K 9 Unit

Ace, a pumpkin-colored, 3-year-old German shepherd, stared mournfully through the wire door of his cage, looking very much like a lost puppy."You can see that the dog has been traumatized," said Lt. Michael P. Howe, head of the Baltimore County K-9 unit. "You can almost see the sadness in the dog's eyes."Ace's handler, Officer James E. Beck, 40, was critically wounded Oct. 31, shot three times after stopping two robbery suspects on Pulaski Highway in Rosedale.Three weeks after the shooting, Officer Beck remains in critical condition at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, recovering from two gunshot wounds to the chest and another to his left shoulder.

The Baltimore Police Department on Thursday added to the growing wave of video valentines to the Ravens on the eve of the AFC championship game against the new England Patriots. Among the cast of hundreds: a mounted unit, a K-9 unit, homicide cops, the bigwigs and a group that seemed pretty conversant with hand-to-hand combat. Based on the production values, it appears only single digits of your tax dollars were at work here. So enjoy! Let us count the ways: 0:19: Pro-Ravens freestyle posturing underscored by coordinated pink lipstick.

A police trial board has recommended that a 31-year-old Annapolis officer be suspended for 10 days without pay for failing to keep his K-9 dog on a leash and filing a false report.Officer Keith L. Brown was also found guilty of unbecoming conduct by the three-member board Friday, but five other charges against him were dismissed. Police Chief Harold Robbins will review and act on the board's recommendation.A complaint was filed against Officer Brown after he left his dog with a fellow officer while investigating a shooting Aug. 25, 1991, at one of the city's public housing projects.

Seeking to bolster its response to 911 calls, the Baltimore Police Department on Wednesday announced that it is moving more than 40 officers out of specialized units and into patrol districts.  Changes had been hinted at since the arrival of Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts, who said he wanted to shift more resources to the patrol division, whose officers respond to most citizen complaints. "Commissioner Batts met with community groups, and visited [district] rolls calls where officers literally asked for more boots on the ground," said police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

Pfc. Timothy Wiley enjoys the limelight about as much as his canine partner likes to be left behind on a police call, so he looked at his feet and smiled shyly while he talked yesterday about his selection as Howard County Police Officer of the Year for 2001. "This is not my kind of thing, but I'm very honored and appreciative," Wiley said in an interview. The K-9 unit officer was given the department's top honor at a ceremony last night during which, to his relief, he did not have to give an acceptance speech.

The Hampstead Police Department is about $3,000 short of the money it needs to establish a K-9 unit, officials said Friday.Police Chief R. Kenneth Meekins said the department has applied for a state grant that would cover 75 percent of the expenses associated with establishing a K-9 unit.The state grant would cover $28,722 of the $38,296 it would cost for the dog, training, veterinary care and a four-wheel-drive vehicle.To qualify for the state funding, the police department has to raise the remaining $9,574.

Howard County Sheriff Chuck Cave has announced a donation of $5,000 to the Sheriff's K-9 Unit by Milk-Bone and Giant Food. A ceremony was held yesterday at Giant Food, 4715 Dorsey Hall Drive, Ellicott City. The money will be used to build a new kennel and a run area in the county government complex in Ellicott City for Bullet, the sheriff's dog for explosives cases. The dog and his handler, Deputy Don Chase, respond to calls about suspicious packages and suspected bombs. Bullet and Chase completed 16 weeks of training at the Baltimore County K9 Training Center to receive Maryland bomb-detection certification, and they continue to train for 16 hours a month.

A 40-year-old corporal in the Prince George's County Police Department claimed in a federal lawsuit filed Friday that she was rejected for a position in the department's K-9 unit because of her age and sex.In the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, Cpl. Judith L. McClosky, a 12-year veteran, seeks $21.1 million in damages.It was the third sexual discrimination suit filed against the department in two years, County Attorney Michael Whalen said yesterday. He declined to comment on Corporal McClosky's suit until he had seen it.Jules R. Bricker, attorney for Corporal McClosky, said the other suits are pending.

A 19-year-old man was tracked by a K-9 unit and arrested by county police Sunday after he tried to elude them at his Annapolis hotel.According to the police report, at 12:29 a.m., officers went to the Howard Johnson Motel on Revell Highway to arrest Ronald Dale Frantum, of no fixed address, for failing to appear in court on charges of theft, trespassing and driving with a suspended license.When Mr. Frantum spotted the officers, he ran into the woods. A police dog tracked Mr. Frantum to Old Pine Court, in the Whispering Woods area of Annapolis, where he was arrested.

REDMOND, Wash. -- Using his outfit as an entree, a gun-wielding man in a dog costume robbed an arcade here.Police said the man, dressed in a full-body dog suit, approached the closed arcade shortly after 10 a.m. Sunday and signaled to an employee inside.The man told the employee he was supposed to be at a party at a business with a similar name but had gone to the wrong location.After coming inside ostensibly to use the phone, he pulled out a handgun, took cash from the register and tied up the employee in the office.

The K-9 unit of Baltimore County Police was called to the scene of an accident in Parkton on Friday to look for the driver of a car who fled the scene. Maryland State Police were the first to respond to an accident on April 27 at 12:47 a.m. on northbound Interstate 83 at Exit 27, Mt. Carmel Road. State police said a 1999 Toyota struck the back of a tractor-trailer and the car caught on fire. The tractor-trailer driver was not injured, police said. Witnesses told police that the lone occupant of the Toyota fled from the scene and ran across the southbound lanes of I-83 and into nearby woods.

A K-9 security team will be dispatched to patrol five Baltimore-area malls to beef up security at the properties, mall owner General Growth Properties announced Tuesday as the holiday shopping season gets under way. The team of two German shepherds will monitor activity at Harborplace & The Gallery, Towson Town Center, White Marsh Mall, The Mall in Columbia and Mondawmin Mall. While General Growth officials said no single crime or incident prompted the use of the K-9 unit, the new security plan comes after several high-profile crimes at Mondawmin this summer, including a robbery in which a gunman escaped with $100,000 worth of watches and jewelry from Elite Gold & Diamond.

James D.M. Muldowney, a retired police officer who had been assigned to the Baltimore Police Department canine unit for nearly 30 years, died Tuesday of complications from Alzheimer's disease at Nichols Senior Care in Edgewood. The former longtime Overlea resident was 68. Mr. Muldowney was born and raised in Heckscherville, Pa., and served in the Navy from 1957 to 1961 as an underwater demolitions expert at the naval base in Little Creek, Va. After his discharge from the Navy, Mr.

He might have been bored, lonely or just plain mischievous. Only Leo, a Baltimore County police dog, knows why he unlatched his kennel Monday night, pushed open a door at the county canine facility and trotted off into the streets. His escape prompted a five-hour search that included officers from a nearby precinct, officers from the special operations division and a helicopter, county police said yesterday. And had it not been for a woman who specializes in tracking down missing dogs, Leo might still be on the lam. Around 6:30 p.m. Monday, an alarm went off at the Baltimore County Police Department's K-9 Unit on Park Drive in the Baltimore Highlands area.

Pfc. Timothy Wiley enjoys the limelight about as much as his canine partner likes to be left behind on a police call, so he looked at his feet and smiled shyly while he talked yesterday about his selection as Howard County Police Officer of the Year for 2001. "This is not my kind of thing, but I'm very honored and appreciative," Wiley said in an interview. The K-9 unit officer was given the department's top honor at a ceremony last night during which, to his relief, he did not have to give an acceptance speech.

Baltimore police have added five new members to their force in recent weeks - European police dogs capable of sniffing for drugs or explosives or taking down suspects with a fierce bite. A private foundation donated the money to purchase the dogs from a Belgian trainer, who delivered two of the dogs Saturday and three others nearly a month ago to the department's K-9 unit. The five - two Belgian shepherds and three Belgian Malinois - join 19 others owned by the Baltimore force. The dogs have brown or tan coats with black faces.

On a half-acre lot surrounded by a chain-link fence, Toby strained at the leash toward six wooden boxes, each about the size of a large industrial washing machine. In one of them, a man was hiding."Come on out," growled Officer Louis E. Gianotti, a 21-year police veteran. "I'm cutting the dog loose." The initial warning went unheeded. After a few sniffs here and a whimper there, a brownish-black blur of German shepherd ferociously lunged through a box door and dragged out a man dressed in blue.

A B&R cab driver was robbed of $70 and the keys to his cab Friday night by a man who threatened to "blow his head off" after being taken to Fourth Avenue and Marshall Road, county police said.Thomas D. Wood, 37, had picked up a fare about 8:40 p.m. Friday night at a Giant Food store located on Ritchie Highway at Shelly Road. The man asked Mr. Wood to take him to the 200 block of Fourth Ave.Upon their arrival, the passenger placed an object against the right side of Mr. Wood's neck. "This is a robbery, man. Give me the keys," the suspect reportedly told Mr. Wood.

Howard County Sheriff Chuck Cave has announced a donation of $5,000 to the Sheriff's K-9 Unit by Milk-Bone and Giant Food. A ceremony was held yesterday at Giant Food, 4715 Dorsey Hall Drive, Ellicott City. The money will be used to build a new kennel and a run area in the county government complex in Ellicott City for Bullet, the sheriff's dog for explosives cases. The dog and his handler, Deputy Don Chase, respond to calls about suspicious packages and suspected bombs. Bullet and Chase completed 16 weeks of training at the Baltimore County K9 Training Center to receive Maryland bomb-detection certification, and they continue to train for 16 hours a month.

The Hampstead Police Department is about $3,000 short of the money it needs to establish a K-9 unit, officials said Friday.Police Chief R. Kenneth Meekins said the department has applied for a state grant that would cover 75 percent of the expenses associated with establishing a K-9 unit.The state grant would cover $28,722 of the $38,296 it would cost for the dog, training, veterinary care and a four-wheel-drive vehicle.To qualify for the state funding, the police department has to raise the remaining $9,574.