Police to Boost Checks at Area Malls
Local police talk about how they are responding to news of the theater shooting in Colorado.
Anne Arundel County police will perform additional checks on area malls and movie theaters and will stress communication with security guards after a gunman killed 12 people in Aurora, CO during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises.
“We are going to have periodic checks at area malls and a working relationship with them," police spokesman Justin Mulcahy said. "We will be communicating with them and are asking anyone to report any suspicious activity.”
Other police departments in Maryland said they would also be more vigilant. Howard County Police said they will increase patrols around movie theaters, the Mall in Columbia and the Lakefront area in Columbia.
"Police have met with representatives from the two movie theaters in Howard County, at Snowden Square and the Mall in Columbia, to address security issues and ensure open lines of communication with law enforcement," wrote Sherry Llewellyn, a spokesperson for Howard County Police in an email Friday afternoon.
Police also reported they will conduct an unscheduled inspection of all their equipment to ensure each officer is prepared for any situation.
The Mall in Columbia General Manager Katie Essing said security is a top concern.
"The safety and the well-being of our shoppers are and always will be our top concerns," said Essing Friday in a statement. "Again, the most important things we want our shoppers to know today are that our prayers and support are with the victims, their families and the Aurora, Colorado, community."
Regarding security at the mall and the AMC movie theater complex inside the mall, a mall spokesperson said, "It is the corporate policy of the Mall in Columbia not to discuss its security program publicly. To do so may compromise its effectiveness."
A spokeswoman for Arundel Mills said she could not comment immediately on any possible changes to security. A spokesman for Marley Station Mall in Glen Burnie declined to comment.
Kansas City-based AMC Theaters said theater staff are working with local law enforcement across the country to review safety and security procedures, according to Kansas City news source KMBC.com.
"We are terribly saddened by the random act of violence in Aurora and our thoughts are with the victims and their families," said AMC in the statement. "Being a safe place in the community for all our guests is a top priority at AMC and we take that responsibility very seriously."
Baltimore County Police also issued a statement on Friday saying they would increase patrols around malls and movie theaters "to alleviate community fears and address any potential threats that may occur."
Batman: The Dark Knight Rises is scheduled to be shown in the mall at the theater's IMAX screen and on a second, non-IMAX screen throughout the day Friday, with the last showing Friday ocurring at 11:40 p.m.
The summer blockbuster is also playing at UA's Snowden Square theater throughout the day, with the last showing scheduled for 11 p.m.
See related Patch links from Maryland and around the country:
paraniodandriod
7:10 pm on Friday, July 20, 2012
"Police checks" do not make me feel any safer. Knowing that some good citizens were licensed to carry a firearm would.
Joe
11:34 pm on Friday, July 20, 2012
Yea that would have done a lot of good, having a bunch of police wannabes shooting blind into the tear gas filled theatre. Probably would have been a lot more killed that way. You do realize that psycho was wearing body armor right? Maybe we should all goto the mall wearing bullet proof vests and carrying our assault rifles, just in case!
funnyguy
3:17 pm on Saturday, July 21, 2012
As if a trained and licensed person is going to shoot blindly into the crowd? Do you think that every gun owner is just a stupid wanna-be cop? Thats foolish, and cops are just normal people too. While I agree the common-man does not have the knowledge to carry a firearm, there is a lot of people who do.
MrTelco1948
2:17 pm on Sunday, July 22, 2012
You are absolutely correct. To all of you lefties out there please read "More Guns Less Crime" by John Lott. Oh, that's right, your minds are already made up....no sense trying to get you to THINK!!
Kelly Mason
7:20 am on Saturday, July 21, 2012
What good will that do? What a waste of time and money.
Carol B
11:45 am on Saturday, July 21, 2012
The shooter called himself "the Joker"--though this was anything but a joke. I am sickened & saddened by these events. Lord help a nation that produces affluent, intelligent young people who think it’s their God-given right to take out their disappointments & frustrations on innocent victims who have never done them any harm, and Lord help the victims, their families, & all of those who have suffered collateral damage as a result of the actions of this psychopath. Youngsters today grow up immersed in violence, from the tv programs they watch to the movies they see to the video games they play—& just as doctors & nurses & rescue workers become hardened to the sight of blood & suffering, because they have to, to deal with it day after day, so kids who see acts of vindictive & wanton cruelty everywhere they turn are desensitized to the horror of such events. The ten-year old girl who escaped an abductor this week did so by imitating something she’d seen on _Law & Order: Special Victims Unit_--a show I find too disturbing to watch at bedtime, though I am several times her senior. There was a 6-year old and an infant in that theatre—& heaven only knows how many tweens & teens. Please, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, everyone--think twice & three & four times before you allow your impressionable youngsters to become immune to man’s cruelty to man. Haven’t we lost enough people to senseless, stupid, selfish violence in this country, & this world?
Harry Balzonia
11:57 am on Saturday, July 21, 2012
Ooooh! I have an idea! Let's all overreact and increase security at any public gathering! Maybe the TSA could expand their role and grope us all as we go to see a movie! These knee-jerk reactions we enact after a tragedy like this does nothing to make anyone any safer, but just feeds our paranoia that the boogie man is coming to get us. The freakin' media sensationalizes stuff like this, and it makes me sick.
MrTelco1948
2:18 pm on Sunday, July 22, 2012
We don't need TSA...........We need patriotic Americans who are packing heat.
Ronald
10:32 am on Sunday, July 22, 2012
This is the kind of crap that it takes for the police to simply do their jobs. How pathetic. Until you address the real issues (PTSD, abuse, drug abuse and all the other illnesses of society this is not going to stop. And let's not forget the corruptness within the legal system as it exists today. Just keep voting for politicians that continue to cut social programs and benefit programs for returning veterans.
Keep doing what you do and you'll keep getting what you got.
My prayers to the families of the fallen (including the gunman's). They are the real victims.