It may have fulfilled a campaign promise for Harford County Sheriff Jesse Bane, but his hosting of a Edgewood town hall meeting Saturday also represents a precedent for the county?s largest law enforcement agency.
Bane, along with members of his command staff, will host a town hall meeting at the Edgewood Senior Center from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday. The meeting represents the first time that the sheriff office has held such a meeting, Bane said.
“We have always attended community meetings, but we have never held one of our own,” said Lt. Jim Eyler, spokesman for the sheriff?s office.
“I want to go to the community that is not satisfied with the sheriff?s office,” Bane said.
Bane explained that when he campaigned for sheriff, “Edgewood was the community that was screaming the loudest.” These “screams” were not only based on gang and crime concerns, Bane said, but also out of frustration with a sheriff?s office which did not appear sensitive to the needs of the community.
“You can sit in this office and decide how you are going to police, but if you don?t have the input of the community, those efforts will not be effective,” Bane said.
“The whole demeanor in the sheriff?s office has changed, especially in relation to Edgewood,” Edgewood Community Council Safe and Secure Neighborhoods Committee Chairman Sam Gibson said.
Gibson said he was ecstatic about Saturday?s meeting because it represents a “positive move forward.”
“He knows there is a problem in Edgewood, and he is not afraid to face them,” Gibson said of Bane.
Saturday?s meeting represents the first of many throughout Harford County over the next several months, Bane said. He and his command staff will discuss current and pending initiatives in southern Harford and his purposed budget.
“The rest of the meeting, we are going to listen to them,” he said.
