A message from Police Chief William McMahon:

The Howard County Department of Police is an outstanding agency, well-respected throughout the state, the region and the nation. We have built a strong tradition of effective crime fighting, traffic management and community partnerships. It is an honor to serve as the Chief of Police and it is now our responsibility to continue and build upon our successful past.

As we move ahead, I look forward to meeting our obligation to provide the best police service possible. As we develop programs, implement technology and take on new initiatives, know that our department regards our citizens as our highest priority, and our primary function is to ensure the safety of the people who live, work, and visit the county.

We will continue to focus on reducing violent crime, and have had great success in that area so far this year. For example, our recent efforts targeting robberies throughout the county has led to a dramatic reduction, which means more people are safe and more dangerous criminals are incarcerated.

Traffic safety efforts are a top priority for our agency and we are committed to aggressive and innovative traffic enforcement and safety programs. Our enforcement efforts continue to target speed, occupant protection, impaired driving and other behaviors that put us all at risk. Our educational programs and collaborative efforts with the Howard County school system will continue so that all of our young drivers understand the perils of dangerous, drunken and reckless driving.

Our values of pride, community and integrity will continue to be the basis of what we do everyday. As a key component of who we are and what we do, we also do our best to maintain courage—not only physical courage, but also moral, ethical and intellectual courage to maintain the high standards our county deserves.

Please visit our website often and use the information we provide on a daily basis. We hope you’ll find the site useful, as it includes our news releases, employment information, crime data and much more. And while analyzing crime statistics, numbers and percentages is important, we never forget that there are real people and victims behind those numbers. As always, we welcome your suggestions or comments. Thank you for visiting!