The Silver Spring Penguin

Weekend crowds, coupled with a thinning police presence, are clearing the way for gang activity in downtown Silver Spring, one police rep admitted.

“There’s definitely a gang presence down there,” the third police district’s Lt Stephen Auger told Silver Spring’s neighborhoods committee last Monday.

While the problem isn’t huge, Auger said downtown’s human swarms make it difficult to keep the area in check.

“There are just so many people down there. It’s so crowded,” Auger said. “We don’t have the manpower, frankly.”

Fewer players and haters arrive from Prince George’s and Montgomery counties wearing gang colors, Auger added. Known gang colors tend to draw the police’s attention, he said.

Gangs are getting busy all over Silver Spring, committee chairperson Alan Bowser claimed. Crews have tagged buildings in East Silver Spring and are getting down at the Long Branch Public Library.

Gang bangers are also using online social-networking sites like MySpace and FaceBook to recruit new members, Bowser said.

A woman was struck by a Metro bus Monday as it turned into the Silver Spring Metro station, WTOP News Radio reported.

The accident occurred around 7:00 a.m. The unidentified woman was in the crosswalk when she was hit, WTOP wrote.

The unidentified woman suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries to her leg and was being treated at a local hospital, a MoCo EMS spokesperson told WTOP.

“Woman struck by Metro bus” (WTOP News Radio)

The PD’s third district is sweating the absence of seven suspended officers, a police rep said.

Sgt Tom Harmon told Silver Spring’s pedestrian safety committeeWednesday night that suspensions were having an effect on the department, which might consider pulling cops from other stations temporarily to pick up the slack.

The suspensions went down two weeks ago as part of an internal criminal investigation, the Washington Post reported. Seven officers from the Silver Spring station, as well as one from Rockville and one from Bethesda, were yanked from duty on suspicions that they billed a private security company for moonlighting work while still on the clock with the county.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions. Let’s do a thorough investigation,” said Vera White, the area’s chief prosecutor, at last week’s meeting of the urban district advisory committee.

“We don’t want to blacklist good officers, but there are some bad ones out there,” White added.

Comdr Betsy Davis, Silver Spring’s top cop, admitted that the incidents make the third district look bad. “There’s no excuse for what they did,” she told the advisory committee.

The alleged double dipping may stem from troubles with managing personal finances, Bob Middleton, an advisory committee member, said. “You’d be surprised at how people handle their finances,” he said.

Rookie cops, who pull about $43,000 a year, may be tempted to borrow money despite high interest rates, Middleton told his colleagues. Paying with plastic, or hitting the check-cashing place before pay day, digs new cops into a deep hole, he suggested.

“I think there are things that can be done to help officers make good financial decisions,” Middleton said.

The investigation into double dipping continues and may take up to one year, Davis said. More suspensions may be pending, she added.

About 50 cops work the third district, which stretches from Silver Spring’s border with the District, to Burtonsville along the Howard County line.

Ronald Pace contributed to this article.

US senators Ben Cardin (D) and Barbara Mikulski (D) are hitting up the federal government for $1.5 billion to rehab Metro trains, tracks and buses. 

The funding, stretched over 10 years, could come if the District, Maryland and Virginia agree to match that amount. Senators John Warner (R-Va) and Jim Webb (D-Va) co-sponsored the bill.

According to the Washington Post, more than 40 percent of Metro’s rush-hour riders are federal government employees.

“Md’s senators submit plan for funding” (Washington Post)