Gatehouse Community Resource Center

The Gatehouse Story #2 - Transition to Community Safety Center
In 2001, in a tragic act of drug-related gang violence, a local church member was shot and killed by a stray bullet after leaving his church service. The crime remains unsolved.
The Franklintown community quickly joined forces with Kernan Hospital and the Baltimore City Police to respond to the tragedy. Jim Ross, Kernan CEO, stepped up and said, “You want to use the Gatehouse? Here’s the keys!” By 2002 the Gatehouse had been re-named the Kernan Police Substation, staffed by Franklintown’s Citizens on Patrol. The Gatehouse is right across the street from where open-air drug market operates. The building was fitted out with a computer connected to remote cameras that monitored the goings-on at the corner. The city police had unlimited access to the building and would use it to surveil the corner, review video, and write reports. It was a comfortable, prime location to keep an eye on things.

One morning in 2011, I got a call from the hospital’s Facilities Director that the community needed to vacate the property immediately due to the presence of mold, lead paint, and asbestos. That afternoon, the Kernan Police Substation was closed. There is one takeaway from that joint community, hospital, police effort – during the 9 years the Gatehouse was in operation as the Kernan Police Substation there were no homicides at the corner and the level of illegal activity was significantly reduced.

Kernan Police Substation Grand Opening 2002