Police Review

Howard County police are reviewing how they disseminate information on their community notification system after residents complained about early-morning calls they received July 23. An automated call went out about 5 a.m. after an autistic teen visiting from New Jersey left a Columbia house about 3:15 a.m. and couldn't be found despite a search that included the use of policedogs and a helicopter. "We typically don't have alerts go out until 6 a.m. but we were very concerned about waiting because of the high temperatures and the fact that he couldn't provide his name if anyone found him," said police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn.

It's time for Baltimore to shut its speed cameras down. On Friday, the vendor that runs the city's program reported that several cameras have error rates as high as 5 percent, and it doesn't know exactly why. Those cameras are no longer issuing tickets. That's a positive step, and so are several others city officials are making or considering in response to questions about the cameras. But the only way the city is going to restore trust that its intention is to foster public safety, not to generate millions in revenue, is to turn the cameras off until it thoroughly reviews the program and makes whatever changes are necessary to ensure the tickets are accurate and fair.

CITIZEN oversight of local police is essential. However, establishing an independent civilian review board to oversee discipline of Baltimore police officers is not.Independent civilian review boards have merit in some cities where they help restore the public's willingness to file complaints once police officials have demonstrated that they are unable or unwilling to discipline officers.This is not the case in Baltimore. The vast majority of police officers are committed to protecting individual rights, adhering to law and policy and providing a high degree of service.

When members of Baltimore County's tactical unit burst into a Reisterstown home this summer, they were looking for potentially armed suspects in the attempted murder of a 15-year-old boy. But in the chaos of the raid, Officer Carlos Artson shot and killed the home's owner - who was not a suspect - after he thrust a large sword at the officer, police said. That raid - and its outcome - mirrored a 2005 Baltimore County police action, in which officers equipped with a battering ram and flash grenades stormed into a Dundalk home to search for drugs.

The Baltimore City Council introduced a resolution last night supporting a civilian police review board.Baltimore Democratic State Sen. Ralph M. Hughes introduced legislation last month that would create an 18-member panel to examine the conduct of police officers. Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, who has opposed previous efforts to create the board, is supporting the legislation that would give the board subpoena power to call witnesses, gather documents and discipline officers.Southwest Baltimore Councilman Norman A. Handy Sr. introduced the resolution last night.

After more than six years of trying, Baltimore lawmakers won final approval in the General Assembly last night to create a civilian police review board.The state Senate voted unanimously to approve the citizen panel, which would conduct independent investigations of complaints against city police officers. The bill awaits only the governor's signature."This is a board whose time has come," said Sen. Nathaniel J. McFadden, chairman of the city's Senate delegation. "This will give a chance for regular folks to know that their concerns about the police will be taken seriously."

A legislative committee gave new life yesterday to a bill that would create a civilian police review board in Baltimore, voting unanimously to send the measure to the Senate floor.Until yesterday's vote in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, the bill was idle in both houses of the General Assembly at a time when movement is crucial to secure passage.The bill, which would create a citizen panel to review allegations of police misconduct in Baltimore, has support from the city's mayor, council, police commissioner, police union and its state legislators.

Legislation that would create a citizen board in Baltimore to hear complaints against police has stalled in the General Assembly and might die at the hands of two powerful committee chairmen, neither of whom lives in the city.The bill's supporters say Baltimore residents have long demanded a civilian board to provide an unbiased look at charges of police misconduct. The proposal won widespread support from the city's legislators, as well as the mayor, the City Council, the police commissioner and the police union.

Sykesville is considering hiring a consultant to evaluate its Police Department, survey residents on law enforcement issues and recommend public safety improvements. The study would occur as Chief Wallace P. Mitchell retires after 12 years leading the six-member police force, and could help the town in its search for Mitchell's successor. "It is important that the town operate as efficiently as possible, and sometimes an outsider can give us a fresh perspective," said Mayor Jonathan S. Herman of the study.

With relations between Annapolis' police and black residents at a seven-year low, city leaders are resisting persistent demands that a civilian panel be set up to review complaints about police brutality and misconduct.Most officials say that they don't want one, that police review panels work best in cities, unlike their own, with predominantly minority populations. Above all, they say, a better defense against police racism is in place -- a black chief dedicated to rooting it out.Still, two years into Chief Joseph S. Johnson's reign as the first black chief in a city where a third of the population is black, the department is experiencing its worse problems in the black community since 1989.

A man fatally shot by a Baltimore County police officer Sunday through a closed glass storm door had charged at the officer while brandishing a large knife after his girlfriend told a 911 operator that he was "fixing to get someone hurt," authorities said. Officers had also been told that the man was suicidal and his girlfriend had told dispatchers that the "first person who comes near him will get stabbed. " "He was a very dangerous individual," said police spokeswoman Elise Armacost, who quoted from a transcript of the emergency call to blunt criticism from witnesses who called the shooting unjustified.

Howard County police are reviewing how they disseminate information on their community notification system after residents complained about early-morning calls they received July 23. An automated call went out about 5 a.m. after an autistic teen visiting from New Jersey left a Columbia house about 3:15 a.m. and couldn't be found despite a search that included the use of policedogs and a helicopter. "We typically don't have alerts go out until 6 a.m. but we were very concerned about waiting because of the high temperatures and the fact that he couldn't provide his name if anyone found him," said police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn.

Authorities continued to search Thursday for a man with a hammer and a shotgun who attacked a speed enforcement vehicle on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway near BWI airport, according to a state police spokesman. Police provided a more thorough description, saying he is a white male in his 50s or 60s with a pot belly, about 6 feet tall and 210 pounds. He was wearing glasses, a plaid flannel shirt and blue jeans, and might have been carrying a dark-colored backpack. State police spokesman Gregory M. Shipley said investigators have no substantial leads and that there is no evidence that the attack was motivated by objections to the use of speed cameras for traffic enforcement.

Baltimore police began an evaluation Friday of the shooting at Johns Hopkins Hospital to determine whether police or hospital employees missed signals that might have prevented a man from wounding a doctor and then killing his mother and himself. "Was there a clue we could have picked up?" Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III asked. "It's important that we go back and critique this for the safety of all Baltimoreans. " Johns Hopkins officials, meanwhile, said they had "full confidence" in the hospital security staff but would review and assess security procedures to determine whether they can be improved, including taking a new look at the use of metal detectors.

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said Sunday that his department would work to improve how it categorizes and resolves rape investigations, responding to a newspaper report that found Baltimore has the nation's highest rate of cases that officers conclude are false or baseless. The Baltimore Sun story prompted Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to order an audit of the department's procedures and statistics. The mayor met with Bealefeld on Friday to discuss the issue.

The Baltimore Police Department plans to review its rules regarding officers carrying of firearms while off-duty in the wake of a fatal shooting involving an officer out for a night on the town. The internal review is being undertaken as a matter of course and not because the rules "aren't strict enough," Anthony Guglielmi, the department's chief spokesman, said Monday. Of particular interest is whether off-duty officers should be permitted to carry guns when they expect to be drinking alcohol.

Approximately 2,500 county residents have signed a petition calling for the County Council to establish a civilian review board that would investigate alleged police misconduct.The petition, presented Wednesday to County Council Chairman C. Vernon Gray, asks the county'sCitizen's Advisory Council on Public Safety to consider the review board.Complaints against county police are investigated by an internal review board comprised of county officers.The advisory council onpublic safety is studying the police department's policies but has not yet made a decision on whether it will recommend the creation of acivilian review board.