Baltimore County Police Department

Three people accused of raping a 12-year-old girl Saturday at the Skateworks roller rink in Woodlawn took turns holding her down and assaulting her in a storage room, a police report of the incident says. Baltimore County officials, who were on the verge of closing the troubled rink months ago because of frequent disturbances there, deferred questions to the police department. "We're concerned about this situation, and we're sure that this matter will be monitored and reviewed," said Lt. Robert McCullough, a Baltimore County Police Department spokesman.

A week ago, the Baltimore County Police Department's chief spokesman said that the officer who accepted an autograph from Ravens star running back Ray Rice during a traffic stop had done nothing wrong. Baltimore County Police Chief James W. Johnson called The Baltimore Sun on Thursday to say he's not so sure. The chief agrees that the officer did not forgive a ticket in exchange for the signature. But he's contemplating whether the officer was right to accept the gift, and he said he doesn't necessarily agree with the spokesman's statement that the autograph was not "a gift of monetary value.

If Maryland motorists demonstrate too little respect for school bus safety, then drivers in Baltimore County are practically off the charts. Unfortunately, there's not much sign of that worrisome attitude changing any time soon. That's because the Baltimore County Police Department has decided not to take advantage of a new law allowing jurisdictions to install cameras on school buses in order to ticket vehicles that illegally pass stop buses. According to his spokeswoman, Chief James W. Johnson believes it's a matter best left to precinct-level enforcement.

Three weeks before Alexander Kinyua was charged with dismembering a family friend and eating some of the body parts, police at Morgan State University investigated a report that the suspect had a machete in his dorm room, school officials confirmed Monday. Officers went through his campus apartment on May 4 and Kinyua "volunteered to drop his pants" to be searched, a university spokesman said, but police found nothing. That same day, police responded to a complaint that someone threw a rock at a window at the housing complex, and a report says Kinyua was later identified as the culprit.

The young man in the dark jacket and gray baseball cap worn backward seems to have had a good day shopping at Best Buy in Owings Mills, judging by the size of the blue bag he's carrying as he steps out of the store, glancing quickly to his left in the direction of the surveillance camera. You can see him online now — or anytime — and the Baltimore County Police Department hopes you'll know something about him. The image of the person who police believe was involved in a car break-in and credit card theft last month is part of a high-tech citizen "iWatch" program unveiled Thursday by the police.

Salary: $79,000 Age: 45 Years on the job: 8 How he got started: From high school, Colt Bracken went into his family's plumbing and heating business. After his father died, he decided to make a change and took entrance exams to become a Baltimore County police officer. He was accepted into the police academy and graduated in 1993. He's always worked out of the Towson Precinct, first as a patrolman and since a promotion in 2001 as a detective.

Stolen electronics, a repossessed truck, perhaps even a drug dealer's bling can now be yours with the click of a mouse button. Thousands of dollars of stolen and forfeited property that used to languish in Maryland's police agency warehouses - from equipment used to grow marijuana plants to power generators - is being auctioned online to the highest bidder. Jurisdictions across Maryland are joining about 1,300 others nationwide on PropertyRoom.com, an eBay-style auction house that specializes in selling seized contraband for local governments.

The Baltimore County Police Department has escalated its war against criminals by switching to a new 9 mm bullet that mushrooms on impact, exposing razor-sharp claws designed to cause extensive bodily damage.The county police department is the first in the state and one of approximately 100 nationwide to use Black Talon bullets manufactured by the Winchester Ammunition Co.E. Jay Miller, a county police spokesman, said the department began switching to the Black Talon in April and by year's end, all of its officers will be armed with the new ammunition.

The Nottingham woman had ducked into a bathroom at the White Marsh Sears when she heard a voice from the adjoining stall: Her neighbor had found the toilet-paper dispenser empty. Could she pass some under the divider? As she gathered a bunch, authorities said, someone reached over the stall's door and took cash and credit cards from the purse she had hung there. It wasn't until she stopped at other stores that she realized her cards were missing. She would later find that the thieves had bought thousands of dollars' worth of merchandise with the cards.