About 150 violent offenders from Baltimore County have been arrested at least seven times each, parole agents said Tuesday.
Under a program expanded from Baltimore City, parole agents are tracking the “most dangerous” offenders in Baltimore County closely ? and waiting to lock them up again if they misstep, parole officials told the Baltimore County Coordinating Council at a meeting in Towson.
“We?re supervising them more intensively,” said Deborah Gonzales of Maryland?s Division of Parole and Probation.
In Baltimore City, police officers and parole agentscheck repeat violent offenders? addresses regularly, just as they would for sex offenders, said Baltimore City Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld.
Parole agents also check on shooting victims, a policy that will be expanded to Baltimore County, said Bill Frank, who oversees parole field operations in the county.
“If the shooting occurred, for example, at 3 o?clock in the morning, we ask, ?What was he doing out on the street at 3 in the morning to be shot?? ” Frank said.
“If there are any technical violations of his probation, we will seek an arrest warrant.”
Baltimore County Police Chief James Johnson said the focus was “the way to make some significant inroads in violence in Maryland.”
However, “we know we may give up something on the other end for lesser offenders,” he said.
Baltimore County District Court Administrative Judge Alexandra Williams said the intense attention on violent offenders might cause parole agents to grow lax in the supervision of other types of criminals.
“The concern for the District Court bench is, what?s going to happen to the lesser offenders and the supervision they receive?” she asked.
At the meeting, Johnson also touted lower juvenile crime statistics and the county?s revitalization efforts, which he said have virtually eliminated high-density pockets of crime in apartment complexes, such as Riverdale Apartments, Villages of Tall Trees and Kinsley Park.
Residents at those torn-down apartments called police an average of five or six times a year, he said.
“I?m at a loss to tell you of another area with crime numbers like that,” Johnson said.
Additionally, Baltimore County Deputy State?s Attorney Leo Ryan said prosecutors are being increasingly called on to find alternative housing for families of victims or witnesses in criminal cases.
The previous year, prosecutors relocated eight families, finding temporary housing for four and permanent housing for the other four.
“It?s beginning to be a bigger problem,” Ryan said.