Maryland State Police marks 100th anniversary Posted on
PIKESVILLE, MD The Maryland State Police on Sunday celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding as a statewide, full-service law enforcement department.
Officials say the idea was born of necessity. The dawn of the 1920’s brought a perplexing problem to the office of Maryland Governor Albert Ritchie. The advent of the automobile was providing criminals with the means to expand their criminal enterprises and the ability to quickly flee their crime scenes and travel out of the area to avoid detection and arrest.
Governor Ritchie proposed a solution that changed the landscape of law enforcement in Maryland. He decided a police force was needed that had statewide jurisdiction and would provide both criminal and traffic enforcement across the entire state of Maryland.
A longtime retired Connecticut State Trooper has died unexpectedly.
Trooper First Class Patrick Dragon, 50, of Brooklyn, Connecticut, died on Saturday, Jan. 2, at Hartford Hospital, said the Connecticut State Police.
A cause of death has not been released to date.
Dragon, a member of the 107th Training Troop entered the State Police Training Academy on January 9, 1998.
Upon graduation, he served as a patrol trooper at Troop D in Danielson, as a resident trooper in the town of Sterling, as a detective in the Eastern District Major Crime Squad, and as a detective in the Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit.
Dragon was also a first responder to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown.