Around Maryland

The Johns Hopkins University police force is moving to the fore again. The Baltimore university pledged in 2020 to halt the hotly-contested creation of a private police force following the police killing of George Floyd and the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests that ensued. Hopkins came under fire a year later when it announced the hiring of Branville Bard Jr. to lead the department. The announcement came at a time when most students were not on campus.

As the start of the school year approaches, Anne Arundel County Public Schools is short 300 teachers, 67 bus drivers, 222 food service workers, 81 custodians and 57 crossing guards. School staff provided an update to the Board of Education on Wednesday afternoon, saying the system will serve 84,000 children across 125 school facilities when classes start Monday.

Baltimore will spend nearly $1 million to update a cellphone tracking technology that police use to collect select data from phones and that has been the subject of litigation. The $920,000 purchase from Cognyte Software will upgrade the city’s stingray technology, which works by mimicking a cellphone tower and tricking all phones within a range of up to a mile to connect with it. The suitcase-sized device allows police to record a phone’s location and number as well as the numbers of outgoing calls and texts.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Wednesday announced the state would provide $503,000 in investments to fund the Little Italy community in Baltimore City to help make the neighborhood safe. Hogan, along with Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson and community leaders, were in Little Italy for the announcement. “Little Italy is a proud community with a storied history, but violent crime threatens to make it less safe and welcoming.

Frederick County Board of Education member Jay Mason said Wednesday that he was set to start as a fifth grade teacher in Montgomery County Public Schools after failing to gain traction on a request to teach locally. The school board’s ethics policy says board members cannot work for Frederick County Public Schools for at least one year following their departure from the board.

Federal law enforcement officials will use $3.5 million in state money to fund a set of new initiatives aimed at reducing violent crime, U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron said Wednesday at a news conference in Baltimore. Barron announced three strategies that he said his office has never before undertaken in its pursuit of repeat violent offenders. His office reorganized, combining the narcotics and organized crime sections into a single violent crime division that will include additional prosecutors and investigators.

The second phase of a major Boardwalk re-decking project will go off as planned this fall after resort officials this week approved a recommendation for the low bid for the lumber for the project. The complete re-decking of the Boardwalk has been in the works for a number of years and the first phase was completed last spring in advance of the summer season. The second phase is scheduled to begin this all after Sunfest weekend in October and is expected to be completed before the next summer season.