Faster, better…

Archive for the ‘Public Safety’ Category

We all might want to consider preparation for big weather. Here’s a link to the Fox News Hurricane site with the latest tracking information:

http://www.myfoxhurricane.com/

(EyeOnAnnapolis.net) An Annapolis City police officer crashed his motorcycle on the way home from work late one May evening. The article at EyeOnAnnapolis has some rather “eye-opening” facts about the crash and driver. Where are the example setters?

Read the entire story at EyeOnAnnapolis.net.

(EyeOnAnnapolis.net via DIGG) A 17 year old teenager from the 400 block of Larkspur Lane in Severna Park is considered critically missing by the Anne Arundel County Police Department.

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(CalvertNews.info 051309) HUNTINGTOWN, MD – On May 7 at approximately 12:20 a.m. an unknown black male forced his way into the residence of a 90 year-old victim on Harvest Lane in Huntingtown.

Read the entire story at CalvertNews.info!

May is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month. Maryland is doing its part by using the traffic alert signs above I-95 to highlight the issue. Kudos to the Maryland DOT!

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SOMD.COM is reporting that, Charles County Cops Target Seatbelt Violations During May. What I would rather see is twenty-four by seven aggressive driver enforcement everywhere. These seat belt events are peripheral to the proximate cause for most accidents – aggressive driving.

It’s virtually impossible to drive ten miles in Southern Maryland without having an aggressive driver less than one car length from your back bumper. People no longer stop at stop signs and those that do (when they stop behind me) wave wildly and angrily because I did stop.

What I’d like to see are the drivers of vehicles with police and firefighter vanity plates driving the speed limits and stopping for stop signs. Police cruisers need to be operating at safe speeds and only taking those extra risks with emergency lights activated. Stop sign enforcement at high risk intersections needs some serious attention. When was the last time you actually saw anyone in Southern Maryland STOP at a stop sign? . The colloquial speeds on neighborhood streets need to be closer to the actual limits and people must stop at red stop lights – period.

There are few example setters for traffic safety on Maryland highways. Driving in Southern Maryland is very dangerous. Each day I drive I have to be prepared to drive defensively. Law enforcement on our highways seem limited to radar speed traps. Aggressive behavior is mostly ignored. (I even see police vehicles in lines of vehicles all following at unsafe distances – too closely.  This means serious offenders may never get a ticket and these serious offenders WILL cause an accident later. Anarchy rules  on Maryland’s roads and highways.

We have enough dangerous behavior on our roads to keep traffic cops busy and traffic schools busy for months to come. It could even be a viable long-term revenue stream!  It’s time for the various police agencies to end political correctness and to stop patting each other on the back and get some real traffic enforcement done.  All we seem to see in Maryland each and every year is the hype about “Click it or ticket.” Seat belt enforcement events briefly mitigate the carnage and remind only a very few they need to be wearing seat belts. These events are designed for politically correct media exposure but do not deal with the proximate causes of traffic deaths.

I’d much rather the police were after the SERIOUS HAZARDOUS MOVER: following too closely, excessive speed, failure to stop at stop signs, driving while inattentive,  failure to stop at a red traffic lights, blasting through intersections at the last minute, passing at high speed on the right, passing in no passing zones, obvious enraged driving, and driving while intoxicated. It would not hurt to have a traffic division dedicated to driving enforcement.

Get out there and deal with aggressive driving!  Click it ot ticket only mitigates the carnage for a brief period and does not deal with the public safety problem on our highways.

(EyeOnAnnapolis) Click through to Eye On Annapolis for information on a Glen Burnie robbery. Police need your help identifying the suspect from the posted photograph. On April 29, 2009 at approximately 1105 (AM) hours there was an Armed Robbery of the Blockbuster Video Rental store located at 1181 South Crain Highway in Glen Burnie, MD near Hospital Drive.

EyeOnAnnapolis.net

This a re-Tweet from @RedCross.  “WHO has raised the pandemic alert level to 5. Now is the time to prepare. See our tips and video on www.redcross.org #swineflu”

On Twitter you can follow the American Red Cross at @RedCross

Visit http://www.redcross.org

PRINCE FREDERICK, Md. (April 23, 2009) — Calvert County public school and law enforcement officials are concerned about a dangerous but growing trend in text messaging. Officials report that children as young as elementary school are “sexting” their friends and acquaintances by using their cell phones to send nude, semi-nude, or sexually explicit

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The Red Cross and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration remind us that this week is National Flood Safety Awareness Week. Borrowed from the NOAA website:

Most Americans ignore the risks of flooding, assuming they aren’t in a flood zone. The reality is, floods are America’s #1 natural disaster and can happen anytime, anywhere. In fact, 90% of all natural disasters in the U.S. involve flooding.

Educate yourself on the risks and impacts of flooding during National Flood Awareness Week so you can protect your family and your property. Click here for flood Safety Awareness information.

Take time to ask your insurance agent whether you should carry flood insurance. Better now than later!

There is much more preparedness information at Ready.gov!

In response to car accidents caused by text messaging and health concerns of minors in automobiles, the Maryland General Assembly is considering heavier restrictions against motorists’ freedoms.

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WUSA9.COM ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A Maryland lawmaker hopes to pass a bill that would prohibit people from smoking while driving young children around.

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T-Bone and Heather doing a great job this Monday morning with snow storm related information. Tune them in! 98.3 FM.

A trooper was fired today by the Maryland State Police after he was arrested on charges of kidnapping a man in his marked cruiser at a fast-food drive-through, then leading Baltimore County police on a drunken high-speed chase.

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WASHINGTON D.C. – The public can help the Coast Guard keep America
’s waterways safe and secure. In light of the tragic terrorist attacks in Mumbai it is important to remember that all Americans play a vital role in homeland security.

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(Press Release St Mary’s County Department of Public Safety Nov 2008) – St Mary’s County Department of Public Safety in coordination with the National Weather Service will be hosting a SKYWARN class on November 19th, 2008 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm in the Chesapeake Building, 41770 Baldridge St., Leonardtown to train citizens to become SKYWARN storm spotters.

SKYWARN storm spotters are part of the ranks of citizens who form the Nation’s first line of defense against severe weather. There can be no finer reward than to know that their efforts have given communities the precious gift of time–seconds and minutes that can help save lives.

National Weather Service and the St Mary’s County Department of Public Safety encourage anyone with an interest in public service to join the SKYWARN program. SKYWARN Storm Spotters include police and fire personnel, dispatchers, EMS workers, public utility workers and other concerned private citizens. Individuals affiliated with hospitals, schools, churches, nursing homes or those with a responsibility for protecting others are also encouraged to become a spotter.

This free class will last approximately two hours and will include the following curriculum:

• Basics of thunderstorm development
• Fundamentals of storm structure
• Identifying potential severe weather features
• Information to report
• How to report information
• Basic severe weather safety

For more information please call the Department of Public Safety, Emergency Management Division at 301 475 4200 x 2125

Calvert County CERT has a new blog at Blogspot.com. Bill Hackett notified all volunteers on November 7 that the blog will be used to keep everyone up to date. Calvert County CERT members should take advantage of the new blog.

Calvert Citizens Emergency Response Teams are trained civilians who have volunteered to perform simple search and rescue in their communities after a disaster. CERT is a function of the FEMA Citizens Corps.

Traffic cameras are suffocating our right to privacy. Here’s help in Montgomery County Maryland.

[We pay our POLICE to do this work. We should not be paying private contractors. When police cannot find time to deal with law enforcement and aggressive driving then it's time to look at a change in management. While I generally support any effort that will reduce the rampant speeding and aggressive driving here in Maryland using private contractors is obscene. Police need to start focusing on aggressive driving as a major safety problem in Maryland and get out from behind their radar guns.]

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Our family subscribes to the County’s automated emergency telephone service. An automated call was received at 8:20 PM this evening advising us that an emergency shelter was open at Calvert High School as of 8:00 PM this evening. The shelter is also a pet shelter that can accept dogs or cats in cages. The county is concerned about flooding and extended power outages causing persons to find their homes a bad place to be. This is a great service by the way. You should sign up for it if you havn’t already. After this storm of course.

Thank you to everybody that helped with the Martin fire in Bonny Doon, California. Firefighters rock! Don’t miss seeing this video. It is a heartfelt thank you from a resident of Bonny Doon.  Click read more below to see it at You Tube.

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Maryland police said three teenagers were caught stealing signal horns from freight trains because they were using two-way radios to carry out their raid.

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Just giving everyone who hunts at Brownie’s Beach…Calvert Parks…I had my passenger side window smashed in on 3/31 approx. 3pm when the kiddies get home from school…I saw the trash that broke my window (2)boys 15-17yrs old…a dark haired short runt & a taller lanky punk wearing a cap…both dressed in their newest gangsta clothes…

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