Police District

I attended my first felon "call-in" the other night, and came away thinking: Why haven't we been doing this, once a month in every Baltimore police district, for the last 20 years? If you've never heard the term before, don't feel bad. When I asked an officer at the front desk of the Western District where the "call-in" was being held, he didn't seem to know what I was talking about. He directed me to what he called a "community meeting" through doors and down a hall. But this was like no community meeting I've ever seen.

As Baltimore County has grown, its police department has moved over the years into new facilities in places like White Marsh, Towson and Reisterstown. But the opening of a station house today in Pikesville is, department officials say, unlike any in more than half a century. The others were built to replace antiquated facilities. The brick-and-glass building in Pikesville is for a newly created precinct. The new Precinct 4 is designed to enable a team of officers to focus on the law enforcement needs of the Pikesville area while relieving some of the burden of covering the fast-growing neighboring police district that stretches northwest to Reisterstown and beyond.

George H. Deuchler Jr., who joined Baltimore's Police Department as a beat patrolman and rose through the ranks to become its deputy commissioner during a career spanning more than three decades, died in his sleep April 16 at his Pasadena home. He was 94. "There is not enough time in the day to tell people how great this man was. He was a great police officer and gentleman," said William V. Treherne, a retired Baltimore police sergeant. "The only thing he missed was being commissioner, and I don't think he ever wanted it."

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes from police reports in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Baltimore City Northeastern District Shooting: A male, 19, was in critical condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center yesterday after being shot about 11:15 p.m. Tuesday in a house in the 1600 block of E. Northern Parkway. Police found Tavon Cooper of the 2200 block of Park Ave. lying in a room. He had been shot at least once in the upper body. No arrest has been made and no motive was known.

After discovering possible contamination of tests to determine whether a suspect could have fired a gun, the Baltimore Police Department has changed its test policy and warned prosecutors that some of their cases could contain faulty evidence. The city state's attorney's office said this week that it has known of the problem with gunshot residue tests since late July but has not alerted all defense attorneys - notification the city public defender's office says should have come long ago. Neither the police, prosecutors nor defense attorneys know how many criminal cases have been affected by potential contamination, although they say the number is probably small.

Starting today, Howard County's northern police district will be a little larger. The district is being expanded to embrace Long Reach village of Columbia. The Police Department is making the switch to try to balance the workloads of officers in the southern and northern police districts. Southern District officers have been handling the majority of the county's calls for service in recent years. In 1999, the Southern District responded to about 66,000 - 61 percent - of the county's 108,000 calls for service.

Another September has come and gone, and the city's new Northern District police station still stands unfinished on Cold Spring Lane - a year behind its original completion date. At a groundbreaking ceremony in September 1998, then-Director of Public Works George G. Balog vowed to finish the job in exactly one year. His successor, George L. Winfield, estimated Friday that the building will be done in about two months, according to a statement released by his aides. A number of problems have delayed the $4.8 million project: contaminated soil, most likely from an adjacent old landfill; re-engineering work because of Loyola College's interest in nearby woodlands; and a recommended construction schedule the city said hasn't been followed.

A day after a regional press association survey found that the average Marylander has a 50-50 chance of getting public records on demand, reporters tried again to see police documents that state law says are theirs for the asking. And the results were worse. Yesterday, The Sun sent reporters to state and local police precincts in a half-dozen jurisdictions in the metropolitan area to ask for basic police reports defined as public information under state law. The reporters did not immediately identify themselves as members of the media.

A couple of weeks ago, an article appeared in Perspective under the headline, "Is O'Malley ignoring the past?" It consisted of an introduction written by me and excerpts from a report on the urban riots of the 1960s. The report was released by the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, a bipartisan group created by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson. The president wanted to know what caused the riots and how to prevent more from occurring. A re-examination of the report was timely because Mayor Martin O'Malley and Baltimore's new police commissioner, Edward T. Norris, advocate aggressive police tactics to bring down Baltimore's homicide rate, which has been stuck at more than 300 a year for the last decade.

Trying to ease fears about police tactics, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley publicly introduced yesterday an oversight committee staffed with residents who will scrutinize officers' behavior. The Civilian Review Board has subpoena power and a private investigator. Though its decisions are not binding, O'Malley said his choice for police commissioner, Edward T. Norris, will take recommendations seriously. The 11-member board was established by the General Assembly last year, before O'Malley was elected.