With 4 days until primary, Baltimore County executive candidates tackle crime concerns

Well, we've reached the end of early voting, primary election day in full view now, and tonight catching up with candidates in the race for Baltimore County Executive. With just four days left before primary election day, a couple of candidates for Baltimore County Executive are out at community events Friday. Councilman Izzy Patoka at a local artist gathering in Woodlawn. They pursue relentless investigative action. And Councilman Julian Jones at a Juneteenth event also in Woodlawn. And I am confident that we will track him down. Both candidates still campaigning with constituents' crime concerns top of mind. Very few people get away with a crime, let alone a murder, in Baltimore County. I have been working hard over the years, making sure that I do my part to fund the tools that the police need to do their job. And so I'm not surprised that they have a suspect. The talk of crime concerns from constituents comes as Baltimore County Police released the identity of a suspect this week wanted in the shooting death of Towson University student Nasir Majeed, June 5th. Catching up with candidates today, including Nick Stewart. I think it's real. We hear this all the time. And Councilman Pat Young. We pressed them all about their crime plans for Baltimore County, if elected as Baltimore County Executive. Patoka focused on part of his plan that would beef up the police force by tapping into the county's sheriff's office. Right now they're limited to the courthouse, where they're mainly doing prisoner transport. They're trained officers. They can do so much more. They're right in Towson. I think that the sheriff's office will be willing to engage outside of the courthouse, but also into the community so that we have a stronger law enforcement presence. The way we're going to do that, we're going to have visibility. First of all, we're going to free up our officers. We have a plan to try to take some things off their plate so that they can focus on hot spots and focus on the serious crimes. Secondly, we have a plan where I'm going to utilize an untapped resource. Our school resource officers, they have a special, they have the right temperament, they have the right training to deal with kids. There is a belief that we can arrest our way out of these problems, and the reality is that we should and need to arrest and get violent criminals off the street. We need to remember that there are indicative causes of crime that Baltimore County government and we as a people have a responsibility to address. We got to be tough on crime, but we got to be smart on crime and do the things that other jurisdictions do that see real results. So this means tracking our data and holding ourselves accountable for performance. It means hiring more police officers for community policing. It means aggressively targeting and prosecuting repeat offenders and providing true, meaningful youth interventions. Should your constituents consider you tough on crime? Yes, and they can consider me tough on crime, but also I think that compassion and empathy is underrated. And so for me, you'll see a toughness, but you'll also see compassion and you'll see empathy. My philosophy has always been, I want to do everything in my power to help people. I want to do everything in my power to help people. But at the end of the day, when they cross the line and they hurt grandma or my neighbor or people that are working hard trying to get ahead, then we have to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. Well, we tried reaching out to all of the candidates in this race, seven of them, including Republican candidate Kim Stansbury. She responded late tonight with an email that read in part, or rather reads in part, public safety would be her top priority. Reporting tonight, Keith Daniels, Fox 45 News.