The Anne Arundel Police Department will hold a town hall event focusing on police and community relations next week.
The event will be held at 7 p.m. Oct. 6 at Glen Burnie High School, at 7550 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd. It will include a panel discussion featuring Police Chief Timothy Altomare and members of his command staff, as well as community leaders, which will be followed by a question-and-answer session.
County officials and local African-American community leaders had been discussing holding a series of such meetings since the spring. In April, the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray in Baltimore while in police custody led to riots in the city.
Owen McEvoy, a spokesman for County Executive Steve Schuh, said that while the police department has always been committed to an open dialogue with the community, the Baltimore riots reinforced that commitment and prompted officials to look at ways to communicate “on a bigger scale.”
The department hopes to hold such meetings throughout all of four of its police districts.
Altomare and McEvoy encouraged residents to voice their concerns and complaints. While the county’s top cop described police and community relations in the county as satisfactory, he acknowledged that there is always room to improve.
“There’s going to be days where we could have done it better,” Altomare said. “We need to listen to that and hold the mirror up to ourselves.”
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