BALTIMORE (WBFF) — With thousands of people flocking to Baltimore’s waterfront for Sail250 Maryland, officers lined nearly every block Friday night after weeks of violence and disorder raised concerns about public safety.
“I feel like it’s a definite thing to have security. You wouldn’t be safe. You want to be confident and what we’re going to and what they’re going outside,” resident Jarrett Monree said.
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The heavy police presence comes after city leaders promised a new strategy for one of Baltimore’s busiest weekends of the year.
“You won’t continue to see the behavior. We’re working with the community to come up with an alternative plan. This weekend is a little different. We’ll still finalize the plan with the community. There was a call this afternoon with the stakeholders that live and have businesses in Fells Point, but that’s just one of the areas in the city that we have to keep under control,” Police Commissioner Richard Worley said.
The mayor’s office and city police have a new safety plan.
It requires people under the age of 14 to be accompanied by an adult beginning at 9 p.m. each night – and those between the ages of 14-17 be accompanied by an adult after 11 p.m. They also said ID checks will be conducted throughout the neighborhood.
The city is also closing parts of Thame, Aliceanna, and Shakespeare streets Saturday and Sunday starting at 9 p.m.
Baltimore Police told FOX45 News they received no reports of any major incidents overnight.
The increased enforcement follows back-to-back weekends of complaints from residents and business owners.
“A lot of businesses, we try to gauge whether or not to stay open later because of daylight savings, whatever the case may be, but with crime and everything, I personally don’t want to send my younger employees home when it’s late and there’s people everywhere. I think they feel more safe with more protection at night and a curfew,” Cameron Brooks, a local store manager, said.
“We need to find a better solution to put them somewhere, so they can go have some fun with non alcohol. You push them away, it’s gonna cause more problems,” resident Nicholas Wilks said.
This weekend, many said the visible police presence made a noticeable difference.
“I feel like with two weekends of like bad things going on I feel like maybe just for a little bit for the summer maybe and then maybe in the winter die down, but I think right now we definitely need more hands-on in the city” Brooks said.
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