In the Annapolis neighborhoods where crime persists, signs of police presence are everywhere — even when the police themselves are not.

Near the Harbour House and Eastport Terrace communities, a camera emblazoned with “Annapolis Police Department” logo surveys the sidewalk. Signs on Clay Street, near the Obery Court Apartments, warn loiterers to disperse, that unseen eyes are watching via video monitors.

Even on a quiet weekday recently, if you ask residents about police, they talk about violence.

“There’s shooting here all the time,” said one woman, pointing to basketball courts outside her Harbour House home. “(The police) need to be here more.”

In the days after Police Chief Scott Baker’s ouster, politicians, community leaders and residents have speculated about why it Mayor Gavin Buckley did it.

Buckley himself cited declining trust in Baker’s leadership. The Caucus of African American Leaders called for a change a week before City Manager Teresa Sutherland let Baker go, though Buckley has denied the meeting alone changed his mind.

The local NAACP branch, led by Jacqueline Boone Allsup, announced its support for Buckley’s decision, saying Baker lost the organization’s confidence.

But in discussions with residents in some of the city’s high-crime neighborhoods, most said they didn’t know the police chief had been fired. Discussions at City Hall don’t have much bearing on their day-to-day life.

They knew they wanted the crime to stop. Some residents who were willing to talk about did so on the condition that they not be named.

“There are still bullet holes in the back of my house,” one Harbour House resident said, gesturing toward her yard. She reported the shooting to police, but said she hasn’t heard back.

“[Police] aren’t there when you need them, and are when you don’t,” another said, nodding.

A particularly violent 2016 gripped the African-American community with fear, said Bishop Craig Coates, a community organizer who led The Rapture Church in Annapolis for 14 years.

Coates said the black community, especially residents of public housing where violent crime is prevalent, sometimes live in fear of going outside their doors, nonetheless reporting perpetrators, who often come to neighborhoods from out of town.

“If they don’t see the police swarming around the community, they feel like the police aren’t doing their job,” he said. “But the community needs to be its own eyes.”

After a shooting in late 2017, Coates began facilitating police-sponsored Eastport Working Together meetings, where residents could come to voice concerns with crime and quality of life, but also with the department itself.

Chermire Gladden moved to Harbour House in 2016. Her first weekend there, she witnessed a shooting. So, she kept her daughter Jazzlyn inside. She had a “hi and bye” relationship with the officers she saw around her neighborhood but didn’t engage until the shooting that killed Michael Covert, a 36-year-old Eastport man.

Jazzlyn was coming home from practice with the Annapolis Drum and Bugle Corps at the Eastport Recreational Center when a man ran by with a gun.

Gladden, furious, began to attend the Eastport Working Together meetings.

“It brought a kinship,” she said, “a friendship.

Now, she regularly texts with officers. Jazzlyn, who had issues with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, hasn’t had to visit the doctor since taking part in summer camps with the department.

Since Baker’s arrival, the Annapolis police ramped up community policing efforts, especially those geared toward building relationships with young people.

The department conducted 872 community events in 2018, including DARE classes in local schools, tutoring sessions and Shop with a Cop, where kids could pick out Christmas presents alongside a sworn officer.

But among the city’s adult black population, there is lingering mistrust.

“There were several incidents that happened with Annapolis city police officers that were egregious, and there was no disciplinary action taken by the police chief,” Allsup said in a recent interview.

Allsup pointed to one incident during wich an officer cut the underwear off a resident who was suspected of possessing drugs.

Since former Police Chief Michael Pristoop led the department, Coates has heard an increasing number of complaints about unfair treatment, he said.

“They’re not necessarily treated the same as white counterparts when it comes to looking suspicious,” he said.

The Caucus of African American leaders produced a 48-page report analyzing traffic stop data and accusing the Police Department of racial profiling. The city, in a 22-page response, contested some of the analysis and disagreed with many of the findings, but the police department nonetheless implemented changes following the report.

Patrol officers will now carry citation books as a backup in case computers malfunction during a stop. And all stops more than 30 minutes long will result in an administrative report, submitted to an officer’s supervisor.

The city will begin the search for a new police chief with a series of community forums. The forums are designed to gauge what qualities Annapolis residents would like to see in the next chief.

Allsup said she hopes Baker’s successor will be someone fair, “who has integrity” and can hold officers accountable.

Whoever Buckley chooses, he should do so with a specific set of goals in mind, Coates said, not just for the police department, but for poor people and people who can’t afford to stay in their homes or can’t find jobs.

“Our issues aren’t just police issues,” he said. “I believe we could fix a lot of our issues as a community, but the more that we broaden who comes to Annapolis and who can live in Annapolis, the more we’re shoving people to the back of the community, and then there’s backlash, which is crime.”

dohl@capgaznews.com

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