Riot is latest controversy for county police

For many years, the Prince George's County Police Department had a hard-nosed image: Act first, ask questions later.

And while police officials largely believe they have been able to shake the stigma, their actions during a riot on Route 1 following the Terps' defeat of Duke Wednesday night have reinforced a reputation driven by a history of federal condemnation and heavy-handed tactics.

After the riot, student complaints about brutality were widespread, and videos of the night broadcast on local and national television have only furthered students' perception that police used excessive force. A hastily-planned protest Thursday drew 35 students condemning police actions.

But Prince George's County Police chief spokesman Maj. Andy Ellis had a different take: He thinks students and citizens alike were encouraged by the department's show of force in preventing further damage.

"The police have a job to do and people understand that there can't be unmitigated disorder where streets are shut down," Ellis said. "I think the majority of the student body understands that. The students at the University of Maryland don't want their university to be known as a place where people go out in the streets and cause damage after basketball games."

But some students caught up in the riot insist they didn't participate in the mayhem. They said they were trying to get to downtown restaurants and bars or were walking home when they unwittingly wandered into the mob scene.

One of the 23 university students arrested at the riot, who wished to remain anonymous, said he was on his way to a fundraiser at Santa Fe Cafe when police stopped him and his friends near 7-Eleven and told them to turn around.

As the group walked back toward the campus, a police officer pushed the student in the back, prompting him to ask the officer what he did wrong. Without warning, the student said, he was handcuffed and led into a SWAT car. He said police drove him to Ritchie Coliseum, where other officers taunted him.

"‘You better know how to fight because you're going to be spending the night in Upper Marlboro jail,' they said," the student alleged. "They asked which ones of us were students because we were going to be expelled."

The student also said some handcuffed students next to him asked to go to the bathroom and were told they could "piss their pants."

"They were trying to intimidate us," he added. "I don't really know what their motive was."

At the end of the night, the students were issued tickets and sent home. The student said the incident has shaken his faith in the area's police force, prompting him to go home last weekend.

"I have a hard time respecting them at this point," he admitted.

But Ellis insisted students' perception of brutality wasn't based in reality.

"Certainly, if there are concerns in the community about the actions of police officers we want to hear about it," he said. "But when you look at excessive force complaints, across the board they're down from last year and also our crime is at the lowest it's been in 35 years."

If investigations into police conduct find that student complaints are justified, they would be far from the first levied against county police. In 2004, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a formal complaint against the department alleging a history of excessive force. The result was an agreement in which police pledged to adopt new standards limiting the use of dogs and pepper spray. Police used pepper spray and pepper pellets numerous times Wednesday night.

The agreement said the police would "reinforce the prohibition against using [pepper] spray in crowded areas," "provide that [pepper] spray may be used only when verbal commands and other techniques that do not require the use of force would be ineffective…" and "require, that unless it would present a danger to the officers or others, a verbal warning to the subject must be issued prior to use."

"When we talk about the use of pepper spray in confined areas, we're talking about interior areas," Ellis said. "The use of [pepper] spray during a civil disturbance, when used properly, is an accepted practice because it can lessen injuries both to protesters or people involved as well as officers."

Ellis defended police actions further, saying they follow protocol.

"Our standard warning to the crowd over the PA system would be to clear the street," he said. "Generally, the announcement of the use of [pepper] spray would be used directly before the use of the spray."

According to police bylaws, an investigation is made any time a non-lethal weapon is discharged.

"The good thing about the justice system is that each person who's charged can make their own case and explain their particular circumstances," Ellis said.

In July 2008, police executed a search warrant at the home of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo, shooting two of his dogs and amassing thousands of dollars of damages to his home during the raid. Calvo had picked up a package, which was under surveillance by police, addressed to his wife that contained marijuana. Calvo was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Last spring, there were two shootings by county police officers in College Park in one weekend. On Friday, an off-duty police officer working security at the Rugged Wearhouse shot two individuals after they attempted to shoplift from the store. The officer's arm got caught in their car window as they tried to drive away, dragging him alongside of the moving vehicle. The officer then shot into the car.

Two days later, a man wielding two knives inside 7-Eleven on Route 1 called police and said he wouldn't leave and that the police would have to "do their job." After police surrounded the building, the man lunged at a police dog when police shot him several times.

A university graduate assistant, who spoke to The Diamondback on the condition of anonymity, was a neighbor of the man gunned down and said the man was having mental and financial problems and needed help.