May 01, 1996
HOWARD COUNTY is often viewed as a safe haven from troubles that plague urban communities. Recent developments paint a different picture. Last month's murder-suicide in a Columbia condo, which was overheard by a 911 operator, and the kidnapping of two young girls, who were waiting for their mother to pick them up outside a county library, are two more horrifying reminders that crime and violence know no bounds.
While crime and violence are often publicized, other typically urban woes may go undetected. In an attempt to show some of the problems Howard faces, County Executive Charles I. Ecker and Council President Darrel Drown last week took public officeholders on a tour of drug and child abuse agencies.
Organizers said they set up the tour out of concern that residents deny the existence of social problems in their midst. "People didn't know what's out there," Mr. Drown said. The tour was also meant to help various organization leaders work together and understand where to refer those in need, he said.
The 30 tour-goers met with a drug-addicted mother at the Ellicott City Steppingstone, a counseling center, and talked to teen-agers in a drug-free group called Students Helping Other People. They collected a battery of grim statistics. County adolescents lead the state in the use of some drugs. Center for Substance Abuse surveys indicate more than 20 percent of Howard eight-graders have used inhalants, compared with 16.7 percent statewide. Also, police receive about 10 calls a day about suspected child abuse.
If such statistics weren't enough to jar officials on the tour, another recent development may be more poignant. Increases in violent crime and juvenile arrests have led Howard to assign police officers to rotate full-time throughout the county's eight high schools. Howard, the richest place in the region, now joins Baltimore City, the poorest, as the two area jurisdictions with police in its schools (although the city system hires its own force).
Howard Police Chief James N. Robey emphasized that the move to deploy police officers in county high schools did not signal that juvenile crime had gotten out of hand. Nevertheless, the preventive move is another reminder that "urban" is part of "suburban."
Pub Date: 5/01/96
