Lamenting an inability to pool information, Anne Arundel County officials propose creating a center where agencies can share information about troubled children that is otherwise confidential.
"I'd like to see a fusion center designed for the key players," Police Chief James Teare Sr. said, explaining that it could provide a framework to help at-risk kids avoid getting pulled into gangs and crime.
Restrictions in laws and policies limit what information can be shared among police, social services, schools and juvenile services. Police said that everyone should have better information to help a child.
"I think that's something we have to be able to do with juveniles before it gets to criminal activities," he said.
"When nobody can talk to anybody because of privacy, I don't think we're doing all we can," said Teare.
"It is something we are definitely going to look into," said Del. Mary Ann Love, a Glen Burnie Democrat who chairs the county's legislative delegation.
The pitch came Thursday at a meeting police and County Executive John R. Leopold had with the county legislative delegation to discuss the May 30 homicide of Christopher Jones, 14, an ensuing firebombing, and the role of gangs in those and other crimes.
Lt. J.D. Batten Jr., who oversees officers at the county's 12 high school and some of the middle schools, said the inability to talk frankly with school officials about students who commit crimes outside of school can hamper crime-fighting efforts. Batten asked legislators to evaluate those barriers.
Legislators, clearly bothered by what they were hearing, seemed to agree.
In response to questions from House Speaker Michael E. Busch, Teare said, "The Police Department was not made aware of why Christopher Jones left the school." His family moved him from one high school to another because of bullying.
Students have said Christopher, though not a gang member, was caught in feuds between the youth gangs TNT and ESD.
Police said they were disturbed that one of the three suspects in the firebombing, apparently prompted by a mistaken rumor that a resident was involved in the homicide, was a 22-year-old former member of Dead Man Inc., a violent prison gang.
