belongs to the growing list of words that don't go together.
The one with a "job for life" is also a professor
at Maryland's Premier Community College.
Lest we forget the "Weekly Message."
ALL MoCo popo are INVISIBLE until way AFTER the fact for anything. I wouldn't even call 911 for shots fired around here.
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