Dozens of small business owners crowded City Hall?s Curran Room Thursday as the City Council wrestled with a curfew to combat drug dealing.
Mary Pat Clarke, D-District 14, lead sponsor of the bill, argued that curtailing the operating hours of corner stores in residential neighborhoods was a necessary step to fight the drug trade.
“If a neighborhood business is a branch of the drug trade, it needs to be closed,” Clarke said. “You could lobby us to death, but leave us without this tool.”
But city business owners in attendance, many of them independent gas station dealers, countered that closing is not feasible. “We have to be open. It?s a matter of security; we?re constantly fighting theft,” said Riaz Ahmad, owner of an Amoco Station in East Baltimore.
Clarke?s bill would empower city Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm to impose a curfew on businesses that are a “focal point ? for unlawful drug activity.”
“We?ve experienced noticeable differences in the drug trade when certain business are closed in my district,” Clarke said in her opening remarks.
The bill would allow neighborhood community associations to file a complaint citing a business. The commissioner would give the business a 30-day notice and the department would investigate the claim.
After the 30-day period, the commissioner could impose a six-hour curfew, day or night. Any violations of the curfew would be punishable by a $1,000 fine or 30 days in jail.
Kristen Mahoney, chief of technical services for the city police, expressed support with reservations. “I was watching two individuals on closed-circuit TV going in and out of a store selling drugs, so I think this is a good idea,” she said. “The only issue the police department has is legality. The commissioner enforces the laws ? he is not a judge.”
To address Mahoney?s concerns, Michael Braverman, deputy commissioner of housing, offered his department?s resources to “tee up the cases,” for the commissioner, ensuring that they would be processed “effectively.”
But Ahmad said any curfew would threaten his business. “In a perfect world, I would close every night and go home,” Ahmad said. “It?s a matter of security ? people steal pumps, even gas. If we are forced to close, we will not survive.”
