Police Union

Three days after the Anne Arundel County executive was charged in an indictment with using his security detail to promote his re-election and to arrange sexual rendezvous, pressure mounted Monday for Police Chief James E. Teare Sr., to publicly address the issue. County Councilman Jamie Benoit said he would likely ask Teare to appear before the council to answer questions about his knowledge of the allegations. Meanwhile, the county's largest police union began holding a no-confidence vote directed at Teare and the county executive, and another police union called on both men to resign.

Saying they are stretched too thin and face problems with a new dispatch and reporting system, Anne Arundel County police supervisor unions are blaming the administration for a situation they say is taking a toll on them and public safety. Two supervisors unions released a list of problems Friday that they say are putting the department on "the verge of crisis. " The sergeants and lieutenants groups previously voted no confidence in County Executive John R. Leopold and police Chief James Teare Sr. The unions contend the department's leadership — "especially" Leopold — has led to "a deterioration of public safety," and say that police fear a rise in crime, according to a prepared statement Friday.

A Baltimore police officer who said in an interview that he had received no counseling after he shot and killed two people nine months apart in 2006 and 2007 has been suspended from the force, and stripped of his gun and badge. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the eight-year veteran, Andrew W. Gotwols Jr., made comments that concerned commanders about his fitness to serve. He described the 36-year-old as being "medically suspended. " Gotwols told The Baltimore Sun that he has nightmares that "guys are trying to shoot and kill me, and that I'm trying to shoot and kill them.

A lawsuit against the Baltimore Police Department in which the ACLU alleges widespread violations of citizens' right to videotape police officers will move forward after a federal judge on Monday denied a police motion to dismiss the case.  The Police Department had sought to dismiss the case last month, citing new training, directives and policies aimed at affirming that citizens can record police performing their official duties. But the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Civil Rights joined the ACLU in arguing that their efforts didn't go far enough.

[Note: The above video is embedded from Scott Cover's YouTube page] When tech enterpreneuer Scott Cover happened upon a group of Baltimore Police standing over a handcuffed man near Cross Street market early Saturday, he pulled out his camera phone and started recording. Earlier in the day, he'd seen news reports of the Police Department affirming citizens' right to record officers performing their duties in public, and thought what was happening might - who knows - make for interesting video.

Rebecca Chona says she was getting her three small children ready to play Tuesday and watching "Good Day Baltimore" when her husband called during a break at work to talk. As they spoke, she was distracted by a report about a Halethorpe man who allegedly fled from police and stole a police cruiser before being shot and killed by officers. Rebecca and Sundeep "Sunny" Chona wouldn't learn for another four hours that that man was Sunny Chona's 26-year-old brother, Munpreet, known to his friends and family as "Monty.

Baltimore County school employees have reached a tentative agreement with the school system that would raise the contributions employees make to their health care plans over the next five years in exchange for guarantees that there will be no layoffs or furloughs for three years. Over the next five years, the county's contribution to their health care premiums would drop to 80 percent from 90 percent, which would bring school employees in line with other county workers. School employees who elect to join an HMO would pay less than those who choose the other plans.

Beginning in January, Baltimore County will grant health care benefits to spouses of employees in same-sex marriages if they are legally married in other states, County Executive Kevin Kamenetz announced Thursday. The decision comes a month after an arbitrator ruled in favor of two county police officers whose same-sex spouses had been denied benefits by the county in August 2010. County officials had 30 days to decide whether to appeal the arbitrator's ruling, which said the county had violated the women's union contract.

Earlier this year, Baltimore County promised job security through 2014 for members of three public employee unions, but county officials say they can't make the same guarantee for other labor groups. The Kamenetz administration is in talks with the Baltimore County Federation of Public Employees, the police union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, whose contracts expire in June. Together, the unions represent about 4,300 employees, more than half the county's workforce.

Westminster's mayor and police chief denied accusations leveled by a union chief that they misspent money at the expense of public safety, saying the labor representative is trying to drive a wedge through the city's small police force. Joined by two City Council members and the town manager, the officials went through an hourlong, point-by-point rebuttal of allegations raised by Gary McLhinney, who was hired by the Carroll County Fraternal Order of Police to push for collective bargaining rights for Westminster officers.