During his campaign for re-election, Gov. Robert Ehrlich has stated repeatedly that he offered Maryland State Police assistance to Baltimore City, but Mayor Martin O?Malley rejected the offers for political reasons.
However, documents obtained by The Examiner indicate it was Maryland State Police who failed to provide Baltimore City with the assistance they offered in 2003.
In a Feb. 7, 2003, letter from former Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Clark to former Maryland State Police Superintendent Edward Norris, city police requested the help of nearly 40 troopers.
“I am appreciative of your offer to grant assistance to the Baltimore Police Department, and will accept your offer,” Clark wrote to Norris.
In a letter a day earlier, Norris offered to provide state troopers to Baltimore.
“Maryland State Police can provide you with immediate help,” Norris wrote. “By granting full police authority to state troopers in Baltimore, the police presence in the city would immediately increase by 5 percent, due to the number of troopers who live there.”
Kristen Mahoney, the chief of the technical services division at the Baltimore Police Department, said it was state police who dropped the ball by not following through with their offer.
She said her department couldn?t permit troopers to roam the city without supervision, but to help with specific tasks.
“We have asked state police for help over and over again, but they don?t want to participate with us,” Mahoney said.
Baltimore police requested on three occasions seven troopers to work in homicide, seven for narcotics, seven for automobile theft, seven for warrant apprehension, six for Operation Safe Kids and five full-time chemists, letters state.
State police never responded to Clark?s final June 19, 2003, letter requesting assistance, Mahoney said.
O?Malley said Thursday in an interview with The Examiner that he has always welcomed state police assistance and that Ehrlich is being dishonest when he says otherwise.
“We had asked that they help us with some initiatives,” O?Malley said. “We always take state help. We asked for state help.”
Ehrlich spokesman Henry Fawell said, “The governor has always been supportive of a state police presence in Baltimore. Unfortunately, the mayor only wanted a limited presence.”
