Hogan finally takes meaningful action to help police

Better late than never.

After more than seven years as Maryland’s governor, Larry Hogan has finally realized he has significant responsibilities in dealing with crime in Baltimore City as well as all the counties of Maryland (“‘No. 1 concern of Marylanders’: Hogan to send funds, state troopers to help Baltimore Police target violent crime,” March 24).

Gov. Hogan is the top boss of the Maryland State Police as well as the Maryland Division of Parole and Probation. Both of these state agencies have a responsibility in serving or expediting the service of warrants.

As a young parole agent I, along with my fellow agents, was responsible for serving parole retake warrants issued by the Maryland Parole Commission. We would arrest people in our office or in their homes. Later, these warrants were farmed out to various police departments for service, and we would transport prisoners from the local lockup to the Maryland Reception Center.

Many people with outstanding warrants were arrested during the intake process after they were placed on probation. If a record check revealed an outstanding warrant from any police agency, we were required to contact them to verify that they had the “physical warrant.”

If the warrant was available for servicing, the police would be called and the wanted person would be arrested. Once an offender was assigned to a field office and we learned of any new warrant, we would have the wanted person arrested in our office. My experience was mainly with the Baltimore Police Department, but we also worked with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. I was given a coffee mug by an agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for my help in apprehending someone it wanted.

Sometimes detectives would call and ask us to instruct a person to report so that they could arrest him. Many people were arrested sitting in the chair by the side of my desk. The agents I supervised knew that I did not want anyone leaving our office with an outstanding warrant. I felt obligated to deal with this important part of our job.

The warrants that were served were parole retake warrants, violation of probation warrants as well as new criminal warrants. I am speaking from my own experience, and none of this would have been possible without the cooperation of all staff members and law enforcement agencies.

Of course, the goal of our work was to help keep people in the community by dealing with drug, alcohol, domestic violence, child abuse and mental health issues. Treatment, training and employment are key in helping offenders reintegrate into society. In more recent years this has become much more challenging due to the epidemic of drug addiction and the arrival in Baltimore of very dangerous and violent gangs.

The idea is to work with the offender, but their cooperation is needed. Their failure to cooperate with the treatment plan usually indicates that they are continuing to commit crimes.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott was right in encouraging Gov. Hogan to act responsibly after seven years of listening to Hogan’s tirades against Baltimore and elected city officials. One can only wonder how many crimes could have been prevented had Gov. Hogan not wasted those years.

Understaffing and low salaries will not attract people to what has become a more dangerous career than was previously the case. Maryland voters need to monitor the new Hogan plan to ensure that belated promises are finally kept.