Feb. 16--FROSTBURG -- The agreement signed Thursday that allows Frostburg State University police to patrol off-campus neighborhoods and provides the city with $200,000 annually is precedent setting in Maryland, according to FSU President Jonathan Gibralter.
The surge of additional law enforcement within two blocks of campus comes on the heels of the November stabbing murder of FSU student Kortneigh McCoy outside a Maple Street residence. Shanee Liggins, also a student, will stand trial for that crime in April.
In April 2010, student Tyrone Hall of Glen Burnie fatally shot Frostburg State basketball player Brandon Carroll of Waldorf just off the campus boundary. Hall was sentenced to five years for manslaughter.
"Other universities such as Coppin have patrol agreements, but this is the first time money has ever changed hands," Gibralter said.
Gibralter, in comments during the mayor and council meeting, said William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, was immediately receptive to the annual funding for increased law enforcement.
Mayor Robert Flanigan said he and Gibralter began talking about public safety near the campus within 10 days of McCoy's death.
The funds will be used to hire additional city officers, bringing that staff up to 17, the same as FSU campus police. Existing city police officers will receive pay raises. Also, money will go to the Allegany County Sheriff's Office to acquire intelligence gathering equipment. Frostburg fire and ambulance and Shaft Volunteer Fire Department will receive funding as well.
"Shaft is on the box," Flanigan said, referring to dispatched alarms. "If there is a call in Frostburg, they go to it."
Frostburg Police Chief Royce Douty and FSU Police Chief Cynthia Smith agreed that the additional manpower means officers will be walking the neighborhoods in addition to patrolling in cruisers.
Hundreds of rental homes exist within two blocks of campus to the north and to the east, with most having three or four occupants. Some of the streets where campus police will now patrol include Maple, Beall, Wood, Center, Bowery and Hill.
Smith said much of the work will be proactive law enforcement.
"Officers will simply stop and talk with neighborhood residents," she said. "They can also go to student groups and help them understand what they can and can't do."
Smith said she likes to use the Grandmother Rule, telling students that partying is a part of college life, but needs to be done responsibly. She tells them not to do anything in Frostburg that they wouldn't do in front of their grandmothers.
"In fact," said Douty, "many of the students' neighbors are year around residents who are very much like the students' grandparents."
First Sgt. H.B. Martz of the Maryland State Police was on hand for the signing.
He said the signing of the agreement will not replace any state police patrols within the city such as those provided during hectic party weekends such as homecoming.
"In fact, we may patrol more," Martz said, basing that possibility on the fact that the new intelligence gathering equipment may provide more reason to do so.
The agreement more than doubles the number of officers who can now patrol the student rental neighborhoods, a fact Douty welcomes.
"Our officers walk into some tough situations," he said. When two officers responded to the McCoy stabbing, a crowd of up to 150 stood nearby verbally threatening the lives of the fire and ambulance responders.
Although FSU police patrols are restricted to specific streets, an existing mutual aid agreement allows those officers to respond elsewhere in the city to help Frostburg police during emergencies. Contact Michael A. Sawyers at [email protected].
Copyright 2012 - Cumberland Times-News, Md.
