Religious groups, police brainstorm new crimefighting tactics

University and community religious groups joined forces with university and county police yesterday to brainstorm ways of mitigating crime in College Park.

Representatives from a broad range of university religious groups including Hindu, Muslim and Christian student organizations met with University Police and Prince George's County Police at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church to discuss crime in College Park and ask what the groups could do to help keep crime rates down. About 30 people attended the event, but no concrete plans were made, participants said.

Senior Chris Rick, a member of the Episcopal-Anglican Campus Ministry - the group that organized the event - said after seeing friends personally affected by crime, the ministry wanted to organize a meeting with police.

University Police Maj. Christopher Jagoe said although lately crime has been relatively low, it's always good to bring faith groups together.

"Groups like this, when they're from the community, they have much more at stake," Jagoe said.

The biggest crime problems in College Park have been from drunk students making bad decisions, Jagoe said, and he blamed cheaper alcohol prices at local bars for students getting into trouble.

Rick said faith communities might have more power to stop problematic drinking habits than police do.

"People might not go to church, but if five priests walk into [Thirsty Turtle] and sit down at the bar, Turtle is going to empty out pretty quick," Rick said.

Jagoe agreed.

"When you've got so many religious organizations that have 10, 15, 100, 1,000, several thousand individuals that are in their congregation, that have a spiritual head that's talking with them about issues, that's encouraging them to get involved," he said. "That's a powerful thing."

Prince George's County Police Maj. Daniel Dusseau said the groups can help out by keeping an eye out for crime in the area.

"You guys can be the eyes and the ears," Dusseau said at the meeting. "That's the best practice we believe for community policing effort."

He stressed the importance of calling non-emergency police lines whenever something suspicious happens and lauded the potential benefits of neighborhood watch groups.

Local churches and campus faith groups don't get together nearly as often as they should, Rick said, and added he doesn't remember an occasion in recent history that brought local representatives of so many religions together, but said it's always important to keep interfaith communication lines open.

"We definitely see in other communities where churches work with the police," Rick said. "If the churches can continually stay with the police, we're going to be able to be that positive influence."

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