Baltimore Police Department

The weekend tweets from the Baltimore Police Department featured a recruiting video, an appeal reminding domestic violence victims that officers can help, and a message honoring a colleague who died 40 years ago. But when a fatal stabbing at the Inner Harbor went unmentioned on Twitter by the city agency, police union president Robert F. Cherry decided police weren't making the most of their 140 characters. So the Fraternal Order of Police lodge used its own Twitter account to criticize the police tweets on Sunday night, calling them "public relations propaganda" and saying major crimes too often go unmentioned because "police don't want you to know everything.

The Baltimore Police Department's internal affairs chief is leaving the agency, a little more than a year after being brought on to reassure the public that a scandal-weary agency would get tougher policing itself, a spokesman confirmed. Grayling Williams, who joined the department last January from the Department of Homeland Security's counter narcotics office, resigned Thursday to pursue another opportunity, chief spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. Williams referred a reporter's questions to the spokesman.

For the third time in less than two months, the Baltimore Police Department is looking for a new director of training - but they say the current search was always part of their plan. After a shooting at an unauthorized training drill in February that seriously injured a recruit, the department suspended and removed the commander of the unit, Maj. Eric Russell. His replacement, Maj. Joe Smith, surprised the top brass by informing them that he was retiring just days later. Quickly, the agency announced it had moved Lt. Col. Ross Buzzuro into the position.  There's now a job posting for the position , uploaded today, on the website of website of the International Chiefs of Police.

On Sunday, a Sun editorial unfairly criticized the Baltimore Police Department for losing its focus on targeting the city's most violent criminals. I can assure residents that since I was appointed commissioner some 180 days ago, the senior leadership team of the BPD has been implementing strategies to complement our already razor-sharp focus on violent crime. There's no question our strategy includes a stronger presence of police in violence-prone areas to allow people to feel safer in their neighborhoods.

City detectives are investigating two overnight shootings that left one man dead in Oliver and another man wounded in Upton, the Baltimore Police Department said. About 11:46 p.m. Thursday, officers were dispatched to the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Pitcher Street in Upton for a report of a shooting and found a man wounded at the scene. The location, west of Maryland General Hospital, is in the police department's Central District but is not far from some of West Baltimore's most violent neighborhoods this year.

Though they aren't trumpeting it, the Baltimore Police Department's homicide unit has made several recent arrests in killings dating back to last year.  Police spokespeople said they did not know the motives behind the crimes. The arrests are a boost to a unit whose work was questioned just last week at a hearing at City Hall. As of today, the homicide unit's clearance rate is 53 percent.  -The oldest case involves the killing of Justin Marasa, a 22-year-old from Kenya found shot in a vehicle April 8, 2012 in the 1400 block of Holbrook St. Police said William Hunt, 29, has been indicted on murder charges in the killing.  -Garrick Powell Jr., 20, of Gwynn Oak, has been charged with the killing of 21-year-old John Planters, who was found in a grassy lot in the 2200 block of Annapolis Road on Oct. 25, 2012.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said Thursday that he is planning to change the way police get eyewitnesses to pick out suspects, citing research that shows current techniques can lead to cases of mistaken identity. Batts said he wants officers to show witnesses one picture of a possible suspect at a time, instead of in groups. He said the change, along with a few others. could significantly improve the reliability of the identifications that police use to make their cases.

Jim Mingle and Mike Boyd, detectives for the Baltimore Police Department, usually work in ties and jackets, but as daylight wanes on this day, they are standing on a West Baltimore street corner in their uniform blues. "Still fits," Mingle says, patting his stomach. Mingle and Boyd are looking out over a sidewalk in the 1700 block of Walbrook Ave., a long, straight street lined with two-story rowhouses. The late afternoon seems calm, and kids play basketball on the sidewalk just a few houses from them.

Baltimore police said they were aware of no problems connected to early St. Patrick's Day celebrations Friday night, as they brace for a weekend of boozy revelry once bars open today. The department announced plans to flood bar districts with officers and will have help from state police forces too. They are hoping to avoid a repeat of last year, which saw Canton Square trashed by drinkers and a large group of teenagers fighting downtown. So far, though, things are quiet, according to police, and this evening additional officers will be patrolling the Inner Harbor, Fells Point, Canton and Federal Hill.

Bel Air police have arrested a man wanted in connection with a stabbing that wounded two people in a parking lot outside the Dark Horse Saloon Dec. 1. Tyron Lee Fuqua, 33, of the 1800 block of North Wolfe Street in Baltimore, was picked up Friday in Baltimore City by the Baltimore Police Department, according to a Bel Air Police Department news release. Fuqua is being held at the Harford County Detention Center on a no bond indictment, according to the release. Fuqua has been charged with two counts of first-degree assault and three counts of second-degree assault, according to Maryland electronic court records.