The Dec. 29 editorial “Police impunity in Pr.
George’s,” regarding an incident that occurred nearly three years ago in
College Park, characterized the evening of March 3, 2010, as “rowdy street
celebrations” by students at the University of Maryland that resulted in a
“conspiracy of silence and coverup” by Prince George’s County police officers.
This is effective prose that stirs emotions, yet it is
exaggerated and misleading.
After a decade of off-campus rioting that in April 2011
earned Maryland’s flagship university GQ magazine’s distinction as the
fifth-worst fan base in the nation, this particular post-athletic-contest
behavior has served to define a future of shared responsibility for our police
department and the University of Maryland. It’s a shame it took such a
disastrous night to do it.
What happened to John J. McKenna was wrong. The involved
police officers were identified, indicted and prosecuted. Our internal affairs
detectives worked tirelessly with the State’s Attorney’s Office in the
prosecution before a jury of Prince George’s residents.
Over the past two years, we have taken the unprecedented
steps of hiring a former Justice Department prosecutor as our inspector general
for discipline and training oversight and a veteran local television reporter
to ensure transparency with the media and our residents.
Our strategy and training to handle civil disturbances have
been completely overhauled to include dramatically enhanced command and
supervisory participation, immediate after-action reviews of social and other
media sites, equipment that readily identifies each police officer, on-scene
internal affairs detectives to ensure compliance with directives, roll call and
deployment videotaping, and a trained prisoner processing team.
The Prince George’s Police Department’s resolve to never
again repeat the mistakes of the past has been met by similar efforts by the
university’s president, athletic director and police chief. All of these
individuals are new to the campus since the McKenna incident occurred.
Our shared commitment of mutual accountability is anything
but indifferent.
Mark A. Magaw, Chief of Police
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