By Tim Pratt
Maryland Gazette
BALTIMORE — When county police officers in the Northern District PACT unit received complaints of possible drug and prostitution activity at the Motel 6 in Linthicum, they took it seriously.
Members of the unit staked out the motel on Raynor Avenue during the late-night hours of July 6 and observed what they called “suspicious activity” in the parking lot. When officers approached just after midnight, a man took off, tossing a handgun while being chased by officers.
Police eventually caught the man, Deandre Hill of Baltimore, and charged him with weapons and other offenses.
It was the latest arrest by the district’s Police And Community Together unit. The group works extensively with community leaders and residents, regularly investigating tips and complaints.
In the first six months of 2012, the unit made 235 arrests, worked 34 felony cases and closed out 29 of them. It seized $17,314 in cash, $38,189 in drugs, five vehicles and six guns, said Sgt. Ryan Frashure, who heads the unit. The unit is on pace to surpass 2011 in some of those categories.
PACT has come a long way since Capt. William Krampf took over as commander of the Northern District in January 2011. He came from the Southern District and brought Frashure with him.
There were only two officers in the unit in 2010, and those officers didn’t open any felony cases. But Krampf pushed to make the PACT unit active again. It now has six detectives, a traffic officer and Frashure.
“We’re allowing them to be investigators again,” Krampf said. “I don’t want to be 911-dependent and have officers go to a call for service and just write a report and that’s it. We’ve given them the avenues to be police officers again.”
The unit thoroughly investigates tips and complaints, but also keeps close tabs on repeat offenders and “hot spots” - high crime areas, Krampf said. Those include parts of Brooklyn Park and Glen Burnie. Officers make it a point to do extensive follow-ups, and thoroughly interview and re-interview suspects and witnesses.
Members of the unit often attend community association meetings to hear concerns from the public. If they aren’t able to attend meetings, detectives still maintain regular contact with community leaders.
One of those community leaders is Carl Brooks, president of the Northern District Community Relations Council and vice president of the Cedar-Morris Hill Improvement Association in Brooklyn Park.
Brooks has worked with police regularly for 45 years, beginning as a liaison between the department and his community. He still keeps in constant contact, calling in tips or getting calls from members of the unit.
“The Police Department is only as good as the citizens it’s protecting,” Brooks said. “I don’t like it when people sit in the house and complain about criminal activity going on in their community and don’t do anything about it. If you want it to stop, call police, get involved. Everybody isn’t going to like you because that’s what happens when you turn people in, but you’ll have a nice, clean community.”
That interaction is what Krampf was looking for when he re-invigorated the unit last year. Ninety-nine percent of complaints from the public are about drug activity, Frashure said.
Last week, PACT detectives responded to complaints of loitering and drug activity at 10th Avenue Park in Brooklyn Park.
While conducting surveillance, detectives observed a group of people loitering by the baseball fields. Members of the unit approached and seized 30 small bags of marijuana from a teenager, identified only as a 17-year-old from Brooklyn Park.
Police charged the teen as a juvenile with possession with the intent to distribute marijuana.
In June, the unit responded to numerous complaints of drug activity in the area of 1st Avenue and Ritchie Highway in Brooklyn Park. There, detectives observed a drug transaction and moved in on the two men involved. Both men fled on foot, but were caught by detectives.
Police seized 21 gel caps of suspected heroin, with an estimated street value of $2,250, along with $226 in cash.
Officers charged Kevin Charles Brown, 32, of Baltimore, with distribution of heroin, possession of heroin with intent to distribute and possession of heroin. Dale Charles Edge, 30, of the 100 block of Lincoln Avenue, Glen Burnie, was charged with possession of heroin.
Sometimes the arrests go beyond the northern part of the county.
In June 2011, a drug investigation by Northern District PACT detectives led to a seizure of 78 capsules of heroin, one handgun and more than $4,000 in cash from a home in Arnold. Police charged 24-year-old Jonathan Matthews of Arnold with distribution, possession and firearms offenses.
“The arrests are increasing, but in the long term, the crimes will be decreasing because we’re having more of an impact,” Krampf said. “We’re looking at patterns and trends more than we did a couple years ago. We’re tracking people more. We’re linking a lot more things. We’re doing a lot more up here than we have in the past.”
That’s just fine for people like Brooks.
“You call in with a complaint, and they come out and investigate it,” he said. “They come out and do the job.”
Copyright 2012 Capital Gazette Communications, Inc.