In the wake of several recent drownings in the region?s three reservoirs, county and state police officials said they are reinforcing patrols using boats and planes to crack down on illegal swimmers.
Capt. Marty Lurz of Baltimore County police?s Cockeysville precinct said he asked officials of the state?s Department of Natural Resources ? which has primary jurisdiction on the city-owned reservoirs ? to set up permanent patrols in Loch Raven and Prettyboy Reservoirs, where three people have drowned since July 2. He said he also is asking the county to increase aerial flyovers.
DNR police spokesman Crpl. Ken Turner said officers regularly patrol the reservoirs, which are in Carroll and Baltimore counties, but said that police can?t be everywhere at once, and that some parts of the reservoirs are too remote to access or get cell phone reception. Nine times out of 10, Turner said, swimmers are “very far from help.”
“We have officers working 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Turner said. “Are they at the Prettyboy Reservoir all that time? No, and Baltimore County will tell you the same.”
Turner said officers rely on signs posting water activity restrictions.
Lurz said he?s encouraging residents who spot illegal swimmers to contact police.
When the unthinkable happens, local fire departments are called on for rescue efforts, said Clay Myers of the Gamber & Community Fire Co., which assisted when 17-year-old Keith Alan Cannon, of Edgewood, drowned in the Loch Raven Reservoir July 2, as well as when Adam Klank and Justin Smith, both in their early 20s and from Shrewsbury, Pa., drowned in the Prettyboy Reservoir four days later.
Myers? crew is the only fire department in the area with boats and a water rescue team, he said.
