Recent crime in Glasgow Park brought local officials together for a public safety meeting on Thursday night.
The first incident took place in the early hours of June 16th. An impromptu graduation party at the park resulted in a fight and gunshots fired, injuring one 16-year-old girl.
And last Wednesday, a runner in the park reported he was randomly assaulted by several male suspects.
New Castle County PD Colonel Joseph Bolch says the events are exactly that – random.
“You get a lot of different people, you get people from different states, you get people here for different things, some people are here to exercise, some people are here to play a sport, some people are here just to walk, some people are here just to look at nature, so you’ve got all kinds of people here and there’s a heavy volume in this park and that’s why we’re committed to the safety of the park, that’s why we are here tonight.”
Bolch says as of July 6th, there have been a total of 169 dispatches to the park. But only 55 of those dispatches were from a call from a bystander. The other 114 were officer-initiated, which Bolch says indicates a regular police presence at the park.
He notes that the police have promising leads in both the shooting and the assault at the park.
He adds that while he believes the park is safe overall, he is concerned by the volume of people who attended the meeting – at least 50 – and says he takes residents’ concerns seriously.
New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer says that while they take every crime seriously, he believes the county is safer now than it ever has been before.
“We need to not only make sure our community is safe, but it has to be perceived as safe, and that is definitely true of our public spaces – our government buildings, our parks, our libraries. I think we see that in the number of people that came out tonight, concerned. And so, we are open and transparent, we want people to be aware about what exactly happened.”
Residents voiced concerns over the amount of time it reportedly took for an officer to respond to last week’s assault- which was over an hour.
And several suggested installing more cameras around the park, and gates to enter.
