Public Safety

Baltimore County's list of requests for this year's General Assembly is focused on education and public safety, County Executive James T. Smith Jr. told state legislators at a meeting yesterday in Towson. Despite reduced state revenue projections and the impact of the national economic collapse, he urged lawmakers to continue to support the legislature's $325 million commitment to a statewide public-school construction program for fiscal year 2010. County public schools have requested $84.5 million in state funds for construction and renovations, he said, including projects at Parkville High School, Catonsville High and Milford Mill Academy that would account for $20.4 million.

Annapolis public housing officials failed to spend nearly a third of the money allocated by the city for public safety, prompting Mayor Ellen O. Moyer to announce yesterday that the city wants a bigger say over how the agency uses the funding. Moyer, who has been quarrelling for years with the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis over funding for crime prevention and its direction, said she was surprised to see a July letter in which housing officials said they used $136,000 of the $200,000 the city had provided in the past fiscal year.

LAST WEEK' S ISSUE: -- Responding to growing concerns about crime at light rail stops in northern Anne Arundel, County Executive John R. Leopold called on the state's transit administrator to place permanent patrols at three stations and bolster other security measures. In a letter sent to Maryland Transit Administrator Paul J. Wiedefeld, Leopold said his administration has received several complaints from residents and riders of the light rail in Anne Arundel. A month ago, a twice-convicted rapist was charged with raping a 22-year-old woman at the Nursery Road stop in Linthicum.

State officials have abruptly shut down the Maryland House of Correction, an antiquated and notorious maximum-security prison in Jessup where inmate violence had spiraled out of control and corruption had run rampant. Prison administrators had planned to convert the 128-year-old prison - where a correctional officer and three inmates have been killed within the past year - to a minimum-security facility in coming months. But the state's top correctional official said yesterday that he began laying plans to close the prison within hours of the non-fatal March 2 stabbing of a correctional officer there.

At least 18 inmates were seriously stabbed or cut and dozens of others were injured when a "major fight" broke out between two groups of prisoners at the Metropolitan Transition Center in Baltimore yesterday, authorities said. The inmates with the worst wounds were taken to area hospitals - three with critical injuries that could be considered life-threatening, said Maj. Priscilla Doggett, spokeswoman for the Maryland Division of Correction. No corrections officers were injured. Doggett said the fight broke out about 1:30 p.m. in the exercise yard of the facility in the downtown state prison complex off Madison Street.

Describing Baltimore police as demoralized and the local court system as overwhelmed, an advisory group to Mayor Martin O'Malley is contemplating sweeping reforms to end what it calls "rampant and unabated violent crime" in the city."

A long-dormant Columbia Council committee on public safety took its first step last night in a new effort to combat crime and the fear of crime in the planned community.The Public Safety Committee met with Howard County Police Chief Wayne Livesay at Columbia Association (CA) headquarters to discuss issues ranging from how to enforce trespassing laws on the association's private "open space" to which illegal drugs are the most popular in the area.The three-member committee, which was founded by a former Columbia Council member several years ago but has not been active, plans to meet with Livesay on a quarterly basis.

THE STATE Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services has a slew of questions to answer about last week's escape from the medium-security state prison in Jessup.Security breaches gave hours of freedom to Gregory Lee Lawrence, a convicted killer, and Byron Lester Smoot, a convicted armed robber. The convicts were aided and abetted by a series of troubling breakdowns in the system.Among the problems: A guard was slow to respond to a motion detector as the prisoners climbed a fence; a guard tower was left unmanned; one escapee apparently was not escorted from the infirmary back to his cell; the inmates mysteriously crossed the prison's yard undetected; and it took guards a half-hour to discover Smoot's absence and 3 1/2 hours to discover Lawrence's escape.

Baltimore will receive more than $5 million in federal public safety money that will help provide 150 cameras in police patrol cars, establish the long-awaited downtown community court and beef up security in city schools.The Board of Estimates held a public hearing yesterday on the federal block grant the Bureau of Justice Assistance plans to award the city. The federal government requires that jurisdictions receiving the grants hold a public hearing before spending the money.The board must approve the use of the money, which members are expected to consider after the new year.

Year 2000 bills don't protect the publicThe Sun's April 9 editorial chastising Gov. Parris N. Glendening for his threatened veto of legislation ("Relief from computer glitches") concerning the year 2000 computer problem (Y2K) was woefully inaccurate.The legislation, proposed and written by the the Chamber of Commerce and the banks, totally ignored issues of public safety and consumer rights. Although the versions of the bill currently under consideration are better than the initial proposals, they still do not protect those citizens who may suffer Y2K-related personal injury or wrongful death.

Annapolitans head to the polls Tuesday to elect a new mayor. This year's race has had its ups and downs, with one primary candidate accused of sexual misconduct and another dropping out after revelations of debts and other personal financial problems came to light. The Baltimore Sun profiled each candidate before the primary. Here are summaries of those profiles for the three remaining candidates. Polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Josh Cohen Democrat Josh Cohen is an Annapolis native who studied music at the University of Maryland before switching majors and graduating with a degree in economics.

A bid that would excuse disabled former public safety workers from county property taxes sounds simple but is proving complicated as the County Council prepares to vote on the bill Monday night. The current bill, backed by County Executive Ken Ulman and all five council members, would give the tax break only to former police and correctional officers, firefighters and volunteers who are 100 percent disabled and both work for and live in Howard County. Courtney Watson, the Ellicott City Democrat who introduced the bill, said the administration wants an amendment to include the spouses of such workers who die. The county's police union is pushing for a broader measure that would cover any public safety worker who lives in the county, regardless of the state or county agency they work for or where in the state they are stationed.

Both Mayor Sheila Dixon and Gov. Martin O'Malley made a stir last week for acknowledging the inevitable: Despite their efforts to avoid it, the depth of the budget crisis facing the city and the state will force cuts to the most sacred of public priorities: firefighters, police and teachers. Ms. Dixon is in the midst of negotiations with the police and fire unions to trim their budgets for the current fiscal year by $8 million, part of her effort to make $60 million in cuts citywide. And Mr. O'Malley told superintendents at a meeting this week to start scouring their budgets for savings, noting that "virtually every other aspect of state government has been cut."

Baltimore is a dirty city with few good jobs. But its also a green city whose residents love their neighborhoods, public parks and libraries. Their biggest worry is crime, but they consider their own blocks quite safe. Those are among the sometimes-contradictory feelings to emerge when 1,812 Baltimoreans were asked about their city. Mayor Sheila Dixon, who commissioned the $60,000 survey by the Schaefer Center for Public Policy, said it is the first of its kind for the city and would help her determine where to focus her attentions - and budgetary dollars.

An Annapolis-area Democrat and business executive announced Thursday that she is exploring a run for Anne Arundel County Executive. Joanna Conti, who said she has run businesses in five different industries and a nonprofit, has formed an exploratory committee for a possible run against County Executive John R. Leopold in the 2010 election, Conti said in an interview. Leopold, a Republican, is seeking re-election. Conti, who moved to Maryland in 2006 from Colorado, is a virtual unknown in local political circles.

Baltimore County officials and Gov. Martin O'Malley took a big step Thursday toward improving the county's outdated public-safety radio network by unveiling a new digital transmission tower in Woodlawn. The tower is part of a $57 million project to replace the network by late 2011. In all, 10 new digital towers will be built around the county, and eight existing analog towers will be upgraded. County Executive James T. Smith Jr. said that the project "will further improve our first responders' ability to communicate with each other, with relevant county agencies as well as with our partners at the state and throughout the region."

Gov. Martin O'Malley learned last week why to hate economists. In the same week that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke declared the recession "very likely" over and less than a month after shrinking the state's general fund budget to three-year-old levels, he's now been told he must cut about $300 million right away - and instead of a $1 billion shortfall next year, it looks to be $2 billion. Forecasts, shmorecasts. Like a concrete block tossed in a pond, the ripple effect of high unemployment rates continues to spread long after the initial splash.

Ever since a string of violent, seemingly random attacks roiled the Inner Harbor and downtown area earlier this year, residents have been demanding a more visible police presence on the streets. Despite Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III's insistence that crime overall is down, people needed the reassurance of seeing his officers working their beats. The recent mass shooting at a cookout and apparent acts of retaliation have only made that need more dire. That's why President Barack Obama's federal stimulus plan to give Baltimore $10 million to hire an additional 50 patrol officers is good news for city residents.

Maryland officials expect a $700 million state budget shortfall this year. Do you think cuts of that size can be made without damaging essential services such as public safety and education? Yes 47% No 49% Not sure 4% (1,441 votes, results not scientific) Next poll: : Six months after his inauguration, do you generally approve of the job Barack Obama is doing as president? Vote at baltimoresun.com/vote

With a barbecue luncheon and a speech filled with plaudits, Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. thanked the county's legislative delegation Thursday for its work during a fiscally challenging session in Annapolis. "Our delegation worked hard, learned what was at stake and took critical action," Smith said at the conference held at Oregon Ridge Park. "This luncheon could have been canceled if they had not accomplished so many things." State contributions to the county dropped by $37 million for fiscal 2010, which begins July 1, but the delegation did secure $25.4 million for school construction and $1.5 million for early childhood programs.