Last month, a 20-year-old man was gunned down along Twin Rivers Road in Wilde Lake, in broad daylight. The village saw two shooting deaths the previous spring.

This week two more shootings, one fatal, shocked a Columbia village, this time Oakland Mills, and left family and friends grieving.

This was just the second homicide case in Howard County this year. Certainly we're not in the same statistical ballpark as nearby Baltimore or Washington, D.C. The number of killings here so far this year is roughly on pace for an average year in Howard.

But their effect on the neighborhoods is far from routine.

Whenever crimes like this happen, the first question people ask is "How safe is my community?"

To answer that question, they need to know as much as possible about the circumstances of each case: Was this a drug deal gone sour? Was it a robbery? Was it an argument over a woman, or a parking space, or some perceived display of disrespect? Where did the gun come from? How many people are walking around my village carrying pistols? Is there a gang connection? How likely is it that these conflicts will proliferate?

Is it safe for me to walk in my neighborhood? For my children to play outside?

Citizens need answers to these questions.

And in this case, to his credit, county police Chief William McMahon and his department have begun to get more out front in getting information to the neighborhoods affected by this violence.

McMahon met Tuesday -- two days after the killing -- with residents in Oakland Mills.

There's room for improvement, but the police seem to better recognize the importance of informing the public than in the past. Part of this new attitude might have come from hard lessons of the recent past, particularly those stemming from recent incidents in which police weapons were the ones going off. Jessup residents last month gave police an earful after an undercover officer shot two teens.

In a community meeting a week after that shooting -- from which the victims recovered and which police say was an accident -- several residents complained that officers at the scene were dismissive, rude and not forthcoming with information.

Giving people a clearer understanding of what's going on in their neighborhoods, as well as ideas about how they can protect themselves and their loved ones, and doing so in a timely manner, not only helps them feel better -- which in itself is important to the health of a community -- but also makes them better partners in crime-prevention efforts.

Information is power, and sharing that power makes it stronger for all concerned.

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