Public Safety

Several state legislators and the Baltimore County executive questioned yesterday the Ehrlich administration's surprise plan to close the troubled Charles H. Hickey Jr. School, saying the move poses a potential threat to public safety if the youths are sent home or moved into less-restrictive group homes. "They have no plan whatsoever for what's going to happen to these kids," said Del. Bobby A. Zirkin, a Baltimore County Democrat. Zirkin commented after a briefing for the House Appropriations Committee in Annapolis yesterday on the administration's plans to shut down most of the Baltimore County facility by Nov. 30. The portion of the school being closed is a 130-bed long-term residential program for youths who have been committed by the courts.

Anne Arundel County's top prosecutor chided the county executive yesterday for laying off police to help balance the budget, saying her actions jeopardize public safety. "We are close to precipitating a crisis in public safety," said State's Attorney Frank R. Weathersbee, who said his office lost two positions, as well as pay raises, in the recent cutback, on top of previous state cuts. "If you are going to eliminate personnel, the last people you want to lay off are public safety employees."

Anne Arundel County Council members angrily questioned county administrators yesterday about why a new public safety communication system upgrade will cost $20 million more than they expected. Council members said they thought $15 million, which previously was appropriated for the project, would buy a new, 800-megahertz Motorola radio system to provide a more reliable means for firefighters and police officers to keep in contact. They said they thought that would be the final cost. But in her budget released last week, County Executive Janet S. Owens proposed that the county spend $5 million more for each of the next four years.

Democratic county executive candidate James N. Robey pledged yesterday at a news conference to improve pay for police officers, expand programs to prevent juvenile crime and install computers in squad cars, and the former police chief criticized his Republican opponent Dennis R. Schrader for not having a platform on public safety.Schrader immediately shot back that Robey is "still campaigning for police chief," an oft-repeated criticism that for Schrader recasts Robey's best perceived strength, public safety, as a political crutch.

City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake is set today to lay out her plan to improve public safety in Baltimore - and also unleash attacks on her leading opponent, accusing Michael Sarbanes of failing to address violent crime when he worked for the state. The Rawlings-Blake campaign is specifically trying to connect Sarbanes to several public safety programs initiated under then-Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. Those programs - particularly the HotSpot initiative that had its share of critics in the city - were targeted for attack by former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. when he defeated Townsend in the 2002 gubernatorial race.

Bishop L. Robinson, Maryland's secretary of public safety and correctional services for the past six years, will resign to become "security czar" of the Johns Hopkins Hospital complex in East Baltimore, state and hospital officials confirmed.Mr. Robinson, 66, a career police officer who has overseen one of the state's largest agencies through its most difficult times, will assume his new post in June, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.The secretary, a reserved and private man, could not be reached for comment.

An internal audit of an unusual Baltimore court program that monitors criminals in the community has found such "far-reaching deficiencies" that they posed a potential threat to public safety.A legislator who learned of the results yesterday called for the program to be abolished if the deficiencies are not corrected swiftly.The 8-year-old program -- called the Alternative Sentencing Unit -- is intended to be "superintensive," a criminal's last chance at community supervision before he is sent to prison.

A fourth Maryland agency has become entangled in a criminal investigation of government procurement practices involving the purchase of merchandise at exorbitant prices. The Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, which operates Maryland's prison and parole and probation system, disclosed the "open and active" investigation by the state attorney general's office yesterday in response to a public information request from The Sun. Department spokesman Mark Vernarelli said the attorney general is looking into the department's purchases of at least $17,000 in goods from a company known for selling products at inflated prices.

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.

William Gordon Contee Jr., a former administrator with the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, died of a heart attack April 11 at Maryland Shock Trauma Center. The Woodlawn resident was 78. Born in Baltimore, Mr. Contee graduated from Frederick Douglass High School in 1944 and enrolled in Morgan State College, now Morgan State University, shortly afterward. He briefly served in the Army and was stationed at Camp Lee, Va., before returning to Morgan in 1947. While in college, Mr. Contee joined the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and worked nights as a mail sorter for the U.S. Postal Service.