Editor’s note: As The Bay Net reports many crime stories, it is time to investigate the state of law enforcement from the point of view of the three county sheriffs in the area. This interview with St. Mary’s County Sheriff Tim Cameron is the third of these three interviews.

Cameron

Sheriff Tim Cameron says the single most important development in St. Mary’s County law enforcement is transitioning to data-driven policing. Instead of writing tickets and making arrests as events occur, police are now collecting data to identify trends — for instance, thefts are on the rise in Wildewood.
The sheriff and his department heads meet every Wednesday to analyze data, identify trends, allocate resources and evaluate results. If improvements are not apparent, a project is retooled to assess what is wrong and how to fix it.

“Data-driven policing means we follow the data we collect,” Cameron said. “Data is very valuable information,” and, because of the shift in methodology, the department is better at identifying criminal-enterprise activities in the community.

“By identifying the trends, we are able to do a better job of allocating resources, analyzing our efforts, retooling when the resources we use don’t work and ultimately eliminating the criminal enterprise,” Cameron said. The objective is to create viable sustainable communities. “Our goal is to eliminate the criminal enterprise whenever and wherever we can,” he said, explaining an involved community helps meet that goal.

In fact, community involvement is an important policy in Cameron’s department. “When communities are involved in helping to report crime, we are able to respond much more effectively. If you think something is suspicious, call us. Everything is serious and we act accordingly,” Cameron said.

Cindy Allen, public information officer, added no one ever has to give their name to report crime.
Cameron’s department has also rearranged deputies’ work schedules so that more patrols are active when crimes are committed. “Some nights we have 22 deputies working,” Cameron said, reporting that his deputies actually designed the scheduling system so there would be more coverage during high-crime periods.

“Everything contributes to the criminal trends,” Cameron explained. “We have to pay attention to the jobless rate, the economy, the cost of gasoline, schools — everything.” And, in the current economic climate, stemming the increase in theft and burglary cases is a priority, Cameron said.

Those interested in learning more about the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Department can visit www.firstsheriff.com, which lists ongoing initiatives, patrol patterns and traffic enforcement efforts. Crime-trend information is also available at www.crimesreport.com. “It is a great system and a great tool for people to find out what is happening in their neighborhood,” Cameron said.

St. Mary’s data-collecting system is the same as Compstat, the one used to transform New York City into one of the safest municipalities in the county. St. Mary’s system is also part of Statestat, Gov. Martin O’Malley’s law enforcement effort.