County Police Force

The overwhelming majority of Harford Countians who spoke out at a public hearing Wednesday on the future of public safety said they want taxpayers, not elected officials, to decide who's in charge of law enforcement in their county."

A former Anne Arundel County Police corporal was offered probation before judgment Tuesday as long as he first spends two months in jail for warning drug suspects of an imminent raid by police, officials said. Prosecutors told the judge that residents of a Shady Side home told SWAT team members who arrived to search the home last February that then-Cpl. Rick Bobby Alexander, a 14-year veteran of the force, called a female resident to say police were nearby getting ready for a raid, but he didn't know where, said Kristin Riggin, spokeswoman for the prosecutors' office.

County law enforcement and court officials are starting 1992 with a swirl of questions and mounting uncertainty about the future of Carroll police protection.Last month, the commissioners appointed a panel to study the creation of a county police force, anticipating the state will cut its contribution to the state police Resident Trooper Program.While the idea of creating a county police force has long been a source of controversy, some of the commissioners' appointments to thepanel to explore the idea also caused a stir.

Carroll voters can expect an expanded Board of Commissioners, and a say in creating a county police force, with the approval of two bills aimed at helping to resolve both issues. The General Assembly passed the measures Monday - one requiring a referendum on a local ordinance to create a county police force, the other designing districts for five commissioners. "It was a struggle, but we got it out," said Del. Tanya Thornton Shewell, a District 5A Republican. The bills represent the culmination, at least for now, of two protracted county controversies.

The county commissioners plan to appoint a committee this week to study the creation of a county police force, anticipating that the state will cut its contribution for the Resident Trooper Program.The committee will investigate employing some of the resident troopers working in Carroll as county officers serving under the commissioners, possibly as early as July, said Commissioner President Donald I. Dell. Several other options will be explored, he said.Resident troopers perform the same duties as other barracks troopers.

Carroll County, the last jurisdiction in Maryland to rely on the state police for local law enforcement, will phase out the expensive program in favor of its own force, officials said yesterday. Bowing to the pressures of its population growth, which stretched thin the manpower the Maryland State Police was willing to devote to a resident trooper program, the Carroll County commissioners agreed that they will have to begin planning for a transition soon. Replacing Carroll's resident troopers with local sheriff's deputies or a new county police force should take three to five years, state police Superintendent Col. Thomas E. "Tim" Hutchins and the county commissioners said during a meeting yesterday to discuss the transition.

DESPITE the adamant denials, Carroll County is moving closer to having a true county police force. Sheriff Kenneth L. Tregoning wants to double the number of his deputies in five years -- without increasing the county budget. It's an offer that's hard to refuse. The new Central Booking unit at the jail effectively puts that important function for all police agencies under the sheriff. The new jail addition gives the sheriff ample room to detain a larger number of criminals. Money for the expanded sheriff's staff will come from an agreement with the federal government to house immigration violators at the county jail.

In an unofficial start to the fall campaign, both candidates for Carroll sheriff introduced their platforms in general terms yesterday to a group of county business people.Incumbent Republican Sheriff John H. Brown, who is seeking his second term, told the 100 or so people gathered for the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce's monthly breakfast that he would continue to operate the 90-member department as he has since 1990."I'm extremely proud of what we've done in there these last four years," he said.

Saying he favored retaining the Resident Trooper program as the primary police agency in Carroll, First Lt. Kenneth L. Tregoning announced yesterday he will run for sheriff."

WESTMINSTER - The race for county sheriff has come a long way from the days when all it took to win the post was a hefty Colt and a quick draw.Those who want the job in Carroll are fighting it out in the press and using issues as their weapons of choice.Democratic incumbent Grover N. "Sam" Sensabaugh is talking about beefing up the Sheriff's Department and putting the "finishing touches" on the job he started eight years ago.His opponent, Republican John N. Brown, says the agency should not expand its police enforcement and should concentrate on running the county Detention Center, transporting prisoners and serving court papers.

William S. Lindsey Sr., a former Anne Arundel County police chief who was also an accomplished bluegrass musician, died of heart failure Friday at Marley Neck Health and Rehabilitation Center in Glen Burnie. He was 75. Mr. Lindsey was born in Baltimore and raised in Arbutus. After graduating from Catonsville High School in 1950, he served in the Air Force during the Korean War. Mr. Lindsey's police career inadvertently began when, as an out-of-work Glenn L. Martin Co. jet engine mechanic with a brand-new house and mortgage, he was pulled over for speeding and given a ticket by a Maryland state trooper.

More than 20 people spoke before the Carroll County Board of Commissioners yesterday at a public hearing on the creation of a county police force, many reiterating their opposition to the idea and their desire for a referendum on the issue. Some said they want to maintain and expand the local sheriff's office rather than begin developing a countywide force with an appointed police chief, as a proposed ordinance details. "I'm not really convinced that a move to a county police force is the right move at this time," said Wayne Hollenbaugh, an Eldersburg resident who has lived in Carroll since the 1970s.

Waste disposal, a county police force, water shortages and budget cuts are among the top issues facing Carroll County, the Board of Commissioners said yesterday in the annual State of the County address. Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge, president of the board, delivered the remarks on behalf of all three commissioners at a luncheon in Westminster hosted by the county Chamber of Commerce. In a 20-minute speech to an audience of about 200, Gouge discussed the challenges ahead, and accomplishments in the previous year.

Officers, deputies need better benefits During recent weeks there has been much written concerning policing in Carroll County. The recent budget hearings involving the requests from the Carroll County Sheriff's Office and Maryland State Police concerning the resident trooper program has fueled this debate. What has unfortunately been lost is the actual issue, which is a fair and standard retirement and disability plan for members of sheriff's services, not who will be primary - the sheriff's office or a county police force.

Carroll County, the last jurisdiction in Maryland to rely on the state police for local law enforcement, will phase out the expensive program in favor of its own force, officials said yesterday. Bowing to the pressures of its population growth, which stretched thin the manpower the Maryland State Police was willing to devote to a resident trooper program, the Carroll County commissioners agreed that they will have to begin planning for a transition soon. Replacing Carroll's resident troopers with local sheriff's deputies or a new county police force should take three to five years, state police Superintendent Col. Thomas E. "Tim" Hutchins and the county commissioners said during a meeting yesterday to discuss the transition.

These days, Cameron Brown, a starting guard at Goucher, embraces the same routine that drove him away from college life two years ago. On most mornings, the Owings Mills resident makes the 15-minute commute, takes two classes, studies for 2 1/2 hours and then heads to basketball practice. But unpredictability was the norm - as well as the attraction -after Brown left school for 17 months to become a patrol officer for the Baltimore County Police Department. For much of his eight-month stint responding to calls to the Wilkins Precinct, that's the way he liked it. "I wanted a job that provided a [different challenge]

Carroll's police study committee is recommending that the county askthe state for a commitment to continue the resident trooper program.The committee also recommends that Carroll continue to pay all the costs of maintaining resident troopers -- even if the state gives acommitment to the program.Although the state provides Carroll with the troopers, the countypicks up the cost. Before Maryland's budget crisis began, the state picked up 25 percent of the costs of state police protection.Commissioners are scheduled to receive the committee's recommendations Wednesday.

Carroll County will have to pony up $250,000 this year to pay for 19 new cruisers furnished to resident State Police troopers who effectively serve as the county's police department.It's a reminder of the mounting expense involved in Carroll's resident trooper program, the only such force in the Baltimore metropolitan area. It should also prod the county commissioners to take the first step toward establishing a county police force.A study committee created by the county commissioners last year recommended the phase-in of a county police force over five years, beginning this July.

This year's race for Baltimore County sheriff pits an incumbent with more than three decades of experience in the Baltimore Police Department against a builder and home improvement contractor who has never worked in law enforcement. R. Jay Fisher, a Democrat, is running for his second term against Timothy J. Caldwell, who switched to the Republican Party in 2002 after an unsuccessful run for the Democratic Central Committee. The contest is one of several contested courthouse races. Republican Stephen Bailey and Democrat Scott D. Shellenberger are vying for the job being vacated by longtime county State's Attorney Sandra A. O'Connor.

County growth tests emergency resources In a situation increasingly common across America, where suburban sprawl gobbles up rural areas and their country ways, rapidly urbanizing Carroll is showing signs of outgrowing its public-safety infrastructure. Its population has increased by nearly a quarter over the past decade, one of the fastest growth rates in the state. But it still relies on volunteer firefighters, contract paramedics and a patchwork of town police, a sheriff's department and state troopers assigned to the local barracks.