County Police Department

The Carroll County commissioners have voted to create a county police department with an appointed chief to replace a resident trooper program that has been based at the state police barracks in Westminster for 33 years. Carroll County is the last jurisdiction in Maryland to rely on the state police as its primary law enforcement agency. Yesterday's decision came after years of discussion among county and police officials about dissolving the state program because of the expense and a shortage of available troopers.

Ex-county man accused in sexual abuse of child A former Baltimore County man has been charged with sexually abusing a child in Baltimore and Harford counties, police said yesterday. Fabrice Snowden, 41, of the 600 block of Burlington Court in Edgewood is accused of sexually abusing a child from 1999 to December 2006, and the victim told detectives that the sexual abuse was videotaped, according to authorities. The victim also told detectives that Snowden sold pornographic videos to someone in India, police said.

The Howard County Police Department would dramatically expand, modernize and diversify its force under a more than 45-page vision plan Chief William J. McMahon has proposed to County Executive Ken Ulman and the County Council. Although McMahon did not request a specific number of new officers, Ulman said this week that his goal is to add about 100 officers, a 25 percent increase, during the next five years. The Police Department is authorized to employ 390 officers. "I stress that this is a ballpark figure," Ulman said.

In a sweeping and stinging opinion, a federal judge has dismissed two multimillion-dollar lawsuits accusing the Baltimore County Police Department of racial discrimination."

The Baltimore County Police Department is among 149 agencies whose use of federal funding intended to put more officers on the street is being questioned by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Justice, officials said yesterday.The inspector general's report, made public this week, summarizes an extensive two-year audit completed last fall of how local police agencies used grants issued under the Violent Crime Control Act of 1994 -- part of President Clinton's promise to put 100,000 new officers on America's streets.

The Baltimore County tactical police officer who shot and killed a Rodgers Forge woman during a 12-hour standoff last month will not face criminal charges, a county deputy State's Attorney said yesterday.Prosecutor Sue A. Schenning said an investigation by the county police department's homicide unit and by the State's Attorney's office concluded that Officer Robert O. Jones, "was completely justified in firing his weapon" at 40-year-old Tambra W. Eddinger, when she barricaded herself in her bedroom with a rifle Sept.

By this time next year, the Baltimore County Fire Department could face $3 million in retirement costs, the county fire chief said yesterday, with 217 firefighters, administrators and office personnel eligible to leave by June 30, 2000.Fire Chief John F. O'Neill told County Council members at a budget hearing that of the 217 employees, 23 are due to retire by July 1 of this year. He argued that the 6 percent pay raise proposed for firefighters in the budget negotiations this year should cut back on the number of firefighters who will retire in the coming year.

Police are seeking a man who raped a Pennsylvania woman on Wednesday in a wooded area near Gunpowder Falls near the Pennsylvania line.The victim was walking in the woods with three other women about 5: 30 p.m., police said yesterday.She fell behind, and a man came up behind her and assaulted her, said police, who said he did not display a weapon.The man is described as a white male, 16 to 20 years old, with buzz-cut dark hair and a tanned face. He is about 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs about 130 pounds.

The International Association of Chiefs of Police will recognize the Howard County Police Department for encouraging seat-belt use last year.The association focused on the department's work in the statewide Chief's Challenge program, an annual two-month-long spring initiative targeting motorists not wearing seat belts.During the program, the department issued about 1,500 tickets for failure to wear seat belts.Violators of the state seat belt law face a $25 fine.County officials estimate that about 80 percent of residents wear seat belts.

Two officers accused of handcuffing a woman and making sexually suggestive remarks to her will be disciplined by the Baltimore County Police Department, a spokesman said yesterday.The discipline follows disposition of the separate criminal cases of Rodger B. Clise, 36, and Thomas M. Siwek, 43, both assigned to the Cockeysville Precinct. Siwek was given 80 hours of community service and Clise's charges were dismissed, said police spokesman Bill Toohey.The charges stemmed from an incident May 27. According to charging documents, the two officers walked into a feed store called The Mill of Hereford in the 17000 block of York Road.

A proposal to install speed monitoring cameras in Baltimore County school zones drew the ire of many residents attending a meeting with officials Wednesday at the Towson Library. About 25 speakers expressed their opinions, with most being opposed to the cameras. Del. Bill Frank said this is "Big Brother run amok." But his legislative colleague Steve Lafferty said, "If you're against this legislation, you're concerned less about children than you are about making a statement." Police Chief Jim Johnson gave statistics to show that the technology works and decreases speed-related accidents.

On a December morning, a man in a Dunbar Armored uniform told employees at a Bank of America branch in Ellicott City that he had come for a routine pickup. An employee handed him two bags containing nearly $200,000, and he left. What the bank workers didn't know was that the man didn't work for the security company. Police say the cash was picked up by Robert Allen Flanagan, 38, a former Dunbar employee who kept his uniform after losing his job. The Pennsylvania man made the rounds last fall at several businesses, picking up hundreds of thousands of dollars along the way, authorities allege.

What do you want to know about a neighborhood before you sign a sales contract or apartment lease? Lots of things, probably - but safety and schools top the list if you're like most people. You'll need to do your own research. The federal Fair Housing Act prevents real estate agents from giving you information about school quality or other factors that boil down to characterizing a neighborhood. "Realtors refer anyone who is interested in what goes on in the schools to the Board of Education," said Debbie Hager, director of communications for the Maryland Association of Realtors.

Mark Massoni struggles to keep a stern expression and a hostile tone as he pretends to be a hostage-taker. But he can't help but smile and shake his head as he mutters, "I can't believe I'm saying this." Massoni's difficult role-playing is for the benefit of four police hopefuls playing the role of a critical-incident negotiation team. All of the participants are members of the Howard County Police Department Law Enforcement Explorer Program, also known as Explorer Post 1952. The Explorer program is a career education program, allowing students ages 14 through 20 to gain insight into a career in law enforcement.

Howard County Community College and the county Police Department have collaborated to create a program that allows police recruits to earn an associate's degree while training to become officers - loosening a strict requirement that allows the department to hire only those who have at least a two-year degree. Rather than eliminate the degree requirement, the college has created a police science degree program. Recruits would earn 60 college credits during police training through weekend classes and additional classroom time.

The Anne Arundel County police officers union is taking its challenge of a ban on visible tattoos to a federal arbitrator after months of disagreement with the department's administration. In hopes of negotiating a new policy, officials with the Fraternal Order of Police have met three times with the chief, Col. James E. Teare Sr., since he began requiring officers to cover up their body art. The union president said Teare's only concession was to spare tattooed officers in long-sleeve uniforms from wearing ties.

Police arrested a Pennsylvania man yesterday who they say posed as an armored-car driver and took a large amount of cash from an Ellicott City bank Thursday. Police in York, Pa., arrested Robert Allen Flanagan, 37, of Dallastown, Pa., at his home about 12:30 a.m. yesterday, according to the Howard County Police Department. Flanagan is a former employee of Dunbar Armored Inc., police said. About noon Thursday, a man walked into the Bank of America in the 9100 block of U.S. 40 dressed as a Dunbar security employee and left with bags of money, police said.

UNITY, Md. -- A 43-year-old flight attendant living in Howard County and her three young children were shot to death by her former husband on Thanksgiving at a small park where she had gone to turn the children over to him for a visit, police said yesterday. His body was found nearby, along with a rifle he apparently used to kill them and himself. Despite a bitter and protracted divorce granted earlier this year, Gail Louise Pumphrey, of Woodbine, drove her two boys, ages 6 and 12, and her 10-year-old daughter to a pre-arranged spot so they could spend part of the holiday with their father, David Peter Brockdorff, 40. Police believe Brockdorff, an electrician who lived in Frederick, shot his ex-wife and daughter in her Ford Taurus and his two boys in the stolen Nissan Altima he drove to the Unity Park.

The Carroll County commissioners have voted to create a county police department with an appointed chief to replace a resident trooper program that has been based at the state police barracks in Westminster for 33 years. Carroll County is the last jurisdiction in Maryland to rely on the state police as its primary law enforcement agency. Yesterday's decision came after years of discussion among county and police officials about dissolving the state program because of the expense and a shortage of available troopers.

LAST WEEK'S ISSUE: -- County Executive John R. Leopold announced that he will introduce emergency legislation to lift a ban prohibiting police officers from taking second jobs at bingo parlors and businesses that serve alcohol. The move comes about two weeks after a veteran of the county Police Department sued to block an order issued by Chief James Teare Sr., which was based on a county's ethics commission opinion that off-duty jobs at businesses that serve alcohol presented a conflict of interest.