OCEAN CITY — Increased police presence and more community interaction were among the possible recourses discussed this week to combat crime and other illicit behavior associated with certain special events at Northside Park.
During the public comment period of the Mayor and Council meeting last week, north-end resident Keith Mueller voiced concern about the trash, noise and crime associated with some of the special events at Northside Park. Mueller was invited to attend a Recreation and Parks Committee meeting to expand on his concerns with parks officials and committee members and took advantage of the invitation on Tuesday afternoon.
“We have a lot of concerns that have been going on over time,” he said. “It is not one specific issue. There are always issues with trash, one resident had a windshield bashed out, and we’ve seen times when they are jumping over fences in our communities to go in pools. It just seems to be an ongoing thing.”
Mueller said he has lived in the community adjacent to Northside Park full time for five years and part-time much longer than that and has seen a lot of the good and bad associated with the larger events. He said he spoke not only for himself, but on behalf of other homeowner associations in the area.
“It’s not just my association,” he said. “Others in the area have raised concerns. I live here and I have a feel for what’s going on. I like the park and I like the special events. I don’t want to complain, but I want to be part of the solution.”
Mueller did offer some possible solutions. For example, the Town of Ocean City a few times a year sells police cars that have outlived their usefulness as patrol vehicles on sites like govdeals.com for example. He suggested maybe instead of getting a small return on the outdated vehicles, they could be placed at different areas around town including Northside Park to improve the police presence.
“We want to look for solutions,” he said. “There has been talk about selling retired police cars. Maybe they can be set up around the park instead and increase the perception of police presence. I think some of the groups pay to have their tournaments at Northside Park. Maybe those fees can be increased a little to help pay for additional security.”
Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) Lieutenant Ray Austin attended Tuesday’s meeting and suggested more police involvement in community association meetings.
“One of the things we like to promote is the high visibility of our officers,” he said. “I live just down the street and I use this park almost every day. One of the things I’ve done from a community outreach perspective is when you have an association meeting, we can participate in that and help come up with some solutions. We can have officers continually involved.”
Austin also said there could be other patrol alternatives during special events at the park complex uptown.
“We’re making adjustments in our mounted unit,” he said. “Maybe we can deploy up here during special events to increase that police presence. The thing to remember is we can’t be everywhere all the time.”
The best advice, according to Austin, was to maintain open lines of communication and have area residents providing extra eyes and ears for suspicious behavior.
“If you see a crime or something suspicious, call the police,” he said. “No matter how small it might seem, if it’s important to you, it’s important to us.”
OCPD Lieutenant Elton Brand, the department’s coordinator of special events, outlined some of the police activity already in place during special events at Northside Park.
“We’re up here the entire time during Winterfest,” he said. “Another big one is Sundaes in the Park. Our auxiliary officers love to come up here and monitor that event and help with traffic control and other issues. We also have officers up here during the big soccer and basketball tournaments. We’re trying to be progressive. We look at certain events that could cause problems.”
For his part, Mueller said he wasn’t trying to create more problems, but merely wanted to shed a little light on some of the issues associated with events at the park for area residents.
“I appreciate you allowing me the opportunity to vent on some of these issues,” he said. “I’m not against any of these things. The town is great and the events are great. I’d just like to see if there are better ways to curb some of the behavior.”
Austin reiterated the importance of including the police in neighborhood meetings and association meetings when issues are discussed.
“That really works,” he said. “We love that engagement with the community. Our officers begin to take it personally when they have an interest in it.”
