Overall Crime Falls In Franklin Park but Burglaries Rise 48 Percent

A Fieldstone Properties representative speaking for Franklin Park told the Greenbelt City Council that Franklin Park has decimated crime. A main way they have done this is by evicting undesirable tenants, he said.

Greenbelt police officer Tim White, the community police officer assigned to Franklin Park, helped management identify the undesirable tenants, Joe told City Council at its Monday work session.

White said another way the police are working with management to reduce crime is by identifying and arresting trespassers. With regard to trespassing, White said, “There’s some reason the complex is like a magnet.” 

White said, “They’ve got to be visiting somebody, friend, girlfriend, something, and we’re trying to address this issue by getting them out because they contribute, particularly last weekend, to a drug problem.” 

Joe, a Fieldstone Properties representative said, “There were literally hundreds of apartments that we had to really vacate for people that we consider undesirable.”  Some of the undesirable tenants were not paying their rent while others were, he added. 

“We found criminals,” he said, “We found people who were doing all kinds of activities on the property that may not warrant an arrest but certainly would not be considered to be proper and appropriate behavior on property.” 

Joe said that they not only eliminated, in large part, the undesirable tenants but they’re also drawing in hard working people, not people living on “clipping coupons, you know, things like that. These are people who are hard working people, both maintaining, the husband and wife working and we’re enjoying getting them in.” 

White said that some of the trespassers break into vacant units. So, he said, he and his colleagues are searching vacant units.

Schinner said the latest tactic in the effort to rid the complex of trespassers is to take advantage of a law allowing juveniles convicted of seven misdemeanor crimes to be charged with a felony. Greenbelt Police Captain Carl Schinner said that Renee Battle-Brooks, assistant state’s attorney, is closely following the cases of three juveniles arrested for trespassing and other charges at Franklin Park, especially the sentencing phase. 

In a later e-mail message to Patch, Schinner said that, “One of the trespassers, the one with the crack and marijuana, had been arrested 14 times in six months in Franklin Park.”

Police Chief James R. Craze verified the plummeting of crime, citing unfathomable drops in all major crime categories, except for a 48 percent increase in burglary. Craze said that some of the burglaries showed no signs of forced entry, suggesting either inside jobs or people leaving doors unlocked. Joe said they will start screening and fingerprinting contractors.

Though the police discussed declining crimes, Joe told council that he needs the police presence at Franklin Park more than ever. As the word spreads that newer residents have a higher income and therefore more to steal, such as computers and televisions, it makes Franklin Park a bigger target, he said.

Debbie Dillon, Executive Vice President for Fieldstone Properties, the management company for Franklin Park, declined to share Joe's and another Fieldstone representative, Ralph's, last names. Ralph agreed with her decision, saying of he and Joe, "We have kids."