Thursday, January 17, 2013
Wednesday's community action forum on school safety draws crowd.
Dozens of concerned parents packed the Montgomery County Public Schools headquarters in Rockville Wednesday night to hear police, County Council members and school officials pledge efforts to make schools safer, including increasing police presence. County Council Vice President Craig Rice, a vocal advocate of school resource officers stationed in schools, told the meeting, "We are going to double the number of school resource officers from 6 to 12." The school resource officer, or SRO, program historically has stationed police officers in schools as an added safety boost. In recent years budget cuts have limited the SRO program to one officer per police district, in addition to one Gaithersburg City SRO. Now county leadership’s priorities…
Friday, January 4, 2013
A school safety meeting is scheduled for Jan. 16.
How much security is the right amount of security for Montgomery County’s public school students? Following the shock of December’s tragic shootings in Newtown, CT, parents and family members of students at Bradley Hills Elementary in Bethesda have written to county leaders asking for security improvements at the elementary school’s temporary location, according to a Wednesday Gazette report. Students and teachers at Bradley Hills currently are housed at the Radnor Center, while the school undergoes modernization, scheduled for completion in August. “Our school has no security system in place and our front door remains unlocked throughout the school day with no mechanism for screening visitors,” parents wrote, according to the report. …
Thursday, January 3, 2013
The Montgomery County Council of PTAs will host a school safety forum later this month.
The shock of December’s tragic shootings in Newtown, CT, has caused some parents in Montgomery County to speak out about school safety in their elementary schools. Parents and family members of students at Bradley Hills Elementary in Bethesda have written to county leaders, including county council members, the Montgomery County school board and Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Joshua P. Starr asking for security improvements at the elementary school’s temporary location, according to a Wednesday Gazette report. Students and teachers at Bradley Hills are currently housed at the Radnor Center, while the school undergoes modernization, scheduled for completion in August. “Our school has no security system in place and our …
Thursday, November 8, 2012
County police and fire/rescue personnel return from week helping Sandy victims in New York, where the situation was described as "Katrina-esque."
On Tuesday afternoon, while Montgomery County and the rest of the nation were paying attention to Election Day, 80 Montgomery County fire/rescue and police personnel unceremoniously returned home from spending an exhausting week assisting Hurricane Sandy victims in New York. The Maryland Task Force 1, made up of local medical workers, rescue experts, engineers and dog handlers with search canines, was assembled Sunday afternoon, Oct. 28, and dispatched to Fort Dix, NJ, to await orders, according to Montgomery County Assistant Chief Scott Graham. From there it was a long week of search and rescue and humanitarian relief that Graham says was similar to the situation in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. “I’ve been on the task force since …
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Angela A. Cobbold, 27, is a "completely rational, reasonable person" while taking medication, her brother-in-law said in court.
The woman charged in a two-state car chase and traffic melee involving gunfire outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda has been deemed competent to stand trial, but the case may nonetheless hinge on whether she was "not criminally responsible" for her actions because of her mental state, according to statements made in court. A Montgomery County District Court judge set bail at $50,000 on Wednesday for Angela A. Cobbold, 27, who is charged with first-degree assault and reckless endangerment after police say she attempted to run down a Navy security officer with her car outside Walter Reed Bethesda Oct. 23. Cobbold's bail hearing appearance was via closed-circuit TV from Montgomery County Correctional facilty where …
Thursday, October 25, 2012
The Montgomery County executive answered residents' questions about public safety, small business assistance and solar energy opportunities in an interactive chat on Wednesday.
How is the county going to step up its efforts to protect Ride On bus drivers and passengers? What steps will the county executive take to fund the new Small Business Assistance Program? These were among the questions Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett fielded from residents on Wednesday in an interactive chat online. Patch has excerpted questions and answers from the discussion that specifically mentioned the Wheaton and Glenmont area. (The questions and answers have not been edited.) The full transcript of the discussion is available online here. The next live discussion will take place Nov. 21. Ride On Bus Question: Hi Mr. Leggett, I have been on Ride On buses when customers have refused to pay bus fare and have literally spit …
Thursday, October 18, 2012
The award was among $6.3 million given to Maryland's state and local governments by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Montgomery County has been awarded $159,701 in federal funding earmarked for violent crime reduction and other public safety activities, Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin announced Thursday. The U.S. Department of Justice grant is one in a $6.3 million bundle given to the state, county, and local governments of Maryland. The county's share will be used to install a system that can deliver video intelligence wirelessly to commanders and operational personnel in an emergency and to develop the capability to share that data with other law enforcement agencies. The grant funding is based on a formula of population and violent crime statistics. Money from the program is used to pay for law enforcement, prosecutions, education, drug …
Monday, October 1, 2012
The newly renovated Montgomery County public safety headquarters revealed.
After two years and more than $20 million in renovations, Montgomery County police have almost fully moved into the new public safety headquarters at 100 Edison Park Dr., a building formerly occupied by the National Geographic Society headquarters. The $108.5-million headquarters project brings the Montgomery County Police Department headquarters, the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, the Montgomery County Office of Homeland Security, the First District Police Station and parts of the transportation department under one 408,000-square-foot roof. The building also houses the police crime lab and the forensic division on the top floor in a state-of-the-art facility. From traditional finger printing to full DNA analysis, Montgomery …
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Police officials need your help to identify a suspect.
Montgomery County police are investigating a string of daytime burglaries between Sept. 10 and Sept. 18. In an initial investigation shows that residents living in high-rise apartments were targeted as they came home and residents in garden-style apartments were entered through rear doors or windows, according to police officials. The incidents occurred on the 1200 block of Fidler Lane, 800 block of Juniper Street (three incidents), 1200 block of East West Highway, 7700 block of Blair Road, 8300 block of Colesville Road, and 8700 block of Georgia Avenue. The suspect is being described as a black male between 20 to 30-years-old, standing 5-feet 7-inches to-5-feet 9-inches tall, and weighing about 150-160 pounds. Detectives are asking …
Thursday, September 13, 2012
The 23-year-old man was arrested after a SWAT standoff in January.
A man arrested after a SWAT standoff in Kensington earlier this year faces a court date in late November on nine other charges, according to court documents. In June, Brendan Patrick Orr, 24, received nine charges after a traffic stop in Prince George’s County. Charging documents allege that Orr was driving under the influence of alcohol and was impaired by a controlled dangerous substance. They accuse him of failing to drive on the highway, driving with an obstructed windshield view and displaying a county sticker on the owner’s license plate other than the owner’s county of residence. These charges aren't related to the robbery in January. The fines associated with the charges total about $400, according to charging documents. In early…
Andrew
8:41 am on Friday, March 8, 2013
Roaming patrol give's an armed officer the element of suprise, and the intruder the uncertainty of the location of the officer. It's not too much to ask that the one tasked with protecting a school do that by patroling the school. Hope that helps answer your question Joe. more ›