The demise, at least for the winter, of the Baltimore Police Marine Unit has raised several questions. Among them is why it was so important three years ago that the city cited national security reasons to help secure federal grant money and now it's OK to abandon the unit when it's cold.

The official answer is that during tough budget times, the 14 officers who patrol the harbor are needed for more pressing duties -- like foot patrols in the Inner Harbor and guarding City Hall. The other answer is that when money is flowing, say from the feds, hype the need to get your hands on the loot.

Baltimore got enough money to buy three police boats, each costing $143,000, with all the bells and whistles -- such as radar, sonar and satellite navigation. Now the boats sit at dock near Canton. The department says in an emergency, officers can get to the boats and deploy; the officers say the boats need constant maintenance, take a while to start and warm up and that they've been told to stay away. One officer said he suggested docking at least one boat at the Inner Harbor where it would be readily available to the foot patrol officers, but was denied.

I'm still seeking the actual grant proposal, but today I found the next best thing -- the person who wrote it. Three years ago, Kristen Mahoney was in charge of grants for the city police. She now works for Gov. Martin O'Malley as director of the Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention.

She didn't remember too many specifics about the grant, but she did note it was written when money was pouring in to local jurisdictions from both the state and the federal government. She wasn't sure when the strings run out, or if the city had to notify the feds that it was no longer using the boats as spelled out in the grant. "Good luck trying to get somebody from the federal goverment to give you a date when the strings detach," she told me, adding that even when she worked for the feds in grant writing, she couldn't get a straight answer.

She said that even if the city was under the federal thumb on the boat grant -- which it probably isn't anymore -- the city could claim financial distress, saying for example, "OK, we'll staff these boats but then we have let the Southern District go unmanned."

Obviously, that's not going to happen. But Mahoney said she feels sorry for the marine unit officers, who like the horse mounted and the motorcycle unit, consider themselves specialists. "They make their lives that way," Mahoney told me. "It's hard to give up that tallent."

But Mahoney would not criticize Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III. "It's not the wrong thing to do," she said. "I was there when times were good. Federal grants. State grants. We had a lot to choose from. Now federal grants are low. State grants are low. In the bad times, you have to make adjustments. I don't envy what the city has to sacrifice."

One thing Mahoney promised to do: call the chief of the Department of Natural Resources and make sure that the Inner Harbor is covered. Last week, a city police spokesman told me there was an agreement in place, while the commander of the DNR station responsible for the city said "we haven't had any formal discussions."