Drug bust hearing
The Baltimore police detectives investigating one of the largest drug busts in the city were working the case back in 2007, but got transferred from the west side to the east side to deal with rising violence. Back to their old beat earlier this year, the officers went right back to their old sources and last week found more than 90 pounds of cocaine in a raid.
It's both heartening and distressing. Limited resources and shifting violence prompts the department to keep moving people around, which doesn't give them a lot of time to develop sources needed to bring down some of the city's bigger drug dealers. Who knows whether these officers, given a bit more time, could've taken this suspect off the streets two years ago.
That was under a previous police commissioner. Now, police are keeping task forces in some of the more violent areas, even when it spreads elsewhere. That way, police don't chase the dealers all over the city, abandoning beachheads as soon as they're established. That takes courage. It's easy to say they've flooded the Western with piles of cops and it's quiet this month so we'll move them across town, only to have the violence flare up back on the west side as soon as the cops leave.
Last year, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III ousted the commander of the Southwestern District as violence flared. He refused to move extra officers assigned to the Western, saying he didn't want to destroy work they had done. The easy way out is to move the troops; but then you risk interrupting investigations and leaving a suspected drug dealer on the streets for longer than necessary.
In this case, the drug suspect, Trennell D. Murphy, 33, allegedly got a pass for two years. Today in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, he is scheduled for a detention hearing. Police arrested him Friday after raiding the Baltimore home he allegedly shares with his mother and seizing more than 90 pounds of cocaine from a Chevy truck registered to him, according to a criminal complaint filed. The complaint charges Murphy with plans to distribute more than 5 kilograms of cocaine.
Here is the criminal complaint:
Comments
Disheartening? I understand reassignments, but I certanly would think that there is some type of debriefing where this knowledge could have been passed on rather than being held to the vest for two years. What if the officers had never been returned? I appreciate the job that the Baltimore City Police are tasked with, and their sacrifices. I am concerned; however, that this type of approach is exactly what the criminals in Baltimore count on.
Posted by: DJ | February 24, 2009 11:58 AM
DJ, I couldn't agree with you more. I should've hit harder in this one -- it shows what happens when budget cuts get in the way of policing. They shift cops all to chase crime and lose sight of the bigger picture. Thanks for the note!
Posted by: Peter Hermann | February 24, 2009 4:09 PM