Talk:Prince George's County Police Department

Bananas
this is driving me bananas... how do I get it to keep the "References" section and still put the reference in. Right now it lets me do one or the other... not both Sallicio (talk) 00:23, 10 December 2007 (UTC)Sallicio
 * Refs should be formatted as . I noticed you were using instead. --Tom (talk - email) 03:20, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Headline news
Regarding the below section titled "Controversy", there is "controversy" with PG police at least 2 or 3 times a year. It doesn't belong on Wikipedia. PG police are constantly in the news. This one seems to have attracted popular attention because of dogs, mayors and pot but it's more a "New of the Weird" and hardly notable for an encyclopedia.


 * In August 2008, the Prince George's County Police Department, along with the Prince George's County Sheriff Department SWAT team, executed a search warrant at the home of Cheye Calvo, mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland. The search warrant was issued after authorities intercepted a package of marijuana sent to the mayor's wife by persons unknown.  The conduct of the officers involved in the no-knock raid has sparked allegations of police misconduct for the "no-knock" nature of their forced entry into the mayor's home, the killing of two of the mayor's two dogs upon entering the residence, and the refusal of the police raid team to produce the search warrant after securing the residents of the house.  The Prince George's County Police department has refused to apologize for killing of the dogs or its other actions in the case.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fothergill Volkensniff IV (talk • contribs) 02:49, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

On the contrary, the highly unprofessional behavior of the Department, deserves to be highlighted, if for no other reason than all Encyclopedias have served as good historical records of their times. In addition to their latest outrage, they are also under a DOJ consent decree, and I would dearly like to see someone with the time, bring the whole record up to date on this unseemly law enforcement department. As a senior citizen, I have observed public institutions -- and participated in a few -- for a long time; and, one thing the serious scholar can count on is that what has been revealed in the way of misbehavior, by institutions public and private, is only the tip of the iceberg. Sidney Orr (talk) 05:05, 8 August 2008 (UTC)


 * "is "controversy" with PG police at least 2 or 3 times a year. It doesn't belong on Wikipedia. PG police are constantly in the news."


 * Fothergill Volkensniff IV is wrong. Violations of people's rights absolutely are noteworthy in relation to police departments and this event in particular is big news.  The mayor it turns out is innocent:  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,399882,00.html  The story also notes several other abuses.  You have no basis for claiming this is not noteworthy. - 69.134.233.145 (talk) 14:11, 8 August 2008 (UTC)


 * ** Look at any article from a police/sheriff office in an urban area and there will be controversial actions. They should be included; HOWEVER, if someone is going to write about the incident maintain NPOV. That means include everything. Don't just write, "Prince George's officer shoots african-american youth in the back as he fled." Include the fact that the "poor youth" was firing at officers with a TEC 9 machine gun as he ran. This is exactly why wikipedia continues to not be taken seriously. WE MUST MAINTAIN NPOV by including all the facts not just those that make the department look bad. Now, if the facts are simply that the youth was running and they shot him out of malice...include that, "Prince George's officers fired on an unarmed african-american youth that was suspected of jay walking after he began to be verbally abusive to the officers." * --Sallicio$\color{Red} \oplus$ 21:43, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

It's News of the Weird trivia. PG police are notoriously difficult with human rights problems. This incident should be written about it in a general way giving some examples, there are 3 or 4 incidents a year like this in PG County, but don't call this single incident a "controversy" - this is not a controversy, it is standard normal life in PG County. As I said, the only reason this is being included is because it made national news in a "News of the Weird" sort of way, not because it represents any big picture issue, it's trivia as written and won't last more than a few years on Wikipedia. Further, if this had been a black person, and not the mayor, it would never have made the national news, nor been included in Wikipedia. Worse stuff happens in PG all the time, but it never makes it into Wikipedia. How come? It would be trivia to include it. But throw in pot + mayor + dead dogs = "noteworthy" - lol. I guess my idea of noteworthy is the PG polices long-term record, not a single incident that will be forgotten in 2 years. Fothergill Volkensniff IV (talk) 01:32, 10 August 2008 (UTC)


 * I see PaulinSaudi has taken some steps to balance the section by listing long term notable incidents. Congrats. PG County has a reputation for human rights abuses, in general, that should also be discussed, should anyone wish to research it. Here is a 2002 Amnesty International report to get started. Fothergill Volkensniff IV (talk) 01:38, 10 August 2008 (UTC)


 * This is not an isolated incident. This kind of problem was widely documented in the mainstream press long before the Cheye Calvo incident.  See, e.g.: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_6_33/ai_75434981/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1 and http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/metro/md/princegeorges/government/police/shootings/ (both from around 2000-2001)  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.194.119.145 (talk) 08:48, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Propriety of including civil rights violation issues in Wikipedia law enforcement agency pages
Fothergill Volkensniff IV is indeed incorrect in his protest about the civil rights violation being included in Wikipedia. The Prince George's County Police Department has an unusual number of such allegations and severity of the most recent allegations is incompatible with reasonable law enforcement techniques or the law. Such unusual deviation from the norm warrants inclusion in an encyclopedia article and was very helpful to me personally in making a decision to cancel a combined business/pleasure trip to the county as a matter of personal safety.Journeyman1944 (talk) 17:42, 8 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Is this a joke? Fothergill Volkensniff IV (talk) 22:39, 18 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Hmm. Perhaps we should include the fact that the citizens of the county are out of control as well, that the police department's hands are tied behind their back in dealing with crime, and that the Journeyman should look at the kinds of calls for service (more than 2,000 calls per day, multiple carjackings per night, barricades, domestic assaults, oh and let's not forget the annual 130+ homicides commited by the friendly locals) when deciding his "business/pleasure trip" to PG county. I think people should do more research and not rely on the oh-so-accurate media to base ignorant opinions. Another ... person afraid of PG...there's an effing surprise. Keep the article balanced. --Sallicio$\color{Red} \oplus$ 00:18, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Article is out of balance
The single incident which made headline news recently is longer and more attention paid to it than any other part of the article. Clearly this article is a screed against PG county police and way out of balance. To see how its done (better), see New York City police. Fothergill Volkensniff IV (talk) 22:39, 18 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Definitely out of balance... just an observation, but why does the beating of a college student get its own subsection, but the officer that is murdered get a passing mention in one sentence? --It's me...Sallicio!$\color{Red} \oplus$ 18:28, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

Incident with mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland
I have made two substantive updates where the article was contradicted by many media accounts describing statements by both county officials and Mayor Calvo. I have also added an Associated Press citation as printed in USA Today to substantiate both corrections. First, I changed the statement "When Calvo's mother-in-law brought the package inside," to "When Calvo brought the package inside". A wide variety of news accounts and video of the Mayor speaking at his press conference clearly state that Calvo's mother-in-law instructed the officer posing as a delivery man that the package be placed on the porch but did not bring it into the house. Some time later, Calvo returned home and brought the package into the house. Second, I changed "the addressee, Cheye Calvo, the mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland." to "addressed to the wife of Cheye Calvo, mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland". Numerous accounts indicate that the package was not addressed to the Mayor, but to his wife. Spril4 (talk) 13:51, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Fish, or Cut Bait?
I see the new user Mb2217 has eliminated the section on various incidents and accidents. I do not think we have quite reached consensus on this. Even if the dog-shooting thing was a one-off tidbit, it seems that the Justice Department MOA is quite important. Time to act one way or the other. Paul, in Saudi (talk) 22:04, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

New Section
I added a new section on the victory of the department over charges of use of excessive force in October, 2008.Yachtsman1 (talk) 03:30, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

More excessive force
If someone wants to add this in, the PGC Police killed a dog, joining their Sheriff's Department in the illustrious game of dog-murdering. Here. 128.239.40.88 (talk) 21:48, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I'll see if I can't add it into the article. FWIW, canines can't be "murdered". They can be killed, but not murdered. "Murder" is a legal term usually reserved for the killing of members of homo sapiens sapiens. Illegitimate Barrister (talk) 04:56, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

It's not clear why the shooting of the dog is significant enough to be included. This shouldn't be a list of everything that folks are unhappy about with the Department. The Dissident Aggressor 18:48, 3 December 2014 (UTC)

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Berwyn Heights, Maryland mayor's residence drug raid
Berwyn Heights, Maryland mayor's residence drug raid is a Good Article, and should definitely be linked from this article (though the Sheriffs seem to have played the most prominent role). AnonMoos (talk) 22:57, 31 December 2019 (UTC)