Howard County Police

Thanks to an upgraded, $12 million fingerprinting system, the state expects to make tens of thousands of hits on previously unmatchable fingerprints, and has already made more than 150 matches in Howard County alone. The new Maryland Automated Fingerprint Identification System allows law enforcement officials to make quicker, more accurate fingerprint hits with a Web-based, digitized system by producing high-definition fingerprint images - a system that state and law enforcement officials say is helping them make hits at a pace they've never seen.

A Columbia townhouse fire that left a 19-year-old woman in critical condition was set by her mother's spurned ex-boyfriend, Howard County police said yesterday. Scott Allen Pryor, 44, was arrested early yesterday in Edgewood, Harford County, and charged with multiple counts of attempted murder, arson, assault and burglary. Pryor had lived in the Long Reach townhouse for three years until last week, said Greta Val- denegro, a neighbor in the 5700 block of Flagflower Place, in the 35-year-old Heritage Walk development.

There is no shortage of criminals on the HBO series The Wire, but should producers want to add a burglar to the cast of Baltimore drug lords, addicts and murderers, Howard County police might have their man. The show's suburban soundstage - in Columbia, of all places - was the scene of a break-in over the weekend. Police said a security guard caught Michael Steven Arndt, 25, of Columbia walking through the immense concrete warehouse after he climbed in through a trash chute. Arndt was carrying an assortment of burglary tools, including a butane soldering torch, vise grip, pliers, flashlight, and rubber and leather gloves, police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn said.

Changes in the number of crimes identified by Howard County police from the first nine months of 2006 when compared with the same period in 2005 were negligible, according to statistics released Friday by police. Overall, criminal offenses dropped from 14,271 to 14,162, a decline of less than 1 percent. Violent crimes - homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults - rose by eight to 459, an increase of less than 2 percent. The five-year average is 411. Property crimes decreased from 5,394 to 5,247, a drop of almost 3 percent, thanks to a decline in thefts.

Police Department expresses gratitude There is no way to begin to express the Howard County Police Department's gratitude for the tremendous outpouring of support we received after the death of Cpl. Scott Wheeler. The day Scott was critically injured while conducting traffic enforcement was one of the worst in the department's history. As our police family huddled around Scott and the Wheeler family at the hospital, an even larger, extended family was mobilizing around the county. As word of Scott's death spread, members of our community rallied around us. We received offers of help every day, with words of support and encouragement.

Roger Miles called for his 10-year-old son, Harrison. He looked in every room of his Clarksville home, but could not find him. "We started frantically searching our neighborhood," said Miles, recalling the October 2004 incident. "I felt panicked. ... It was a very chaotic situation. We were totally blindsided. We didn't know what to do." Howard County police searched for Harrison, who has autism, finding him 45 minutes later. Harrison now benefits from Project Lifesaver, which outfits a person who is prone to wandering with a bracelet that emits an assigned radio frequency.

The owner of a Columbia burrito restaurant was fined $500 for allowing a 19-year old police "volunteer" to be served beer. Howard County police Detective Martin Johnson sent a police cadet and a volunteer into Frisco Burritos, in the 8865 Stanford Blvd., on Nov. 9. The volunteer was served a beer without any request for identification. While speaking with licensee Adam Carton, Johnson told the county Alcoholic Beverage Hearing Board, he also saw a man repeatedly walk outside the restaurant carrying a beer -- another rule infraction -- and found a 20-year old woman patron with an alcoholic drink.

Howard County police said yesterday that they arrested an Owings Mills man for breaking into cars at The Mall in Columbia and stealing two Global Positioning System devices. Tony Brown, 37, of the 900 block of Joshua Tree Court was taken into custody Thursday after a witness reported seeing a man break the window of a car in the mall parking lot. Since Nov. 30, police have received 23 reports of GPS units and other property being stolen from cars at the mall. Brown was charged with theft and destruction of property in the two cases reported Thursday, and police were continuing to investigate the other cases.

Demetrius Fortson considered becoming a police officer after he graduated from high school. Instead, he joined the Marine Corps and then worked for years as a correctional officer. Now, at age 40, Fortson is set to join the Howard County Police Department after graduating from the police academy as the oldest recruit in his class. Fortson, a member of the 30th class to graduate from the academy, said the training was physically and psychologically demanding but that being around the other recruits, many of whom were much younger, was "motivating, and it kept [me]

The Howard County Police Officer of the Month award, which highlights the achievements of the nearly 400 employees on the force, offers insight into criminal activity by students in the county's highly rated school system. Since the start of the 2006-2007 school year, two school resource officers have been chosen for the distinction in The Beat, a publication of the Howard County Police Department Office of Public Affairs. Summaries of the officers' accomplishments detail gang activity and theft at Hammond and Reservoir high schools.

Affordable senior complex planned in Randallstown Enterprise Housing Corp. is set to develop 9 acres in Randallstown into a $15.7 million affordable senior housing complex called the Greens at Liberty Road. Construction is expected to begin this month on the site in the 9700 block of Liberty Road, and to be completed in June 2011. The complex will include 105 rental units reserved for qualified residents 62 and older. The state is providing a $2 million tax credit. Baltimore County has agreed to a property tax reduction that amounts to about $150 per unit, and also has promised a $500,000 loan.

Man found shot in Walbrook dies at Shock Trauma Police responding to a report of a man struck by a vehicle at a Walbrook intersection Thursday night instead found a man who had been shot multiple times and died a short time later at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, said a city police spokesman. The man's name was withheld pending notification of family members, said Agent Donny Moses, the spokesman. No arrest had been made. About 9:30 p.m., Southwestern District police responded to Clifton Avenue and Denison Street for a personal injury accident where they found the man lying in the street, Moses said.

A stretch of U.S. 1 in Jessup and North Laurel that has long been known as a haven for prostitutes has recently gained another reputation: an area where police are cracking down on those looking to pay for sex. "I have seen some improvement," Howard County Council member Calvin Ball said last week, after police made more than 50 arrests in the area during the past two months. The arrests of 19 men Oct. 2 accused of soliciting female officers posing as prostitutes were the result of the second reverse prostitution operation in Laurel in less than a month and the third since a new undercover officer took over in August as the operation's lead detective.

Laurel brothers charged with attempted murder A pair of teenage brothers from Laurel have been charged in the attempted murder of a Washington taxi driver, who told police they had called him to give them a ride from the Greenbelt Metro station. Jeremiah Bridges, 17, and Justin Bridges, 16, of the 9200 block of Van Fleet Court, were also charged by Howard County police in the robbery and assault of Getachew Lima on Sept. 13. Lima reported that after driving the teens to their destination, they began choking and beating him. Police found Lima in his car in the 9100 block of Bourbon Court in Laurel.

Crofton man pleads guilty to shooting woman's dog A Crofton man pleaded guilty Friday to shooting the dog he and a woman were taking care of for a woman who was recovering from surgery. Philip J. Balboni, 25, admitted that he and Sarah N. Tavenello, 21, told the owner that if she could not immediately pick up the dog Feb. 25, they would take the animal to a shelter. Instead, he shot the dog, according to Anne Arundel County prosecutors. Balboni is scheduled to be sentenced in about a month, according to court records.

Howard County police have charged four people from Florida in a widespread scheme that authorities said involved stealing credit-card information, financial records and personal information from as many as 100 victims in four states. On Aug. 10, police were called to the Best Western hotel in the 6700 block of Dorsey Road in Elkridge after a housekeeper found suspicious documents in a room's trash can. When police tried to stop one of the room's occupants as she drove near the hotel, she sped away and later collided with three Howard County police cars.

Woman reports rape try at Convention Center Police disclosed Thursday that a 24-year-old woman was the victim of an attempted rape Saturday morning in front of the Baltimore Convention Center. According to a copy of the police report, the woman was walking in the 300 block of Sharp St. near Pratt Street about 6:30 a.m. when she was approached by a man who grabbed her from behind and began choking her, preventing her from screaming. She said the man forcibly pulled her underwear off then called for someone to pick them up, according to police.

The confrontation is becoming heated. "Get off my leg," the suspect says, face-down on the bathroom floor. Two police officers struggle to handcuff him, and after getting him to his feet, the suspect comments on how the cuffs behind his back are a bit cockeyed. The room bursts into laughter. "This is where you can make mistakes," Howard County police officer Glen Weir says. Weir is talking to Colin Irwin, a 16-year-old rising junior at Centennial High School, and his 15-year-old partner, Amani Jones, who'll be a sophomore at Glenelg High School.

Howard County police are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding a child left forgotten in a car seat who died of hyperthermia in a stifling vehicle. A neighbor found the 23-month old Ellicott City girl strapped in a car seat in a vehicle parked outside her home one week ago, police said Wednesday, apparently after her mother forgot she had left the toddler there about nine hours earlier. The identity of the child and her parents have not been released, but police said the girl was found in front of a home in the 3100 block of Edgewood Drive.

A Maryland Transit Administration police officer has been charged with raping a 15-year-old Elkridge girl who asked him for help finding her way home on the light rail, according to charging documents. Officer Donald Brown was taken into custody June 24 after Howard County police were contacted by a case worker for a local foster care organization. The girl told police that she thought she was being escorted to a police station to make arrangements to get home but was instead taken to Brown's top-floor apartment in downtown Baltimore, where they had sex. He then gave her $25 to get back home and told her to leave, according to police.