OCEAN CITY, Md. - Worcester County Sheriff Matt Crisafulli addressed safety concerns regarding takeover events in a meeting on Monday, Oct. 19. The Governor’s Chief of Staff, legislative officers, state officials, and more state leaders were in attendance.
The Sheriff took to Facebook saying, “Representing both the Maryland Sheriffs’ Association and Worcester County, I emphasized that these incidents are not simply isolated problems affecting individual jurisdictions. They have far-reaching consequences for our residents, visitors, businesses, law enforcement professionals, and the safety and well-being of our state as a whole.”
Takeover events are organized through social media, and can attract hundreds or thousands of juveniles and young adults from across Maryland and neighboring states, according to authorities. Crisafulli says these events tend to overwhelm law enforcement officers.
“There were acts of violence,” he tells WBOC. “There were a lot of different injuries spread out throughout this takeover. You had law enforcement resources being deployed to different areas. First responders being deployed to different areas. It's a scene that causes chaos not only for first responders, but it instills and creates fear into these different communities.”
Crisafulli says one of his main discussion points was greater accountability. He says both children and parents need to be held accountable.
“Parents typically are civilly responsible for their children's actions, but there needs to be greater accountability for parents who allow their children to go into a jurisdiction and steal a vehicle or assault someone or god forbid, murder someone,” he says. “There needs to be greater accountability all the way around.
The Sheriff says takeover events are not just a current issue. He says there was a gathering where people threw frozen water bottles at law enforcement officers, leading to multiple injuries. The goal is to increase penalties for the laws that are already on the books.
“We'll continue to meet with our respective Sheriffs’ Association and Chiefs of Police Association and make sure that we're continuously looking at this,” he says. “When the legislative cycle takes effect in the next couple of months, we will start to look at what the next steps are going to be.”
The public is advised to report any information regarding a takeover event to law enforcement. Crisafulli says the knowledge helps enforcement stay ahead of these chaotic events.
