Events
Governor
O'Malley Announces a new Cross-Border Initiative with Delaware
Delaware
Governor Jack Markell and Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley
announce agreement to track violent or potentially violent offenders
through
cross-border information sharing.
The State of Delaware has become the third jurisdiction – joining
Virginia and the District of Columbia – to agree to share
information across jurisdictional boundaries about violent or
potentially violent offenders. On August 18, Delaware Governor Jack
Markell joined Governor O'Malley at Salisbury University to announce
the launch of a new cross-border initiative between the states of
Maryland and Delaware... Continue
Reading
GOCCP
Grant Funds Successful Warrant Initiative in Prince George's
County
A $250,000 federal grant awarded by GOCCP funded an intensified
warrant initiative that resulted in Prince George's County
Sheriff's Department serving 818 warrants and arresting 719
offenders in August. The GOCCP grant from the Byrne Justice
Assistance Grant (BJAG) program paid for overtime for Prince
George's Sheriff's Deputies who focused on serving warrants for the
most violent of Prince George's county's criminals... Continue
Reading
GOCCP
Wins Federal Grant To Implement Prescription Drug Monitoring
Program
A $400,000 federal grant from GOCCP will fund operations of the
new statewide Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP.)
Maryland's General Assembly passed legislation last spring to
establish the PDMP, which sets up a multi-disciplinary Advisory
Board on Prescription Drug Monitoring to recommend the design and
implementation of the program and report annually on its impact.
Its purpose is to monitor potentially addictive prescription drugs,
and to electronically link the medical and pharmacy communities in
Maryland in order to track the use of these drugs... Continue
Reading
Governor's
Criminal Justice Training Conference
In October, GOCCP offered a comprehensive two-day training
conference designed to train criminal justice professionals from all
over the state and from many agencies at one time and in one
location. More than 200 people registered for the Governor's
Criminal Justice Training Conference on October 13 and 14 on the
campus of Washington College in Chestertown, MD... Continue
Reading
Silent
Witness Exhibit in Annapolis Observes National Domestic Violence
Awareness Month
In October, the Governor's
Family Violence Council, in coordination with the House of Ruth,
sponsored the Silent Witnesses Exhibit in observation of Domestic
Violence Awareness Month. The exhibit, on display on the 2nd and 3rd
floors of the Miller Senate Office Building in Annapolis, depicts
the lives of five women who died as a result of domestic violence in
Maryland. The Silent Witnesses Exhibit is a nationwide initiative
that illustrates the devastating effects of domestic violence by
using cardboard life-sized cut outs, each bearing the name of a
woman whose life ended violently at the hands of a husband,
ex-husband, partner, or acquaintance.
Lt.
Col. Stewart Russell, Chief of the Support Services Bureau;
Lt.
Col. William Pallozzi, Chief of the Criminal Investigations
Bureau; Ralph Keaton, Executive Director of the American
Society
of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory
Accreditation Board
(ASCLD/LAB); Teresa Long, Director,
MSP Forensic Sciences
Division; Colonel Marcus Brown,
Superintendent of MSP; Dr. Wanda
Kuperus, Forensic Scientist
Manager; Dan Katz, Deputy Director,
MSP Forensic Sciences
Division.
State
Police Crime Lab receives International Accreditation
The Maryland State Police Forensic Sciences Division Laboratory
has been awarded the highest level of accreditation possible by an
international laboratory accrediting organization. The
accreditation means that the Maryland State Police crime lab is the
first full-service, non-federal crime lab in Maryland to receive
this high level of certification... Continue
Reading
A
New Superintendent at Maryland State Police
The Maryland State Police began operations under a new
Superintendent in August. With the retirement of Colonel Terrence
B. Sheridan after 46 years of law enforcement service in Maryland,
Governor O'Malley appointed Marcus L. Brown as the new State Police
Superintendent... Continue
Reading
Milestones
Total
Crime in Maryland is at its Lowest Level Since 1975
On August 17, Governor O'Malley announced that total crime in
Maryland was down 5.1 percent – its lowest level since modern crime
tracking began in 1975. Additionally, violent crime decreased 6
percent and property crime was down 4.9 percent.
Citing 2010 year-end crime data compiled by the Maryland State
Police and submitted to the FBI for its national crime statistics
report, the Governor said that since 2006, total crime in Maryland
has been cut 12 percent, and violent crime has decreased 17
percent.... Continue
Reading
Maryland
is One of 14 States to be in Compliance with SORNA – the Federal Sex
Offender Registration and Notification Act
On July 28, the US Department of Justice ruled that Maryland is
in substantial compliance with the Sex Offender Registration and
Notification Act (SORNA), which is Title I of the Adam Walsh Child
Protection and Safety Act of 2006. The law aims to close potential
gaps and loopholes that existed under prior law and generally
strengthens the nationwide network of sex offender registration and
notification programs... Continue
Reading
Criminal
Justice Dashboard Wins Council of State Government's 2011
Innovations Award
The Criminal Justice Dashboard, a web-based application that has
become the clearinghouse of Maryland's criminal justice data and
tools, was named the winner of Council of State Government's (CSG)
Innovations Award on August 10, 2011. GOCCP submitted the Dashboard
as one of its signature Security Integration Initiatives used in
Maryland... Continue
Reading
Some
of the cell phones seized in
Maryland prisons.
Maryland
Receives $350,000 Federal Grant to keep cell phones out of
prisons
Maryland has received a competitive $350,000 federal grant to
help the State reinforce its efforts to remove cell phones from
prisons in Baltimore. The grant was awarded to Maryland's
Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) and
the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s office from the Bureau of
Justice Assistance (BJA) of the U.S. Department of Justice. BJA
cited Maryland's innovations in developing strategies to fight
illegal cell phones in prisons when it awarded the grant... Continue
Reading
GOCCP's
Executive and Deputy Director In Leadership Posts at NCJA
Kristen Mahoney, Executive Director of the Governor's Office of
Crime Control and Prevention (GOCCP) has been elected to a second
one-year term as President of the National Criminal Justice
Association (NCJA). Ed Parker, GOCCP's Deputy Director for
Operations has been elected to the organization's board... Continue
Reading
GOCCP
now has RSS
You can now get news releases from GOCCP quickly and easily with
our RSS feed. With this feed, updated releases are sent instantly to
you, and you don’t need to go to the GOCCP web site to get them...
Continue
Reading
Events
Governor
O'Malley Announces a new Cross-Border Initiative with Delaware
Delaware
Governor Jack Markell and Maryland Governor
Martin O'Malley
announce agreement to track violent or
potentially violent
offenders through cross-border information
sharing.
The State of Delaware has become the third jurisdiction – joining
Virginia and the District of Columbia – to agree to share
information across jurisdictional boundaries about violent or
potentially violent offenders. On August 18, Delaware Governor Jack
Markell joined Governor O'Malley at Salisbury University to announce
the launch of a new cross-border initiative between the states of
Maryland and Delaware.
"In our continued effort to make Maryland a national leader in
public safety and homeland security preparedness, we support
effective communication and information sharing across all levels of
government and state borders," said Governor O'Malley. "Working
together with our partners across the State, we have driven violent
crime and property crime rates down to their lowest levels in
recorded history. By reaching beyond our borders, using innovative
technology and sharing information, we will continue to drive the
levels down even further."
"Criminals and crime have no boundaries," said Delaware Governor
Markell. "It's our responsibility to work together across state
lines and share information that can benefit citizens of both
states, especially as technology allows us to know more and do more.
By working collaboratively and using our collective knowledge, we
serve everyone by making our streets and our communities safer."
The new strategic partnership will allow parole and probation
officials and law enforcement in both states to exchange information
on arrests, enabling the Maryland Division of Parole and Probation
to take appropriate action if a suspect from Maryland violates the
terms of release while in Delaware. Law enforcement and public
safety officials in both states will be able to prioritize warrant
service, targeting the most serious offenders. With shared
information, Maryland State Police and local police will be able to
move more effectively to get the most dangerous suspects off the
streets, and better track youth who are being monitored by the
Department of Juvenile Services. These initial steps could lead to
more information-sharing opportunities, including information from
license plate readers to track stolen or suspicious vehicles, and
pawn shop databases to locate stolen property.
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GOCCP
Grant Funds Successful Warrant Initiative in Prince George's
County
Prince
George's County Sheriff Melvin High, Council members
Karen
Toles, Obie Patterson and Council Chair Ingrid Turner
join
Governor O'Malley as he announces the results of the
Warrant
Initiative.
A $250,000 federal grant awarded by GOCCP funded an intensified
warrant initiative that resulted in Prince George's County
Sheriff's Department serving 818 warrants and arresting 719
offenders in August. The GOCCP grant from the Byrne Justice
Assistance Grant (BJAG) program paid for overtime for Prince
George's Sheriff's Deputies who focused on serving warrants for the
most violent of Prince George's county's criminals.
Governor O'Malley announced
the results of the warrant initiative on September 29, after he
attended a monthly meeting of county law enforcement on successful
programs to fight crime. The Sheriff's Department partnered with
officers from the Prince Georges County Police Department, Maryland
State Police, the state Division of Parole and Probation, and the
U.S. Marshals Service during the initiative. A total of 39 officers
teamed together to serve the warrants which were for charges that
included murder, attempted murder, first-degree assault, robbery,
burglary and child sex offenses.
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GOCCP
Wins Federal Grant To Implement Prescription Drug Monitoring
Program
A $400,000 federal grant from GOCCP will fund operation of the
new statewide Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP.)
Maryland's General Assembly passed legislation last spring to
establish the PDMP, which sets up a multi-disciplinary Advisory
Board on Prescription Drug Monitoring to recommend the design and
implementation of the program and report annually on its impact.
Its purpose is to monitor potentially addictive prescription drugs,
and to electronically link the medical and pharmacy communities in
Maryland in order to track the use of these drugs. This oversight
would be able to detect probable cause of possible illegal use of
certain prescription drugs. In those cases, law enforcement would
be able to subpoena information from the system for possible
criminal investigations.
Prescription drug abuse is the fastest growing drug problem in
Maryland. Illegal diversion of prescription drugs takes a heavy
toll on the public health and safety in the state.
- Between 2007 and 2010, treatment admissions related to abuse
of prescription opiates in Maryland increased 106 percent.
- Between 2007 and 2010, poison control calls related to
oxycodone increased 250 percent.
In 2010, 55 percent of all intoxication deaths in Maryland
involved a prescription opiate.
The funding to operate the Maryland PDMP is from the Harold
Rodgers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, which is administered
by the Office of Justice Programs within the US Department of
Justice.
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Governor's
Criminal Justice Training Conference
In October, GOCCP offered a comprehensive two-day training
conference designed to train criminal justice professionals from all
over the state and from many agencies at one time and in one
location. More than 200 people registered for the Governor's
Criminal Justice Training Conference on October 13 and 14 on the
campus of Washington College in Chestertown, MD. Twenty-two
workshops were offered on such diverse topics as CompStat, the
Criminal Justice Dashboard, Grant Writing & Funding, Human
Trafficking, Lethality Assessment, and the Violence Prevention
Initiative. GOCCP's training unit planned and operated this
conference, which was targeted specifically for State's Attorneys
and law enforcement professionals, but allowed interested
professionals from other agencies to attend as well.
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The
Silent Witness Exhibit in the Miller
Senate Office Building in
Annapolis.
Silent
Witness Exhibit in Annapolis Observes National Domestic Violence
Awareness Month
In October, the Governor's
Family Violence Council, in coordination with the House of Ruth,
sponsored the Silent Witnesses Exhibit in observation of Domestic
Violence Awareness Month. The exhibit, on display on the 2nd and 3rd
floors of the Miller Senate Office Building in Annapolis, depicts
the lives of five women who died as a result of domestic violence in
Maryland. The Silent Witnesses Exhibit is a nationwide initiative
that illustrates the devastating effects of domestic violence by
using cardboard life-sized cut outs, each bearing the name of a
woman whose life ended violently at the hands of a husband,
ex-husband, partner, or acquaintance.
Return
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State
Police Crime Lab receives International Accreditation
Lt.
Col. Stewart Russell, Chief of the Support Services Bureau;
Lt.
Col. William Pallozzi, Chief of the Criminal Investigations
Bureau; Ralph Keaton, Executive Director of the American
Society
of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory
Accreditation Board
(ASCLD/LAB); Teresa Long, Director,
MSP Forensic Sciences
Division; Colonel Marcus Brown,
Superintendent of MSP; Dr. Wanda
Kuperus, Forensic Scientist
Manager; Dan Katz, Deputy Director,
MSP Forensic Sciences
Division.
The Maryland State Police Forensic Sciences Division Laboratory
has been awarded the highest level of accreditation possible by an
international laboratory accrediting organization. The
accreditation means that the Maryland State Police crime lab is the
first full-service, non-federal crime lab in Maryland to receive
this high level of certification.
The State Police crime lab worked on evidence from nearly 19,000
criminal cases last year. More than two-thirds of the requests for
crime evidence analysis came from local law enforcement agencies.
The lab houses Maryland's DNA database, and is the state-level
access point to the national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS),
which allows investigators to match crime scene DNA evidence with
the DNA that has been collected from offenders.
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Colonel
Marcus L. Brown
A
New Superintendent at Maryland State Police
The Maryland State Police began operations under a new
Superintendent in August. With the retirement of Colonel Terrence
B. Sheridan after 46 years of law enforcement service in Maryland,
Governor O'Malley appointed Marcus L. Brown as the new State Police
Superintendent.
Superintendent Brown was chief of the Maryland Transportation
Authority Police(MDTA) for more than four years. Previously, he was
Deputy Commissioner of Operations for the Baltimore Police
Department and was responsible for more than 3,000 officers and all
the operational units. He is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State
University and the University of Baltimore School of Law.
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Milestones
Total
Crime in Maryland is at its Lowest Level Since 1975
On August 17, Governor O'Malley announced that total crime in
Maryland was down 5.1 percent – its lowest level since modern crime
tracking began in 1975. Additionally, violent crime decreased 6
percent and property crime was down 4.9 percent.
Citing 2010 year-end crime data compiled by the Maryland State
Police and submitted to the FBI for its national crime statistics
report, the Governor said that since 2006, total crime in Maryland
has been cut 12 percent, and violent crime has decreased 17
percent.
Among violent crimes, homicides dropped 3.2 percent in 2010 with
14 fewer people murdered last year in Maryland than the year before.
The data for 2010 also show reductions in robbery (-7.9%),
aggravated assault (-5.6%), burglary (-0.6%), larceny/theft (-5.7%),
and motor vehicle theft (-8.1%).
"The most important responsibilities we have in government are to
create jobs and protect the public’s safety," said Governor
O'Malley. "Working together with state and local law enforcement,
with our partners and neighbors in communities across Maryland, we
have helped drive crime down to its lowest level in recorded
history. As we continue to make our streets safer, we improve the
quality of life for our residents and businesses."
The declines in crime come at a time when state and local law
enforcement agencies are intensifying their use of technology and
information sharing. As a result, more criminals are being taken
off the streets of Maryland communities. License plate reader
technology is now being used by law enforcement across the State and
the goal is to network as many jurisdictions as possible to increase
information sharing about stolen or suspicious vehicles. The
Criminal Justice Dashboard allows police officers instant access to
information from 100 different databases as they investigate
crimes.
"The additional tools available to law enforcement and the
sharing of pertinent information in partnership with our allied
police departments helps us all to continue the trend in crime
reduction," said Colonel Marcus L. Brown, Superintendent of the
Maryland State Police. "As a result, the people of Maryland are
safer in their homes and neighborhoods."
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Maryland
is One of 14 States to be in Compliance with SORNA – the Federal
Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act
On July 28, the US Department of Justice ruled that Maryland is
in substantial compliance with the Sex Offender Registration and
Notification Act (SORNA), which is Title I of the Adam Walsh Child
Protection and Safety Act of 2006. The law aims to close potential
gaps and loopholes that existed under prior law and generally
strengthens the nationwide network of sex offender registration and
notification programs.
"There should be absolutely no mercy shown to anyone who harms a
child in our State, and today's decision by the Justice Department
recognizes Maryland's strict standards to ensure that our children
are protected," said Governor O'Malley. "Together, with our state
and local partners, we have demonstrated the importance of
information sharing and law enforcement cooperation to ensure the
safety of our citizens."
Under Maryland's registration law, sex offenders found guilty of
the most serious offenses such as first and second degree rape, need
to re-register every three months for the rest of their lives, and
they will be under the constant supervision of specially trained,
multi-disciplinary teams of Parole and Probation agents throughout
Maryland, known as COM/ET (Collaborative Offender
Management/Enforced Treatment). Offenders face polygraph
examinations, their computer use is monitored, and they may be
subject to electronic tracking through GPS. Offenders who violate
the terms of their supervision can face stiff penalties.
Those guilty of less serious offenses are required to register
every six months for 25 years and/or annually for 15 years,
depending on the severity of their crime. Offenders who say they
are homeless are required to check in with local law enforcement
once a week and let the authorities know where they can be
found.
The laws also require retroactive registration. Some offenders
were convicted of crimes committed before current laws went into
effect and they had not been required to register. That has changed.
Now even those offenders are required to register, and, like all
other offenders, their names will be accessible to people in their
community through the online Sex Offender Registry.
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Criminal
Justice Dashboard Wins Council of State Government's 2011
Innovations Award
An
example of the information available on the Criminal
Justice
Dashboard.
The Criminal Justice Dashboard, a web-based application that has
become the clearinghouse of Maryland's criminal justice data and
tools, was named the winner of Council of State Government's (CSG)
Innovations Award on August 10, 2011. GOCCP submitted the Dashboard
as one of its signature Security Integration Initiatives used in
Maryland.
The Criminal Justice Dashboard consolidates 100 databases from 22
agencies into a single platform, making it uniquely qualified to
help criminal justice professionals find information across
jurisdictions and in real time. Officers in their cruisers, parole
and probation officers, and countless other law enforcement
officials are able to use the Dashboard to find immediate
information about suspects or offenders. The Dashboard also works
with the Maryland Offender Management System, which gives the
locations of state supervised offenders in local communities.
Dashboard is one of the many inventive technological advancements
DPSCS has developed and implemented under the current
Administration. Other innovations include Livescan technology,
which allows police to take inkless fingerprints; supervision kiosks
which allow non-violent offenders to easily contact Parole and
Probation agents; the addition of domestic violence indicators on
Rap Sheets; and a new case management system that will streamline
offender records for the Department.
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Maryland
Receives $350,000 Federal Grant to Keep Cell Phones out of
Prisons
Some
of the cell phones seized in
Maryland prisons.
Maryland has received a competitive $350,000 federal grant to
help the State reinforce its efforts to remove cell phones from
prisons in Baltimore. The grant was awarded to Maryland's
Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) and
the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s office from the Bureau of
Justice Assistance (BJA) of the U.S. Department of Justice. BJA
cited Maryland's innovations in developing strategies to fight
illegal cell phones in prisons when it awarded the grant.
The grant
will be used to fund a dedicated part-time assistant State's
Attorney in Baltimore City, two investigators in DPSCS' Internal
Investigative Unit, and a support staffer. Their goal will be to
reduce prison corruption and gang activity through intensified
prosecution, investigation, and inter-agency cooperation.
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GOCCP's
Executive and Deputy Director In Leadership Posts at NCJA
Kristen Mahoney, Executive Director of the Governor's Office of
Crime Control and Prevention (GOCCP) has been elected to a second
one-year term as President of the National Criminal Justice
Association (NCJA). Ed Parker, GOCCP's Deputy Director for
Operations has been elected to the organization’s board.
Based in Washington, D.C., the NCJA represents state, tribal and
local governments on crime prevention and crime control issues. It
serves as the formal mechanism for informing the Congress of the
criminal and juvenile justice needs and accomplishments of its
members.
"It is a tremendous honor to be selected to continue for another
year as President of NCJA," said Mahoney . "The NCJA recognizes the
importance of interrelationships among criminal and juvenile justice
agencies and the value of partnerships between these agencies and
the community. It knows that strong, steady advocacy is necessary to
achieve comprehensive planning and policy coordination goals. In
this way, it is a perfect complement to the information sharing and
collaboration that are the foundation of public safety policy in the
O'Malley-Brown administration."
"NCJA has proven to be a tremendous resource for criminal justice
professionals at all levels of government," said Parker. "The
organization works to promote a balanced approach to communities'
complex public safety and criminal and juvenile justice system
problems. It is an honor to be in a position where I can help shape
and direct its initiatives."
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GOCCP
now has RSS
You can now get news releases from GOCCP quickly and easily with
our RSS feed. With this feed, updated releases are sent instantly to
you, and you don’t need to go to the GOCCP web site to get them.
How do you do it? First go to the GOCCP news release page - http://www.goccp.maryland.gov/press/index.php
- and click on the orange RSS logo just above the list of releases.
That will take you to a page with a listing of all of our recent
releases. You can subscribe to our RSS feeds by clicking on a link
at the top of the page.
Once you are a subscriber, whenever GOCCP issues a new press
release, it will automatically show up your list of feeds. What does
RSS stand for? It stands for Really Simple Syndication, and it is a
really simply way for organizations such as GOCCP to syndicate – or
distribute - our content to readers. You can also follow GOCCP on
Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/goccp
and on Facebook as goccpmd.
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Grants
Awarded
Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (BJAG)
A total of $2.8 million in BJAG grants was
awarded to 50 organizations and agencies throughout Maryland
this fall. BJAG grants are the primary source of federal funding
for criminal justice programs. Senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben
Cardin have been instrumental in their support of the BJAG
program.
BJAG grants are used for a broad spectrum of programs designed to
increase public safety, including a new program to fight youth
gangs. A $50,000 BJAG grant, matched with a similar grant from the
United Way of the National Capital Area, is funding a one-year pilot
program to fight youth gang violence. The pilot
program will run in two middle schools in Prince George's
County. It is one result of a GOCCP report on gang prevention and
intervention to the State legislature which was required by the Safe
Schools Act of 2010.
S*T*O*P Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)
GOCCP
is distributing $2.2 million worth of federal VAWA grants to 58
organizations that work statewide to help women who are the victims
of domestic violence and sexual assault. VAWA allocates its funding
to Services, Training, Officers and Prosecutors (STOP). Agencies
are encouraged to forge lasting partnerships between the criminal
justice system and victim advocacy organizations, and to look beyond
traditional resources by partnering with community and faith-based
organizations to respond more vigorously to domestic violence,
sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking crimes.
Victims of Crime Act (VOCA)
GOCCP
awarded more than $7 million in grants from the federal Victims
of Crime Act (VOCA) program. These grants pay for direct services
for victims of violent crime. 76 agencies serving 23 jurisdictions
across the State received VOCA grants. The funds will support
programs that include sexual assault and rape treatment centers,
domestic violence programs, and child abuse programs. Other
programs supported by VOCA funding in Maryland include mental health
treatment, victim advocates, victim registration and notification,
and victim witness programs.
Community Sexual Violence Prevention & Awareness
GOCCP
awarded a total of $300,000 in grants to 17 rape crisis programs
in Maryland. The grants are from the Community Sexual Violence
Prevention & Awareness program and will be used to provide
training, support services and public information programs to
increase public awareness.
Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Grants (CFSI)
GOCCP
awarded more than $300,000 to 7 police crime labs throughout
the State from the federal CFSI program. The grants are designed to
improve efficiency and performance in crime laboratory analysis of
evidence from crime scenes and from suspects. The funds can also be
used to help crime labs attain national accreditation.
School Bus Safety Enforcement Fund (SBSE)
More than $500,000
was awarded to 46 agencies across Maryland to help provide safer
school bus rides for Maryland's public school children. The grants
from the Maryland School Bus Safety Enforcement Fund are used for
police overtime to enforce school bus safety laws.
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