Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Carolyn Scruggs testifies at a joint briefing for the House Appropriations and Judiciary committees on the death of Parole Agent Davis Martinez. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)
The Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services has “taken real steps” to identify and propose solutions to problems that were exposed by the May 31 killing of Parole Agent Davis Martinez, lawmakers said Thursday.
The joint briefing before the House Appropriations and Judiciary committees was the third time since last fall that lawmakers have held a hearing about the killing, and the first in which they appeared to be satisfied with the answers coming from department officials.
“We had two hearings where we didn’t feel like we got sufficient answers to basic questions that needed to be answered by the department about what was a tragic event. I hate that it took it three briefings to get here,” House Judiciary Chair Luke Clippinger (D-Baltimore City) said in an interview after the one-hour briefing.
“They provided the information they needed to and today we saw sort of the result of that,” he said. “The secretary has taken real steps to engage and has done a better job, I think, to identify the problems and to seek to solve [them].”
Those steps include engaging an independent third party to investigate what happened in Davis’ death, modifying safety policies and instituting in-service training for staff.
Before she began her testimony Thursday, Public Safety Secretary Carolyn Scruggs said Martinez’s name will be included in the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington, D.C. She said a dedication service will be held May 13, which also begins National Police Week.
Maryland Parole and Probation Agent Davis Martinez became the first to die in the line of duty when he was killed during a call in Chevy Chase on May31. (Photo courtesy Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services)
Martinez, 33, became Maryland’s first parole agent to be killed in the line of duty after making a call to check in on a parolee in Silver Spring, who was out after serving 21 years of a 40-year sentence for sex assaults and burglary.
His supervisors never checked in on him over the course of the day and Martinez’s body was only discovered when co-workers, concerned that he had not returned by the end of the day, called police to investigate. He was found in the parolee’s home, brutally beaten and stabbed.
About a week after Martinez’s death, three top officers of the Division of Parole and Probation were ousted and the department immediately canceled home visits by parole agents, among other changes.
Scruggs told lawmakers Thursday that a third party will investigate Martinez’s death, but the scope of the investigation and an organization to handle the work will also be reviewed with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3661, the union that represents parole agents.
“I will reach out to each organization to determine their availability and cost associated with conducting the investigation,” Scruggs said. She said she will also work with the union to finalize about nine safety policy revisions that were made, including use of state-issued body armor, occupational health and safety and sexual offender home contacts.
Lawmakers had repeatedly pressed Scruggs at their previous hearings for info on staffing at the Division of Parole and Probation, and a request for any additional employees the agency might need — questions Scruggs had trouble providing a concrete answer to. On Thursday, she told lawmakers that the division has about 1,092 positions and that next year’s budget includes $5 million to hire an additional 60 workers, what she called the first phase “rebuilding” the parole agency.
Scruggs — who started with the department as an officer nearly 30 years ago, and who’s been secretary since March 2023 — said after the briefing she would like for the agency and the union to remain partners in improving the agency.
“They need to continue to be a good partner with us as we need to be a good partner with them,” she said in an interview. “I think partnership together promotes a different picture of the department with the public. When we change the trajectory of the department, it entices more people to want to come and be a part of it. You can have a successful career here in DPSCS.”
Union representatives acknowledged department officials have talked with the union, but AFSCME Local 3661 President Rayneika Robinson, also a parole and probation agent, called the progress “stagnant.”
Robinson said the department still needs to update equipment, implement parole and probation policies with “urgency” and hire more agents and support staff to handle administrative tasks. For example, she said, one agent in the Silver Spring office manages a caseload of 202 sex offenders, while supervisors monitor their teams’ locations by checking each person’s state-issued cell phone every 30 minutes.
“While it is encouraging that the agency recognize the need to establish standards, we’ve repeatedly asked them to consider providing agents with panic buttons or radios monitored by police communication operators enabling real -ime supervision,” Robinson said.
Appropriations Committee Chair Ben Barnes (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel) said that based on the information provided by the department Thursday, he does not think a fourth hearing will need to be held. But additional updates may be presented at a Feb. 7 budget hearing before the committee.
#Public #Safety #officials #finally #provide #answers #basic #questions #safety #agents #death
Leave a Reply