NEWS
By Liz Bowie | May 12, 2007
Police officers assigned to a small Eastern Shore high school arrested more than a dozen students in recent months for what critics say was simply misbehavior - prompting investigations by the NAACP and the Maryland attorney general's office. In one case, a 14-year-old girl known as a good student was handcuffed and escorted to the principal's office for talking back to an officer and refusing to sit down. The spate of arrests at Crisfield High School apparently began after the town Police Department stationed an officer at the high school in January.
NEWS
By Gus G. Sentementes | September 1, 2007
The Baltimore police officer who shot and killed a man during a struggle for his service weapon on a Northwest Baltimore street early Thursday had previously shot four people, including one man fatally in 1994, according to department records. All four previous shootings were ruled justified, a Police Department spokesman said yesterday. The latest incident is under investigation. The officer was identified yesterday as Arthur Lee Edmondson Jr., a 19-year veteran assigned to the Northwestern District.
NEWS
By Arin Gencer | February 12, 2007
A Brooklyn Park man died after suffering several gunshot wounds early yesterday, Annapolis police said. Terrence Anthony Powell, 23, was killed in the first block of College Creek Terrace, where police had responded to a call about 4:45 a.m. reporting shots fired and a person possibly injured, said Officer 1st Class Kevin Freeman of the Annapolis Police Department. Powell died at the scene, Freeman said. The police investigation was continuing.
NEWS
By Julie Scharper | January 15, 2007
Harlow Fullwood Jr., a former Baltimore police officer who made his fortune operating fried-chicken franchises and established a foundation that has helped more than 1,000 students attend college, died of diabetes complications Saturday at Woodbridge Valley ManorCare in Catonsville. He was 65. Mr. Fullwood died just hours after his foundation's annual benefit and award breakfast, which was attended by more than 2,000. "He was holding on to make sure that everything went on as he scheduled it to go," said his daughter, Paquita Fullwood-Stokes of Randallstown.
NEWS
By Julie Bykowicz | August 8, 2007
With evidence missing in two cases of officers accused of rape, the Baltimore Police Department has asked the Maryland State Police to store all evidence in future police misconduct investigations. Greg Shipley, state police spokesman, said his agency has verbally agreed to the plan, and lawyers are reviewing a memorandum of understanding before it is made final. City prosecutors also are reviewing the proposal to ensure that no chain-of-custody issues would arise in court. The move comes after two incidents in which important items in the city Police Department's evidence control unit turned up missing.
NEWS
By Scott Calvert | May 15, 2007
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- When he read that the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department was looking for recruits with rugby player physiques, Emile Engelbrecht knew he fit the bill at 6-foot-4, 230 pounds. But it was another trait explicitly sought by the department's brass that made him apply to be an officer: white skin. "Maybe I am the perfect candidate at this stage," said the 31-year-old. "They saw they made a mistake, and they need us white guys to help do the work." Having gone from a white-dominated force to a black-dominated one in the 13 years since apartheid's demise, the Johannesburg police force now says the pendulum has swung too far. Much of the change occurred in the 1990s as whites left in droves, often for private security jobs, and hiring black officers became a top priority.
NEWS
by a sun reporter | March 7, 2007
The Howard County Police Department will soon have another weapon in its arsenal, and Chief William J. McMahon hopes it will quell disturbances more swiftly and with less force. The County Council approved the department's use of Tasers, which fire electric probes into the skin to incapacitate a person. The right to employ the hand-held stun guns in the county was also extended to law enforcement officers from other jurisdictions. But the Sheriff's Department and Howard County Department of Corrections will be prohibited from using the devices, at least until an analysis is completed of the first six months of the program.
NEWS
By Julie Bykowicz | August 9, 2007
Morgan State students who staged a shooting in an effort to dodge military service agreed yesterday to guilty pleas that will have them paying $22,500 to the Baltimore Police Department. David Briggs, Phillip Anderson and Xavier Marshall each pleaded guilty to charges of reckless endangerment, giving a false statement to officers and wearing, carrying or transporting a handgun. Each was sentenced to five years, with all but time served suspended. Each will serve three years' probation, and each will pay $7,500 to the Police Department under the plea deal.
NEWS
By Sumathi Reddy | May 1, 2007
After a deadly weekend with six city homicides, Mayor Sheila Dixon outlined yesterday her long-awaited crime-fighting strategy, which includes targeting the most dangerous offenders, cracking down on illegal guns and strengthening community partnerships. Many of the proposals expand on existing initiatives, such as the city's safe zones, and resurrect old crime-fighting strategies, such as zeroing in on Baltimore's most violent offenders - an approach heralded by noted criminologist David Kennedy, who worked with the city in the late 1990s and was consulted on the current plan.
NEWS
By Gus G. Sentementes | September 26, 2007
Authorities are blaming miscommunication between police officers and an emergency dispatcher for sending an ambulance to the wrong address after Friday's pit bull attack on a young girl in Southwest Baltimore. As a result, paramedics didn't arrive at the scene until 18 minutes after they were first dispatched. By that time, a city sheriff's deputy had shot and killed the dog, and 7-year-old Kayla Mitchell lay bleeding on the street as police officers and onlookers made frantic calls to 911 seeking an ambulance, which had been dispatched to the 1800 block of Ramsay St. instead of the 1400 block, where the attack occurred.