The Baltimore Police Department continues to make slow and steady progress in a wholesale reform effort mandated by its agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and a federal judge, but hopes of exiting that oversight anytime soon remain dim at best.
Many of the people incarcerated in the mental health unit are awaiting transfers to psychiatric facilities run by the Maryland Department of Health for evaluation or treatment.
Daniel Myers was sentenced last week to 50 additional years in prison for first-degree murder. He had pleaded guilty in February to killing Nicholas Delfosse in May 2023.
The charged officer was found by investigators to have given a prisoner “unauthorized privileges,” and to have spoken to her on a recorded phone line more than 800 times in three months.
The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, which runs Baltimore jails, confirmed on Wednesday that one of its facilities has been without air conditioning since Friday after a blower motor malfunctioned on a housing unit tier.
The Baltimore Banner observed 40 tanker trucks going through the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, including more than a dozen with hazmat placards typically prohibited from driving through the underpasses.
The disciplinary actions were announced in a terse press release by department officials that did not name any of the officers or shed light on the circumstances of the violations.
The scanner chatter contradicts statements made by the state’s public safety chief, Carolyn Scruggs, that there were no clear warning signs that Sewell posed a risk to Martinez.
A woman reported that an acquaintance sexually assaulted her in 2023. Then a series of delays and scheduling conflicts began to upend the trial in Baltimore Circuit Court.
The leadership shake-up follows the killing of parole agent Davis Martinez and subsequent calls from the union representing him demanding the resignation of Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Carolyn Scruggs, accusing her of ignoring health and safety concerns raised by union officials.
The continuing “civilianization” of the Police Department — converting roles, many of them administrative in nature, that officers used to do and having civilians do them instead — was a recurring theme in the budget presentation by city officials.
Allegations of sex tapes, Snapchat, burner phones and a wide-ranging sex scandal underlie a citizen complaint that led to several officer suspensions at the Ocean City Police Department.
A woman struggling with fentanyl addiction died in the Harford County Detention Center after being declared a “danger to self + community” and held without bail following a home-invasion burglary charge.
Maryland state officials are moving forward on massive new contracts for prison and jail mental and medical health care, ousting a problematic contractor.
The state has been in talks with county executives about expanding “diversion” programs to reduce the number of people with mental illness from being funneled into the court system in the first place.