Task Force

Republican delegates who oppose a proposed high-speed train connecting Baltimore and Washington are questioning the timing and the objectivity of a proposed task force to study the issue. The legislation creating that task force, which lawmakers are to discuss today, would set up a panel of state officials to evaluate the proposed 250-mph magnetic levitation, or maglev, train that Maryland has been trying to land since the early 1990s. The Federal Railroad Administration will decide next year whether Maryland or Pittsburgh will get the right to go ahead with the project, expected to cost $3.8 billion.

WESTMINSTER - The Downtown Task Force presented its report to the City Council Monday night, recommending, among other things, the government become more proactive in development of the downtown area.In addition, Chairman Kenneth A. Yowan suggested the city develop a long-range plan for the growth of the city's core."You have to decide what you want Westminster to look like five, 10, 15 years into the future," the former councilman said.Specific recommendations included controlling development along the Englar Road and John Street corridor to make it compatible with downtown growth, creating a permanent advisory council and donating money to develop cultural activities in town.

A detailed audit of the financial activities of the Carroll County Narcotics Task Force is long overdue. This police group has been operating for more than four years without publicly disclosing the value of the assets it has seized or obtained through its "buy back" program. Nor has it said how that money was spent.The Carroll County Commissioners assert there is only one reason for the audit -- to see whether $10,000 of secure radio equipment could be purchased using funds from the task force's seized assets.

On the same day last week that the Carroll County Narcotics Task Force announced it had rounded up a half-dozen drug dealers operating in Westminster, County Commissioner Donald I. Dell issued a stinging rebuke to critics of the operation. He said they were damaging the unit's morale and singled out "our media" as most responsible for the low esteem. Arresting these dealers and holding a press conference hardly seemed evidence of demoralization.Certainly the purpose of the drug task force deserves support.

Westminster city officials may want to keep "politics" out of the supervision of the Carroll County Narcotics Task Force, but they should not be so quick to abdicate their responsibility to supervise this unit. In fact, the task force's past problems can be traced directly to a lack of oversight by elected officials.Since the mayor of Westminster does not have the expertise or experience to supervise day-to-day police work, it doesn't make sense for him to determine assignments for undercover officers or pick targets for investigation.

The Carroll County Narcotics Task Force, a fixture in county law enforcement for more than seven years, is no longer.With last week's departure of the county sheriff's office from the group, the four entities that had worked together on drug crimes since 1988 are going their separate ways."

In an abrupt reversal of what they said earlier this week, the Carroll County commissioners released their 18-month-long audit of the drug task force yesterday.At a meeting Monday with officials from Westminster and the task force, the commissioners said that the report -- which mildly criticized the drug enforcement group's administrative procedures but gave it a clean bill of fiscal health -- would not be released for several weeks.But without explanation, the commissioners made the 33-page report available at 4:30 p.m. yesterday after county offices had closed.

The Howard County Police Department announced yesterday it has formed a task force to help combat an increasing number of commercial robberies this year.From Jan. 1 to March 22, a total of 65 robberies were reported in the county, compared with 29 in the same period last year and 52 for the like period in 1997, said Sgt. Morris Carroll, a county police spokesman.Most robberies were committed with a semiautomatic handgun or by someone implying possession of a weapon, Carroll said."We feel that a number of these robberies are being committed" by a few individuals, Carroll said.

With the opening of the new school year just days away in Baltimore County, it's time again for those old three Rs: Rage, rhetoric and revenge.Now that the school board-appointed task force has delivered a report critical of county superintendent Dr. Stuart Berger, it's like June all over again when the only thing that could dislodge the Berger controversy from the headlines was . . . Toronto Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston. The task force report will reawaken the critics, get the talk radio sap flowing and give the myopic leadership of the teachers' union more ammunition.

The first independent audit of the Carroll County Narcotics Task Force turned up no financial improprieties, but County Commissioner Julia W. Gouge is far from satisfied."