BALTIMORE — Baltimore County residents delivered a blunt message to police, prosecutors and state juvenile justice officials Tuesday night: declining crime statistics mean little if neighbors still feel unsafe walking their streets or letting their children play outside.

“You have a full room of people that don’t feel safe,” said Jackie Rudolph, a Baltimore County Public Schools reading specialist whose own experience with juvenile crime has shaped her views on accountability.

Speaking at a town hall meeting held at the Community College of Baltimore County’s Essex campus, Rudolph told officials that six juveniles in a stolen vehicle struck her during a crime spree last year.

“I was in critical condition with life-threatening injuries. I nearly died,” she said. “I spent 30 days in the hospital and 90 days in a wheelchair.”

“The juvenile who hit me? You want to know what his sentence was? Ninety days at home on a monitor. I spent that in a wheelchair.”

Rudolph said the teen repeatedly violated probation conditions and that her efforts to pursue restitution stalled because “the juvenile was never served, because [Juvenile Services] didn’t know his family moved.”

“There’s a total lack of accountability for these juveniles, for their parents, and it needs to change,” she said.

Her comments drew applause from a crowd that repeatedly returned to concerns over juvenile crime, stolen vehicles, robberies and break-ins during the event. This marked the second of three planned town hall meetings on the subject.

As some Baltimore County officials kept pointing to lower crime rates, residents described being victims of armed robberies, having their homes burglarized and doors kicked in, or watching their children and elderly parents become crime victims.

County officials make their argument

The concerns come as Baltimore County and nearby Towson have grappled with a string of highly publicized incidents involving juveniles in recent years, including vehicle thefts, organized “teen meetups” and robberies involving younger suspects. County leaders have increasingly pointed to youth violence and disorder as one of the county’s most pressing public safety challenges.

Baltimore County Councilman David Marks said the issue now sits “front and center” for many residents.

“Youth seem to be at the forefront of a lot of our issues these days,” Marks said. “There are many of us that question some of the decisions made in regard to juvenile services and juvenile justice, the issue of teen meetups, clearly front and center for many of us. But also school discipline.”

“We have a brand new Baltimore County Public Schools superintendent and I’m hoping he can help us address this issue of school discipline.”

The anxiety persists even as violent crime has fallen sharply countywide. Baltimore County ended 2025 with its lowest homicide and nonfatal shooting totals in five years, with homicides down nearly 50% since 2021 and nonfatal shootings down more than 45%, according to county police data.

Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger pointed to those numbers during the discussion.

“You are extremely safe in Baltimore County,” Shellenberger said. “Non fatal shootings … were at a five-year low also. The crime in Baltimore County stays relatively stable.”

But residents repeatedly pushed back, arguing that public perceptions are shaped less by countywide statistics than by daily experiences in their neighborhoods.

Residents share their concerns

Leah Bedinger, president of the Sussex Community Association in Essex, described an 11-year-old repeatedly stealing vehicles.

“We had one young man who stole three cars in one day at 11 years old,” Bedinger said. “The police can’t touch him. They picked him up, took him back home and he stole another car two hours later.”

“We need those parents held accountable for what their kids are doing. Supervise your kids or get them off our streets.”

Others argued the county has failed to invest enough in prevention and youth opportunities in the communities most affected by crime.

Shannon Ament, a lifelong Essex resident and community school facilitator at Sandalwood Elementary School, said parents and community members repeatedly say there’s place for their kids to go.

“I have stakeholders sharing with me over and over again in their needs assessment that there are no safe spaces for kids to go on the nights and weekends,” Ament said. “And they’re not wrong. Between 702 and Sandalwood, all we have is a Royal Farms store. No park, no church, no community center.”

She asked police and county leaders what the plan was, moving forward. Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough said his department has organized baseball camps, basketball camps, a ‘Badges for Bass’ fishing program.

“We try to create activities, we have our mentor programs,” McCullough said.

He also pointed to Baltimore County’s former Police Athletic League (PAL) facilities, which have transitioned into Recreation Activity Centers (RACs), run by Parks and Recreation. These centers operate daily on school days from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. for after-school programming and 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. for general fitness and sports programs.

The problem, Ament said, is that the Essex RAC center is on the other side of Route 702 and it isn’t safe for teens to get there.

“And even if they did, there’s not that many opportunities there,” she added. “It would be helpful if [opportunities] were in the high poverty communities, because what I see is it going into communities that maybe don’t have the greatest need or crime rates.”

McCullough said he made a note of it and would try to offer more things to the high poverty areas.

“We have a trailer and we can take that trailer out to communities where there may be a gap and we can fill that gap,” McCullough said.

Accountability is needed, residents say

Gloria Nelson, president of the Turner Station Conservation Team, said accountability and prevention cannot be treated as competing ideas.

“We want young people to have opportunities for rehabilitation, there also must be meaningful accountability,” Nelson said. “If our programs are not reducing repeat offenders, we should be willing to improve or replace them.”

Lisa Garry, deputy secretary for community services at the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services, defended the state’s community supervision model, saying most youth successfully complete the program without reoffending.

According to Garry, 93% statewide and 94% of juveniles in Baltimore County remain arrest free and appear in court while on community detention. Those numbers were verified by The Baltimore Sun on Wednesday.

“I believe kids can be held accountable but we must balance that with creating the opportunities for them to be restored to community, to participate in activities that are pro-social, structured and supervised,” Garry said.

County Council President Mike Ertel said officials are confronting a mix of crime, behavioral issues and post-pandemic social challenges.

“We’re dealing with a lot of things,” Ertel said. “I sometimes feel like it’s whack-a-mole — we fix one thing and two more pop up.”

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