Police Superintendent

Calling the governor's plan too weak, the ACLU urged lawmakers yesterday to pass a more robust proposal aimed at preventing police monitoring of peaceful groups. Dozens of activists gathered at the State House for the organization's "No Spying Day." Susan Goering, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, said Gov. Martin O'Malley's bill "not only has loopholes but condones and protects" the kinds of spying and dossier-keeping that took place in a Maryland State Police operation revealed last summer after an ACLU lawsuit.

IN WHAT can only be viewed as a blatant case of retaliation, the paramedic who recently won a federal sex discrimination lawsuit against the Maryland State Police now is being required to undergo psychiatric examination.The police agency claims that it is "routine" for officers to submit to psychiatric evaluation when the agency questions their fitness for duty. Statements by Trooper 1st Class H. Kevin Knussman during the trial raised concern about his ability to function as a helicopter paramedic, according to State Police lawyers.

Lt. Terry Katz, commander of the Maryland State Police barracks in Westminster, will be one of 44 troopers to be honored todayin a promotion ceremony at state police headquarters in Pikesville.Katz and six others were promoted Dec. 9 to the rank of lieutenant and installed as barracks commanders.Four troopers will be elevated to the rank of captain and 33 were to receive supervisory ranks of corporal, sergeant and first sergeant from Col. David B. Mitchell, state police superintendent.Mitchell also planned to make a special "honorary trooper" presentation to Jake Rome, a 6-year-old from Baltimore County.

Jerry F. Barnes, state's attorney for Carroll County, yesterday become the first county prosecutor in Maryland to receive a state police superintendent's salute.Barnes, 48, received the citation from Maj. Gary Cox, central region commander, and Lt. Lawrence E. Faries, commander of the Westminster barracks, on behalf of Col. David B. Mitchell, state police superintendent. The award was presented in Barnes' office.Cox praised Barnes for his dedication and cooperation, recalling that the state's attorney once left his sickbed to answer legal questions and offer advice on filing charges.

Retired Lt. Col. Paul J. Randall, the last of the state troopers who began their careers on horseback, died of a cerebral hemorrhage Tuesday at William Hill Health Care Center in Easton. He was 86 and lived in Easton.Mr. Randall retired as deputy superintendent of the state police in 1974, ending a 41-year career.Born and raised in Washington, he was a graduate of public and parochial schools. After working as a journeyman printer for the Washington Star, he was appointed to the state police June 6, 1933.

WHEN A POLICE OFFICER is killed in the line of duty, it causes a collective shudder, no matter how numb we become to daily reports of crime. When that officer is killed while making a routine traffic stop, the revulsion is deeper still.Our condolences go out to the family and colleagues of TFC Edward A. Plank Jr., the 28-year-old Maryland state trooper who was murdered after stopping a car for speeding early Tuesday in Princess Anne on the Eastern Shore. Police yesterday charged two men, who are in their 20s and are from New York and North Carolina, with the murder.

Maryland State Police combined drug and criminal investigations yesterday in a restructuring move that the agency's superintendent said would streamline operations and increase staff levels for community policing.Lt. Col. Larry E. Harmel, second in command on the force, will be in charge of the new Drug and Criminal Investigations Bureau, which will have 300 troopers and officers.The change also will mean new supervisory assignments in the field for eight detective sergeants, with duties that will free other personnel for highway and community policing, officials said.

A 19-year-old Laurel man who fired a pistol near the state police superintendent during a 1992 undercover drug deal gone sour was sentenced yesterday to six months in jail.Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Raymond G. Thieme Jr. also sentenced Isaac Brown to five years' probation, but agreed to let him to serve his time each night at the jail and leave each day to attend Annapolis Senior High School.Brown, of the first block of Morris Drive, pleaded guilty Oct. 18 to possession with intent to distribute cocaine, reckless endangerment and handgun charges stemming from an incident in which Col. Larry W. Tolliver, the superintendent, went to see firsthand what police described as an open-air drug market in Pioneer City.

Col. Larry W. Tolliver, the state police superintendent, yesterday unveiled new plans that chart short- and long-range directions for his agency.Colonel Tolliver told a news conference at state police headquarters in Pikesville that 105 present desk sergeants will be returning to the field for road patrol or other outside duties.Seventy-six state police positions now filled by sworn personnel will go to civilians, he said. Those jobs include public affairs, auto safety enforcement and pilots for state police aircraft.

Maryland law enforcement officials will be searching for drunken drivers on land and on the water over the Labor Day weekend.In fact, the state police and the Natural Resources Police are calling in everyone from their superintendents on down -- even those who usually work behind desks -- to beef up patrols over the weekend that traditionally brings summer to a close."

Brushing aside assurances from the Maryland State Police that troopers will never again secretly monitor and collect information on peaceful protest groups, state lawmakers and Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration are moving ahead with a plan to outlaw such tactics and will push for legislative action at hearings today. The discredited state police operation, revealed last summer after the American Civil Liberties Union sued for information on it, included troopers in the agency's homeland security division disguising their identities to e-mail organizers and attending meetings.

Calling the governor's plan too weak, the ACLU urged lawmakers yesterday to pass a more robust proposal aimed at preventing police monitoring of peaceful groups. Dozens of activists gathered at the State House for the organization's "No Spying Day." Susan Goering, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, said Gov. Martin O'Malley's bill "not only has loopholes but condones and protects" the kinds of spying and dossier-keeping that took place in a Maryland State Police operation revealed last summer after an ACLU lawsuit.

Maryland State Police "over-reached" and disregarded civil rights when they spied on anti-death penalty and peace activists in 2005 and 2006, according to a report commissioned by Gov. Martin O'Malley and released yesterday. Undercover troopers and their bosses were not justified in their surveillance of peaceful protesters and ignored the free-speech implications of their actions, concluded former Maryland Attorney General Stephen H. Sachs in a 93-page report. Police may have violated federal law when they labeled activists as possible terrorists in a multistate database, the report said.

Should police be able to spy on our neighbors within limits? That's the challenging, post-9/11 question a committee of Maryland legislators will have to confront this fall as it investigates a wasteful, lengthy state police intelligence unit's surveillance of peace groups and death penalty opponents. The hearings should get to the bottom of how this unit operates, who it targets and if the right oversight policies are in place to protect Maryland citizens. Since the 2005-2006 spying operation was disclosed by the American Civil Liberties Union last week, Gov. Martin O'Malley and Col. Terrence B. Sheridan, the state police superintendent, have assured Marylanders that police investigators aren't breaking the law and won't improperly launch surveillance against citizens who are exercising their constitutional right to freely speak and meet.

Carter's crime views not nearly so naive Ann LoLordo's Editorial Notebook "Promises to keep" (Aug. 4) did a great disservice to readers. Ms. LoLordo stated that "As part of Jill P. Carter's crime platform, she says she `will enter into a memorandum of understanding with the state that will allow Maryland state troopers to help provide more emergency services in the city.'" "If she had bothered to ask the state police superintendent about this she would have discovered they are already here -- more than a dozen troopers are assisting city police in specialty units.

Maryland State Police Sgt. Steve L. Aaron was perched 20 feet above U.S. 50 yesterday, blending in with the canopy of trees and telephone wires. In a truck-mounted crane often called a cherry picker, Aaron had a bird's-eye view of the motorists speeding by. But they rarely saw the trooper - and that was the point. By the time drivers realize there's a trooper with a radar gun in the trees, they're being pulled over by other troopers waiting a few hundreds yards from Aaron on the ground.

During his eight years as superintendent of the Maryland State Police, Col. David B. Mitchell made a point of calling the 1,600-officer force the "state police family." He also became a father figure of sorts, calling officers "my troopers" even when they were under public scrutiny. Mitchell regularly visited injured officers in the hospital. And in addition to pictures of his three children, Mitchell kept pictures of the families of officers killed in the line of duty on his desk at state police headquarters in Pikesville.

Maryland State Police accepted a federal grant yesterday to install 93 cameras in cruisers that patrol Interstate 95 between Baltimore and Virginia. The $396,000 was part of $12 million given to state police agencies throughout the country by Community Oriented Policing Services in the U.S. Department of Justice. The office is headed by former Baltimore Police Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier. Col. David B. Mitchell, state police superintendent, said the cameras will "accurately record our interactions with citizens during traffic stops."

Lt. Terry Katz, commander of the Maryland State Police barracks in Westminster, will be one of 44 troopers to be honored todayin a promotion ceremony at state police headquarters in Pikesville.Katz and six others were promoted Dec. 9 to the rank of lieutenant and installed as barracks commanders.Four troopers will be elevated to the rank of captain and 33 were to receive supervisory ranks of corporal, sergeant and first sergeant from Col. David B. Mitchell, state police superintendent.Mitchell also planned to make a special "honorary trooper" presentation to Jake Rome, a 6-year-old from Baltimore County.

IN WHAT can only be viewed as a blatant case of retaliation, the paramedic who recently won a federal sex discrimination lawsuit against the Maryland State Police now is being required to undergo psychiatric examination.The police agency claims that it is "routine" for officers to submit to psychiatric evaluation when the agency questions their fitness for duty. Statements by Trooper 1st Class H. Kevin Knussman during the trial raised concern about his ability to function as a helicopter paramedic, according to State Police lawyers.