The police presence is stronger in North Carroll with the opening of a sheriff?s office in Greenmount.
But space, not safety, was the reason for the move.
“The sheriff?s office was running out of space,” said Maj. Nicholas Plazio, head of the investigative services division, which is now stationed below the North Carroll branch of the Carroll County Public Library.
The Carroll County Sheriff?s Office, which is attached to the jail in Westminster, was designed in 1997 for39 people, said Lt. Phil Kasten, sheriff?s office spokesman; about 100 work out of it today. The lack of space required some detectives to work at the state?s attorney?s office down the street.
Still, no detectives had their own desks or computers. “All the things you need to work” were shared, Plazio said.
At the satellite office, detectives have their own computers and desks while working side by side.
“Instead of this fractionalized effort we had before, now we have a more cohesive effort to share information,” Plazio said. “It?s easy to walk from here to there and say, ?Hey, where are we with this gang?? ”
But the office is temporary. Plazio said Carroll?s plan to move the entire sheriff?s department into a new, larger building is about two years away.
The 6,000-square-foot satellite office, which cost more than $70,000 to renovate from a senior center, has:
» Two interrogation rooms
» Crime scene processing
» Evidence storage
» Gang prevention specialists
» Drug Abuse Resistance Education officers
» Fraud investigation
» Areas to handcuff and detain suspects, but no holding cells.
“It?s a neutral site, where there?s not an overpowering police presence” to interrogate suspects, Plazio said.
In addition to the police departments in Manchester and Hampstead, the satellite office will provide patrol officers for the area.
The new sheriff?s office doesn?t affect the library.
“They?re totally separate from us,” said Librarian Kristina Peters. “It?s a county budget, so the county made the decision.”
TO CALL
Residents should continue to call the dispatcher at the sheriff?s main office in Westminster at 410-386-2900.
