Shifting priorities affect police presence on the city waterfront

Other jurisdictions patrol the city waterways, including the Coast Guard, the Maryland Transportation Authority and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. With city police in the harbor, those agencies could spread their thin resources and cover more ground. Now they will have to adjust, and it will mean less protection for everybody.

The Natural Resources Police have always been responsible for the city. They have two bases, at Martin State Airport and Bear Creek, staffed, in total, with three officers and two boats. Lt. Gregory Bartles said the nearest boat, if staffed and at a dock, is 20 to 30 minutes from the Inner Harbor.

An emergency? "They have five patrol boats still tied to their slips," Bartles said of Baltimore police. "I'm assuming that if necessary they would board those boats and respond. A lot of times, hours go by that we don't have anybody on duty."

His boss, Capt. Adrian Baker, who oversees Baltimore along with Montgomery and Carroll counties, and a sliver of Baltimore County, disagrees with the city police spokesman on whether the two agencies discussed the city's new deployment. Baker told me, "We haven't had any formal discussions," while Harris said they had. Seems to me they need to get their stories straight before a boat tips over and no one responds because each thought the other would.

But Baker did agree that the Inner Harbor and other creeks and streams around the city "are in our patrol area. We're being responsive to whatever need there is. Like anyone else, we, too, are short in manpower. But we recognize the Inner Harbor is a high priority, and we'll do our best to patrol it."