Grace ApostolUnder Montgomery County’s Police Department’s Bi-Weekly Crime Report, the 2nd District reports a message on car theft safety. “Don’t make it easy for car thieves,” it says. “Take your keys and valuables with you, and remember to lock your doors when leaving your vehicle unattended.”
A Wash investigation, utilizing the Data Montgomery and Annual Crime Reports from 2023 and 2024, found that car theft is down by 23% in Bethesda-Chevy Chase and 12% countywide.
Montgomery County’s rate had previously seen a steady increase going back to 2021.
Councilmember Sidney Katz is the current chair of the Public Safety Committee of Montgomery County and believes that the Drone as First Responder initiative is to thank for the decrease in crime over the last year.
“The drone is there within 90 seconds, and it can then come down with its camera, and it can see whether or not the call, the response is necessary, and how fast that response needs to be, whether it needs to be a red light and siren for those police officers to come in,” Katz said.
The initiative was initially started in 2023 to “provide air support to 911 or police generated calls for service in a safe, responsible and transparent manner,” according to the Montgomery County Department of Police.
In the last year, the drones have responded to over 380 calls regarding theft in the Silver Spring, Wheaton and Gaithersburg areas, all the locations of the initiative in the county. According to Katz, Bethesda is the next area to receive the initiative.
The Wash looked into the car theft crime trends in those three areas before and after the drone program was implemented, finding that Silver Spring’s (3rd District) and Wheaton’s (4th District) car thefts are down in 2024.
2nd District Commander Amy Daum said she believes the drone initiative will come to Bethesda next due in part to the area’s dense population.
“Bethesda has the third highest call volume in the county,” Daum said. “And that’s in part because it’s densely populated, right? We know that. We also know that we’re right on the DC line. So, we have a lot of incidents that jump back and forth between those two places, but it’s important for us to be able to address that.”
Both Katz and Daum also addressed the shortage of police officers in Montgomery County, and how this plays a role in crime rates and how the drone initiative can aid in combating the shortage.
“When we talk about the combat of the shortage of officers, we need to effectively use technology in some ways in order to help with what we know,” Daum said. “We know that we have a staffing shortage, so the drone helps in that respect as well.”
Katz also said that as Chair of the Public Safety Committee, the group works with the police department to aid in bringing more police onto the force.
“So, we’re trying our best to enhance the air shortage of personnel, but we’re also doing our best to increase the personnel as well,” he said. “We give signing bonuses…It’s that we’re doing more and more classes. It’s all of those sorts of things that we’re trying.”
“I look forward to continuing to work with the community to ensure that our residents are as safe as possible, but that is an effort that goes in both directions right, we do encourage our community members to do things like lock their cars and bring their valuables inside,” she said.
Though Katz and other members of the committee and the police department are working to enhance the drone initiative as well as bring more officers onto the force, community members like Lisa Bodley-Bjorklund believe response time, specifically in Bethesda, needs to continue to improve. She also believes that the high theft rate is partly due to community members in fiscal need.
“I guess, like, response time, it needs to be a lot faster,” Bodley-Bjorklund said. “And also having more resources for people who might need the money, and that’s why they’re stealing things. Having more shelters available, and the capacity of them is really high now, I think so, having just more resources for people so they don’t have to resort to doing those things.”
Though looking toward the future and keeping the community in mind, Daum believes that the crime rate in Bethesda will not shift exponentially from this year to the next.
“I can tell you that in Bethesda, we have seen a drop in crime,” she said. “I think that we are looking at this year to next year, I think we’re looking at maybe a one to 2% higher rate of crime. I don’t think that it’s going to be anything extraordinary.”
Also, according to Daum, the 2nd District is down 67% in non-fatal shootings 9% in carjackings, with them being down 44% county-wide and 25% down in car theft all from 2023 to 2024. However, the area is seeing an increase in shoplifting and robberies.
Daum also encourages residents of the area to stay up to date on what is happening in Bethesda and the 2nd District through trustworthy sites, like the police’s webpage, instead of word-of-mouth sources and to remain vigilant.
“I look forward to continuing to work with the community to ensure that our residents are as safe as possible, but that is an effort that goes in both directions right, we do encourage our community members to do things like lock their cars and bring their valuables inside,” she said.
With her hope looking into the new year and crime rates down due to initiatives like the drones and incentives from leaders to recruit more officers, Daum believes that both residents and officers can work together in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase communities.
“I think that the Bethesda community is extraordinarily supportive of its police officers, and I look forward to continuing to build on the relationships that we’ve built in the last couple of years between the cops that work here in the community that we serve, and I think that that will be important throughout the county moving forward,” Daum said.
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