A statewide sheriff?s group has launched a public relations campaign taking aim at a Carroll County plan to scale back the sheriff?s office and create a countywide police force.
The Maryland Sheriff?s Association is working with VERB! Communications of Baltimore to “spread awareness” about Carroll Commissioners? unanimous October decision to create a county police department with an appointed chief, said Mike Canning, executive director of the association.
“In our communications, what we?ve simply tried to do is say, ?Hey, people, there?s an issue out there and you need to pay attention to it,?” Canning said. “If they say, ?We want a police department,? we support that; if they say, ?We want a sheriff,? we support that.”
Lisa Shenkle, VERB!?s president, predicted the campaign would cost $10,000 to $15,000 and may expand from the Web and printed literature to include TV ads.
The campaign?s Web site, safenotsilent.com, says, “You have the right to remain safe, not silent. You have the right to speak your mind and maintain your vote ? when it comes to choosing your top law enforcement leadership, unless you decide otherwise.”
Supporters of the countywide force criticized the campaign, saying it politicizes the issue.
“I think the sheriff?s department and their friends, families and associates are trying to ?shout down? any opposition at meetings and in the media,” resident Jill Clinton wrote in an e-mail to Commissioner Julia Gouge.
Canning, however, said his group discovered many residents did not know about the county?s public hearings.
“There?s an information vacuum, and we?re trying to fill it,” Canning said. “Not everybody goes home, turns on the computer and goes to the commissioners? Web site and says, ?Gee, what did they do today??”
At a public hearing this week, several sheriffs came to Carroll to support a referendum backed by the county?s state delegation and Carroll Sheriff Kenneth Tregoning that would let voters decide the county?s primary police agency.
Creating a county department would also abolish the state?s only Resident Trooper Program, in which the county contracts state troopers to patrol.
Commissioners approved the countywide police department before a public hearing.
