Friday, September 6, 2019

Kimi Robinette and Anne Kramer, WBAL NewsRadio 1090 and FM 101.5

Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott met with residents of the Park Heights community Thursday to discuss his legislative policy proposal, including meeting with other city leaders to talk about the squeegee kids.

LISTEN: City Council President Brandon Scott's statements on squeegee kids on WBAL-TV 11.

Thursday evening, Scott told residents he plans on meeting with Mayor Bernard C. "Jack" Young and Police Commissioner Michael Harrison to talk about the city's squeegee kids. Those are the young people who wash windshields of drivers for money throughout the city's intersections.

"We know it's an issue, but it's an issue that we have to deal with in its totality," Scott said. "We cannot have anyone being assaulted when they are just at a stoplight. [It's] unacceptable."

"We have to build in levels of accountability, but also we have to as [a] society figure out what we can do to get them off of the streets in the first place," Scott said.

Several drivers recently reported issues with the window washers, including a New Jersey man who said a young man smashed the glass of his window after he told him he didn't want a wash and wouldn't pay.

The man said when his family reached President and Lombard streets, where the upset squeegee kid broke a car window, sending pieces of glass all over his 2-year-old daughter. The man called police several times, waited 45 minutes, then drove to the police station where police told him what happened was "normal."

Police later said they are investigating the incident.