Patrol

Baltimore County police announced yesterday that during a 10-week intensified patrol of Liberty Road they made 17 drunken-driving arrests and issued more than 4,000 traffic tickets.Forty county police officers, working with the Motor Vehicle Administration on one of the county's most dangerous stretches of highway, also cited 180 motorists for driving on suspended or revoked licenses.During the project, which began June 28 and increased the visibility of patrols in the Liberty Road corridor, armed robberies also declined in the area by 59 percent over the same period the previous year.

By day he's a mechanic. By rush hour, he's Captain Courtesy.But J.B. Webb is no ordinary superhero. Grateful motorists have been known to call him a "knight in shining armor." The thank-you notes he has collected over the years gush with praise.Superman may leap tall buildings in a single bound, but rarely does he have jumper cables or a can of unleaded gasoline in the back of his truck. Captain Courtesy would never arrive so ill-prepared."I'm from the South. Everybody down there knows you're supposed to help each other out," said Mr. Webb, a native of La Follette, Tenn.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III outlined the city's Independence Day security plan Monday evening, in the wake of an early morning shooting downtown near the Inner Harbor, where thousands are expected to gather tonight for the fireworks. "Several hundred uniformed and plainclothes police officers" from the city, as well as the Maryland State Police, the Maryland Transit Administration and the Maryland Transportation Authority were deployed to "ensure that we have a secure and safe July 4 t h celebration," Bealefeld said.

Within 15 seconds of pulling over a black Jeep Wrangler in Clarksville for running a red light, Howard County Cpl. Victor Broccolino knew the year of the car, whether the tag was valid and whether the owner had any points or an outstanding warrant. He knew because a robotic voice told him. That voice came from a rugged-looking laptop, the Panasonic Toughbook, which is encased in metal and thick plastic. Every Howard County patrol car has a portable computer, which is mounted on the center console.

KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S. military said its warplanes and helicopters killed up to 20 suspected Taliban members in southern Afghanistan yesterday morning while coming to the aid of a U.S. patrol under attack by the militants. After the fighting, reinforcements of U.S. and Afghan troops were sent to the area to scour for more Taliban, said Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara, a spokesman at Bagram Air Base. The clash was another indication of the recent resurgence of Taliban activity in southern Afghanistan.

PALOMINAS, Ariz. - After a week camped near the Mexican border as part of a loose-knit volunteer patrol, brothers David and Robert Hogan, mild-mannered engineers who drove 23 hours from their hometown in rural Illinois for this, had yet to spot an immigrant crossing illegally into the United States. Undaunted, if somewhat sunburned, the Hogan brothers took this as a good sign. Their relatively quiet tour last week along what is considered one of the most porous parts of the U.S. border with Mexico was proof, they said, that the monthlong citizen watch known as the Minuteman Project worked.

For 23 years, Howard County police Sgt. John Belding struggled to keep his easygoing nature as he investigated 67 fatal traffic accidents and responded to hundreds of messy domestic disputes.Even when motorists insulted him during traffic stops and society placed ever more demands on its police officers, Belding kept his perspective by taking long foot patrols on nature trails and working on model trains after grueling 12-hour days.But the job, and its stresses, finally overcame the 52-year-old who took his last patrol along "The Boulevard" -- U.S. 1 -- yesterday and retired.

With Christmas shoppers hitting the stores earlier every year, Anne Arundel County police began holiday patrols a week early this season too, sending officers and undercover detectives to shopping malls and centers Friday afternoon."

From the quiet, tree-lined streets of Roland Park to the gritty drug corners of Rosemont, Baltimore police are trying a fundamentally different crime-fighting strategy: two officers in a car. Officers are doubling up in every cruiser in every area of the city, strengthening police presence on the streets. Partnering, more commonly used in bigger cities, might surprise residents used to seeing lone officers. The primary reason for the new approach is the vast crime problem evident on street corners, communal gathering places from which much of the city's open-air drug trade is directed.

It never happens this way on the commercials. Sometimes people answer the door in curlers or a bathrobe; sometimes they look perfectly put together. Sometimes they let loose with an ear-splitting shriek, and sometimes they cry. But they're always home. "Hello! Hellllllo!" shouts the woman knocking on the door of a home in a quiet Columbia cul-de-sac. "It's the Prize Patrol!" Yes, that Prize Patrol. From Publishers Clearing House, the magazine-sales company. They've come to Columbia in a shiny red van filled with roses, champagne, balloons and a big cardboard check (not as big as you might think, but we'll get to that in a moment)