Police Station

On a recent crossing from Mexico back to the U.S., I was stopped for an alleged traffic infraction in Tijuana. The police ended up taking me to an ATM, where I withdrew $500 in cash. Then they let me go. What could I have done? This situation is maddening at best and frightening at worst, and it is one of the dirty little secrets of travel. Extortion of visitors happens more often than is reported. It's not confined to Mexico, of course, but because so many U.S. residents cross the Mexican border so often, whether to enjoy Baja's beaches or to shop, we might get our turn on the horns of this dilemma.

RAMADI, Iraq -- Several hundred Iraqi soldiers and police conducted a house-to-house search yesterday through the dangerous Ta'meem neighborhood of this western city, while U.S. forces feverishly began building an Iraqi police station in the one-time insurgent stronghold. U.S. and Iraqi commanders said the effort, dubbed Operation Casablanca, is a sign of the growing competency of the Iraqi forces in this provincial capital of Anbar province, the heart of the Sunni insurgency. The Iraqi forces searched apartment buildings and businesses for suspected insurgents.

The staffing shortage that has left Baltimore police struggling to fill patrol cars has forced one commander to take the unprecedented step of closing a police station to the public in the early morning.Over the past several weeks, visitors to the Northeastern District on Argonne Drive between midnight and 7 a.m. were greeted with a sign on the public entrance advising them to call 911 in an emergency. A pay phone is next to the door.People trying to call the district's main number between those hours didn't fare much better.

Residents in the westernmost parts of Anne Arundel County are disappointed that County Executive Janet S. Owens wants to sell a piece of land her predecessor bought for a police substation and recreation space in Maryland City.Although some of the newly elected officials in county government are calling the $1 million land transaction "wasteful" and say the deal violated long-practiced procedures for acquiring land, the way Maryland City and Laurel residents see it, they once again are being handed off as a political football.

The holding cells haven't been used in about six years, the roof leaks, the paint is peeling and prisoners are handcuffed to pipes as a security measure.But Sgt. Wayne Howard, who has spent 23 years assigned to Baltimore County police's Towson precinct, is going to miss the old Towson station house."It has a character to it that's all its own," said Howard, a 29-year veteran.County officials broke ground yesterday on a $5.1 million Towson police station at Bosley and Susquehanna avenues to replace the 72-year-old precinct house.

After two failed attempts to attract bids that match Hampstead's budget for a new police station, officials say the third round of bids to be opened tomorrow might yield a contract.Plans call for the former First National Bank building at 1112 Main St. to be renovated and transformed into a station by the spring, said Police Chief R. Kenneth Meekins Jr.The project would accomplish three goals: give a growing police force in a growing town a real station; preserve a historic and stately downtown building; and enhance Main Street with a public agency.

Howard County officials say they are prepared for the worst, but expect the best over the New Year's holiday.Beginning at midnight tomorrow, all county fire stations will open emergency help centers that will be staffed by police, paramedics and other county workers to help those who have lost power, heat or telephone service.The fire stations are:Elkridge: 275 Old Washington Blvd.Ellicott City: 4150 Montgomery Road and 9601 Route 99.West Friendship: 12460 Frederick Road.Lisbon: 1330 Route 94.Clarksville: 12335 Clarksville Pike.

I HAVE A confession to make: I've been Mirandized more times than I can remember. Well, sort of. I've never actually been arrested or hauled down to a police station. But like virtually everyone else in America, I've been treated to the Miranda warning countless times on television. Its words are burned into my brain as indelibly as the lyrics of "Hey, Jude" or "The Star-Spangled Banner."Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case, Dickerson vs. United States, that could result in the formal overruling of Miranda.

Hampstead could have a new police station as early as next summer after the Town Council voted last night to award a contract to a Towson company to renovate the former First National Bank building at 1112 Main St.James F. Knott Construction Co. Inc. submitted the lowest bid, at $698,000, by yesterday afternoon's deadline. The council met in the evening and voted to accept it. Five other bids were submitted, with the highest at $773,000."It's unfortunately a little higher than we were looking for, but it's a good number," said Councilman Stephen A. Holland.

Twenty-six years ago, the police station in Taneytown moved across the street. A month ago, city officials began considering moving it back.Too late, barber Marvin Flickinger told the City Council last night at a meeting during which the move was not resolved.Flickinger said moving the police station to its former location would be a traffic hazard and would eat up parking spaces that business owners on that side of the street rely on for their customers."It's your job to correct a traffic hazard and not create one," Flickinger said.

Man accused of dragging police officer is arrested A man charged in a warrant with assaulting a Western District police officer by dragging him with his vehicle was arrested Monday in Northeast Baltimore after a city-wide manhunt. Rickey Hughes, 27, of no fixed address was arrested in the 4300 block of Roberton Ave. by members of the Regional Warrant Apprehension Task Force and was being held Tuesday at Central Booking and Intake Center, said Agent Donny Moses, a police spokesman. On Oct. 1, Hughes appeared at the police station at Riggs Avenue and North Mount streets for a hearing with his probation officer when he learned he was to be arrested in a home invasion in Baltimore County a month earlier, police said.

Police seek information in shooting of Glen Burnie man A 25-year-old Glen Burnie man was shot in the back about 10:15 p.m. Wednesday in the 200 block of Woodhill Drive, Anne Arundel County police said. The man was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore for treatment of a wound that police said did not appear to be life-threatening. Police knew of no suspect or motive. Anyone with information on the shooting was asked to call the Northern District police station at 410-222-6135.

A Maryland Transit Administration police officer has been charged with raping a 15-year-old Elkridge girl who asked him for help finding her way home on the light rail, according to charging documents. Officer Donald Brown was taken into custody June 24 after Howard County police were contacted by a case worker for a local foster care organization. The girl told police that she thought she was being escorted to a police station to make arrangements to get home but was instead taken to Brown's top-floor apartment in downtown Baltimore, where they had sex. He then gave her $25 to get back home and told her to leave, according to police.

A group of Southwestern District officers accused of doing nothing to stop an alleged sexual assault at a police station in 2005 are among those cleared after a review of internal misconduct cases by the Baltimore Police Department found that the cases had been mishandled. Also dropped were administrative charges against several Eastern District officers accused of abusing overtime - in some cases doubling their salaries. The Police Department has dropped at least 50 cases in the fallout from the April firing of trial board prosecutor JoAnn C. Woodson-Branche, whom police union officials and defense attorneys have accused of manipulating the internal charging process and violating officers' due process rights.

One day this week, the Police Blotter came up short. There were too few crimes to fill the space in the newspaper, and Richard Irwin started calling the precincts in Baltimore County. "I came up with a hot tub theft in Parkville," he told me. "In Towson, I came up with the theft of an AK-47 rifle." And so the list grows, thanks in part to the seemingly endless supply of thieves, gunmen, miscreants and thugs who prey on the good citizens of Baltimore, their exploits recorded by the cops and reported in the papers, compiled and perused in print and online like baseball box scores.

McDonald's workers assaulted over refills Two employees at an Annapolis McDonald's were assaulted by customers Monday night, city police said. A female apparently became "enraged" at 1:05 p.m. when she was told she could not receive a free refill of iced tea at the West Street fast food restaurant because she had left the store. She yelled racial slurs and obscenities at the employee, then threw the cup of ice at him, missing and striking a wall. Police said a tag number was obtained, and the investigation is continuing.

The head of the Baltimore Police Department's internal investigations division will retire shortly, said Sterling Clifford, a police spokesman. Col. Walter J. Tuffy, who has been with the department for almost 27 years, will continue in his post until a new commander is named, Clifford said. In March, the Vanguard Justice Society, which represents black officers, called for the resignation of Tuffy and two others. The group spoke out after a black sergeant was charged internally with raping a woman in a police station, though he was far away on vacation.

Woman charged in check forgery An Annapolis woman was charged with forging more than $1,800 in checks stolen from an acquaintance, city police said. Nina Erica Dorsey, 20, of Copeland Street, is charged with taking the checks from the car of a Pinkney Street resident who had given her a ride in October 2006. Police said she forged the checks and gave them to unwitting friends to cash through their bank accounts, and they lost the money as their banks determined the checks were forgeries.

A Severn man was arrested yesterday after Annapolis police said he tried to abduct a 39-year-old woman on a city street, then threatened officers with a knife as he tried to escape. Police said that James Haney, 34, of the 1400 block of Norcross Lane was in his car on Poplar Avenue near Locust Avenue as the woman walked by about 8:30 a.m. As she passed by, he got out of the car, grabbed her by the arm and tried to pull her toward a wooded area, but her screams drew the attention of other drivers and pedestrians, police said.

JERUSALEM -- Palestinian policemen dispatched last week to an unruly West Bank district clashed yesterday with Islamic militants there, wounding two of them during a crackdown that could influence peace talks with Israel. It was the first such confrontation since 480 police reinforcements marched into the city of Jenin before thousands of cheering residents Saturday to launch "Operation Smile and Hope." Jenin and outlying towns and villages, protected until then by a police force of 150, have been troubled by criminal gangs.