Good morning, Washington. Many of this morning’s headlines paint a grim picture of the state of police work in Prince George’s County. As we mentioned at the end of the day yesterday, the Washington Post has reported that the marijuana raid that resulted in the death of two family dogs at the home of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo was not conducted with a proper warrant. The county’s swat team lacked the kind of “no-knock” warrant needed to burst in to the home with guns blazing, which will surely lead to problems should the Calvos ever be prosecuted on drug charges — not that they necessarily will, since one angle authorities are now investigating is whether the package may have been intended to be intercepted by another suspect. The Examiner piles on with a story pointing out that PG County has the worst record in the metro area for solving robbery cases — a mere 3.8 percent success rate. The District solves 15 percent of its robberies. All of this comes on the heels of the retirement of PG County’s police chief and a federal investigation into the death of accused PG County cop killer Ronnie White while he was in custody in a PG County jail. We certainly hope whoever becomes the new permanent county police chief has some experience improving morale as well as crime fighting.
Robberies Way Up on Metro: WMATA released its mid-year crime statistics, and the Examiner dives in to show that robberies on the Metro system are way up this year over last year, a jump of almost 40 percent. There were 272 robberies reported to Metro Transit Police in the first six months of 2008, while 197 were reported during the same period in 2007. Keep an eye on those iPhones, everyone.
‘All Hands On Deck’ Targeted Drivers: WJLA went out to hang with the police officers who were stationed on upper Wisconsin Ave. on Tuesday as part of this week’s latest ‘All Hands on Deck’ initiative, which ended last night. They found that the MPD focused on nabbing drivers on the busy street who were talking on their cell phones, not wearing seat belts, and speeding through crosswalks. The location of the ticketing effort was not far from where a police cruiser struck a pedestrian in a crosswalk last year.
Briefly Noted: Pedestrian struck on Capitol Hill … PG County boy, 6, accidentally shoots his brother, 9, in hip … Overnight barricade situation in Southeast … D.C. settles in St. Elizabeth’s Medicare case.
This Day in DCist: Last year we learned that Marines without dates are often refused entry to some Capitol Hill bars and worried that Metro was considering getting rid of late night service on the weekends.
Photo by ebreidy
