Carin CardellaEver since the first officers were sworn in 50 years ago, community engagement has been the bedrock of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) Department of Police and Public Safety.
On Christmas Eve in the 1970s and early 1980s, officers dressed up as Santa and his elves and visited children in the University of Maryland Medical Center and Ronald McDonald House.
“We used to sell coffee and donuts in Howard Hall,” says security officer William Groh, who has served the department since 1964. “We collected all that money together at Christmas and got the kids toys, and the teenagers, we’d give calculators.”
Now, the department joins first responders from across Maryland to donate and deliver toys to sick, needy, and homeless children during the holiday season through the Kindertime Toy Drive. It’s a magical sight: over a mile of twinkling lights from dozens of police cars and firetrucks slowly winding through the city to make their deliveries.
Around Thanksgiving, the department provides turkey dinners to local families in partnership with the Office of Community and Civic Engagement (OCCE). This year, UMB Police and Public Safety gave away 65 backpacks full of school supplies to neighborhood kids at its National Night Out event.
A Shift in Outreach Strategy
Over the years, the department’s outreach has shifted from goodwill gestures to a structural model of community engagement. In 2018, then-Chief Alice Cary created the Community Outreach and Support Team (COAST), which formalized the department’s outreach programs.
As COAST expanded, UMB Police and Public Safety took a new and innovative approach to policing. This includes:
- Pilot agency for Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD), an initiative that redirects low-level drug users from incarceration to substance use and mental health resources; the program is still used today
- First university police department to partner with social workers to provide case management and resources to the community
- Only university police department in the nation and only police department in Baltimore City with a Police Athletic/Activities League (PAL) program
- Third university police department with a comfort K9
Because UMB is a leader, the police are sharing their knowledge. Members of COAST have met with Johns Hopkins Public Safety and other Maryland police departments to show them the inner workings of UMB’s PAL program. The comfort K9 program has expanded to other regional university police departments, including University of Maryland, College Park; University of Maryland, Baltimore County; and Towson University. They’ve traveled to Washington, D.C., and Western Maryland and met in Baltimore with Philadelphia police to educate officers about the LEAD program and harm reduction strategies.
“Change is incremental,” says Lt. Matthew Johnson, who leads COAST. “It’s not like flipping a switch. But we are already seeing the difference these changes make to our community.”
Be the Change, See the Change
UMB Police and Public Safety’s community policing model works, and the data speaks for itself. UMB is one of the safest areas in downtown Baltimore.
As an urban campus, UMB does experience some crime. In 2024, UMB had 1.21 violent crimes per 1,000 people, compared to Baltimore City’s 15.75 per 1,000 people. In 2023, violent crimes per 1,000 people were 1.93 and 18.6, respectively. The data shows crime has been steadily declining since 2019 and remains consistently low on campus.
UMB police use compassion, empathy, and harm reduction strategies to provide support to vulnerable populations — a common reality in urban communities. COAST’s work with the University of Maryland School of Social Work (UMSSW) prioritizes providing support and case management.
“People experiencing homelessness are still community members,” says Johnson. “We want to treat them with respect and help them.”
Along Eutaw Street, UMB police officers partner with social workers and returning citizens from the EMBRACE initiative to make contact with community members. The goal: mitigate the negative impacts of homelessness, substance use, and other challenges on vulnerable people and the communities they live in.
“We sometimes hear concerns about how certain areas ‘look’ unsafe, but the crime data doesn’t support that,” says Johnson. “We want people to feel safe and like they can patronize local businesses.”
Changing the Culture
Within the department, Johnson says it took time for officers to get on board with the change in policing philosophy from arrests to support.
“When LEAD was introduced to UMB police officers, they were initially skeptical. Then, they were curious. Now, they’re applying it every day,” says Johnson.
Changing the perception starts with changing the stigma that police and the community have toward vulnerable populations. UMB police officers all take Crisis Intervention Training (CIT), which teaches first responders how to safely and effectively support those experiencing a mental health crisis. COAST members take an extended three-day CIT class and earn a certification.
“Members of COAST are specialists, but all our officers are trained,” says Johnson. All COAST officers start in patrol, and some current patrol officers previously served in COAST. This cross-pollination helps educate the entire department about what resources are available. This means that, when interacting with a vulnerable person, one of the first calls an officer makes is to COAST; they can help connect the community member with the resources they need.
Expanding Across MLK Boulevard
While UMB has long been a safe hub in the city, the University’s expansion has brought new challenges for officers during their 50-year history.
The expansion into the BioPark in the 2000s — and addition of a police substation — is credited with making the Poppleton neighborhood safer. Former UMB Police Chief Cleveland Barnes — who served the department for more than 40 years — was assigned the “dubious task” of assessing what was needed to move to the BioPark. He and a team of two lieutenants and four sergeants spent 30 days building a plan.
Crime was high. Barnes described it as “Dodge City,” with shootings, prostitution, auto thefts, robberies, and more. “The criminal element had better weaponry than ours,” he said. “But we moved in, and they moved out. The rest is history.”
Making the area safer wasn’t the only goal. The neighborhood is historically overpoliced and underserved. UMB Police needed to build positive relationships with the community to be successful.
“We got to know the community, and the community got to know us,” said Barnes. “We had people say, ‘I’m glad you guys are here.’ One lady I particularly remember said, ‘I haven’t sat on my front porch in 15 years until you guys came over.’”
Connecting with Youth
Building positive relationships with Poppleton’s youngest residents helped demonstrate the police department’s good intentions in the area. Today, UMB police, security, dispatchers, and administrative staff meet with local youth for PAL each week. The mentorship program has ebbed and flowed through the years but is now seeing enormous growth thanks to Sgt. Kelli Blackwell and PFC Lamonte Brown. The pair have recruited 17 kids for the fall session of PAL — a significant increase from the program’s low enrollment during and immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.
While other PAL programs across the country have a dedicated space to meet, UMB Police and Public Safety’s program relies on partners to host the mentors and youth. OCCE frequently lends space in the Community Engagement Center to PAL. This spring, PAL will once again partner with the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation for “Badges for Baseball,” which will be held at The Y in Druid Hill. The partnership means mentees and their families also get free memberships to The Y.
For Barnes, mentoring youth was an important part of his role as a police officer. The department didn’t have a formalized program at the time, so he created one.
“I would arrest [a juvenile] and ask them, ‘Why are you stealing that car?’ ‘Why are you snatching purses?’ And they said, ‘We don’t have nothing to do,’ so I said, ‘Use me as a role model.’”
Barnes, who grew up in Edmondson Village, graduated from Baltimore City College in 1967. He joined the Marines and served in Vietnam. After returning home, Barnes joined UMB as housekeeping staff, then became a police officer. He earned degrees from Coppin State University and Johns Hopkins University.
“I said, ‘You guys can do this. I didn’t come with a silver spoon in my mouth,’” said Barnes. His guidance made a difference; some of the chief’s mentees went on to become Baltimore Police officers, Maryland state troopers, and military service members.
Lasting Impacts
From the early days of UMB police officers selling brownies, you might say that community service is “baked in” to the department. While the changes are making a difference, quantifying those changes can be difficult.
“How do you prove a crime didn’t happen?” asks Johnson.
For the vulnerable populations helped by the department, the impact is greater than a single stat on a piece of paper. The department’s support is changing lives.
“You may not see that person on the corner anymore, so you don’t think about the impact we’ve had on them,” says Johnson. “We may have helped that person get a job, and that job helped get their life on a different track.”
Johnson has seen it countless times, but their stories aren’t his to tell. Instead, the officers at UMB Police and Public Safety will continue to lead the way. And that’s a story worth telling.
