Baltimore Police Department

The Baltimore Police Department has suspended an officer involved in the shooting of a man accused of threatening to assault him with a tire iron Saturday after internal affairs investigators began a probe into "personal issues" involving the officer, a department spokesman said. In a preliminary review, police investigators said they believe that Officer Andre J. Robinson acted appropriately when he shot a man who first struck a police cruiser with a tire iron and then threatened and advanced on the officer, said spokesman Sterling Clifford.

So after the list of Maryland's fallen heroes was read yesterday at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens, the Hereford High School Chamber Choir did indeed sing "You'll Never Walk Alone." And the young ladies and gentlemen did so splendidly. The girls looked fetching in their black gowns, the boys absolutely elegant in their black tuxedos. The choir's rendition of the song was superb. I just wondered if anyone else caught the irony of "You'll Never Walk Alone" being sung at a fallen heroes ceremony in which David McGuinn was one of the honorees.

In Baltimore CitySix MTA drivers charged in theft, resale of bus passesSix Mass Transit Administration bus drivers in Baltimore have been charged with one count each of felony theft for allegedly stealing and reselling large quantities of $3 daily bus passes.Computerized fare boxes in buses allegedly were used to print, without authorization, passes that were transferred to black-market ticket dealers, according to Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr.The amount of passes sold ranged from $468 to about $15,600 over six months, authorities said.

The Baltimore Police Department has issued pink slips to 62 retired officers who were rehired during the past three years as part of an effort to free desk-bound officers for street patrol.Though city police received a $5 million budget boost June 10, department officials said it was not enough to avoid layoffs. City police are working with a $199 million budget for fiscal 2000 beginning July 1, a 2.6 percent increase from this year.Department officials said commanders do not know whether the layoffs, which take effect July 1, will force officers off the street to fill the vacancies.

A voice echoes off the marble walls of the cavernous War Memorial Building. On this hallowed ground, where the heroes of battle are memorialized, a man in uniform is speaking of a high calling, a mission filled with duty, honor and sacred trust. Of a war being fought on the streets of Baltimore.Bryan Ruth stands at rapt attention in his dark blue uniform, his arms stiff at his side. His face is expressionless as he listens to an officer addressing graduates of the city's police academy. Like his 46 classmates, Ruth is a new soldier headed for the front.

A blood drive to benefit Baltimore Police Department personnel and their families will be held from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at the Southern District in the first block of Cherry Hill Road.The drive is sponsored by the Baltimore Chapter of the American Red Cross three days a year.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused yesterday to reopen a constitutional dispute over Congress' power to require overtime pay for state and local government employees, rebuffing a challenge by the Baltimore Police Department.The justices' action did not end the dispute between the city and the Fraternal Order of Police. The case will return to lower courts for a trial on still-open issues, though officials at the union local, Lodge 3, raised the prospect of an out-of-court settlement.

Famed lawyer Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. called on the Justice Department yesterday to take the lead role in the inquiry into Larry Hubbard's death and to investigate how the Baltimore Police Department treats minorities."

A car chase escalated into violence yesterday on North Avenue when a county police officer fired several shots at a driver who had rammed police vehicles moments earlier, police said.The man drove away from the scene, said Agent Angelique Cook-Hayes, a city police spokeswoman, and police officers found the empty car a few minutes later in the 2400 block of Winchester St. with blood inside and bullet holes in the front.The incident began about 1: 40 p.m. when officers assigned to the Regional Auto Theft task force, a city-county enforcement effort, saw a white, four-door Honda Accord with stolen tags traveling east on North Avenue, Cook-Hayes said.

The Baltimore Police Department received a $422,366 federal grant yesterday to enhance its 311 nonemergency number and enable dispatchers to send calls to municipal agencies to speed services.Many of the 600,000 calls received on 311 lines each year are not police-related, officials said, and the money will be used to route those calls to a Neighborhood Service Center.Baltimore was the first city in the nation to implement a three-digit nonemergency number to help ease an overwhelmed 911 system.

On Saturday morning, thousands of people running the marathon will turn northwest onto McCulloh Street. About the time they hit the first water station, they will run right over the spot where Israeli Mason was shot and killed Sept. 13. At that point, they will be within three blocks of where three other killings occurred this year. As they continue on the route, they will pass within a block of 13 other spots where people have been fatally shot, stabbed or beaten since January, including eight on the city's east side.

The suspended commander of the Baltimore Police Department's Southeastern District is being investigated for content on his office computer, police sources said. Police said Maj. Roger Bergeron was stripped of his gun and badge and sent home Sept. 30 with pay, but no reason was disclosed. Multiple sources say agency leaders heard rumblings that Bergeron spent significant time in his office rather than on the street, and decided to inspect his work computer. It was unclear what investigators found, but one source said the majority of Web sites he had visited were social networking sites.

With his contribution of $1,000 to the Baltimore Police Department's mounted unit and his reimbursement of $300 to the department, has Del. Jon Cardin done enough to atone for his marriage proposal stunt that involved a fake police raid? Yes 40% No 60% (965 votes, results not scientific) Next poll: : Is it proper for President Barack Obama to give a speech broadcast to public school students nationwide? Vote at baltimoresun.com/vote

State Del. Jon S. Cardin, under fire for using city police officers in an intricately staged marriage proposal, apologized on Tuesday to the police commissioner, who told reporters he's ordered detectives to find out "what resources were used, how they were used and who was involved." "He offered an apology for putting the Baltimore Police Department in this kind of predicament and spotlight," Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III told reporters. Cardin, who released a statement on Monday that he was focused on his soon-to-be fiance and could have used better judgment, did not return calls for comment.

The posting on the Baltimore Police Department's Facebook page seemed innocent enough - a link to a news article about the imperiled mounted horse unit. The chief spokesman put it online, hoping to generate interest and donations to keep the unit alive. Then the public weighed in. "Think it over Sheila!" Ian Hall wrote, referring to Mayor Sheila Dixon. Carol Taylor-Long compared Dixon to former Washington Mayor Marion S. Barry Jr., who had legal troubles of his own: "If anything gets cut, it should be her salary and replace her with a more honest person!"

A 28-year-old woman who was slightly injured when her Honda Accord hit a Cadillac Escalade driven by Olympic swimming star Michael Phelps in Baltimore's Mid-Town Belvedere neighborhood is to be charged with running a red light, a city police spokesman said Friday. The woman is identified in a police report as Amanda Elizabeth Virkus of Sandy Spring in Montgomery County. If found guilty of the citation, she faces a $180 fine and three points against her driving record. Virkus suffered neck and shoulder injuries, according to the city Fire Department, and was treated at Maryland Shock Trauma Center and released.

Fundraising efforts to save the Baltimore Police Department's vaunted horseback unit are off to a slow start, but officials say they have had conversations with potential donors and are optimistic that the unit can be kept intact. Only $550 in donations have been received in the days since the agency announced that it would need to come up with $200,000 in private money to keep the unit intact for the next year. An official from the Baltimore Community Foundation, which is managing the fundraising efforts for the police, said the donations have mostly come from individuals in chunks of $25 to $50. Sheryl Goldstein, director of the Mayor's Office on Criminal Justice, said those donations have come via the Internet and that any checks sent via mail likely haven't arrived yet. Meanwhile, Goldstein said a few people have talked to the police commissioner's office about making "sizable" donations, and the Downtown Partnership is soliciting contributions from businesses.

Donald Reid didn't join the Baltimore Police Department in 1973 to make a political or social statement in the lingering aftermath of the race riots of 1968. The young African-American cop simply wanted to "fight crime and save lives." And so at the age of 23, he didn't hesitate when his sergeant handed him a "blue card" - which was used to record information on stops of blacks who dared venture up Park Heights Avenue above Northern Parkway, the traditional dividing line between black and white in Northwest Baltimore.

Is the Baltimore Police Department doing a good job of responding to increased reports of criminal activity in and around the Inner Harbor? Yes 26% No 50% Not sure 24% (696 votes, results not scientific) Next poll: : Should Baltimore impose a fee on grocery store plastic bags to encourage consumers to switch to reusable canvas bags? Vote at baltimoresun.com/vote

The Baltimore chapter of the NAACP called for criminal charges against two city police officers who are accused of driving a 16-year-old to a Howard County state park last month and leaving him there without shoes, an incident that leaders said Tuesday might be more commonplace than reported. Attorney Roland N. Patterson Jr. presented a sworn statement from the teenager, Michael Johnson Jr., and called the pace of an internal police investigation troubling. Patterson has asked Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy and national NAACP headquarters to review the case.