{"id":8538,"date":"2015-05-04T15:39:55","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T19:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=8538"},"modified":"2015-05-05T10:19:10","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T14:19:10","slug":"nrp-answers-call-to-assist-baltimore-law-enforcement-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2015\/05\/04\/nrp-answers-call-to-assist-baltimore-law-enforcement-efforts\/","title":{"rendered":"NRP Answers Call to Assist Baltimore Law Enforcement Efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"NRP

NRP Officer First Class Greg Harris and son. Taken by NRP<\/p><\/div>\n

One day, they were looking for illegal hunters and anglers, patrolling state parks and conducting homeland security checks of bridges, power plants and the Port of Baltimore.<\/p>\n

The next day, Maryland Natural Resources Police officers were with National Guardsmen and officers from as far away as New Jersey to keep the peace on the streets of Maryland\u2019s largest city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t know what we would be walking into,\u201d said Sgt. James \u201cJunior\u201d Johnson, a 16-year NRP veteran, of the deployment to Baltimore. \u201cWe went from, \u2018May I see your fishing license,\u2019 to, \u2018Get back, get back.\u2019 There\u2019s no way to prepare yourself for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A large contingent of Maryland Natural Resources Police officers and commanders spent six days in Baltimore, working 12- to 18-hour shifts after rioters burned and looted buildings in response to the death of Freddie Gray. In all, NRP put in well over 5,000 man-hours, on patrol and in emergency command centers.<\/p>\n

\"NRP<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen your city and state need you and the governor declares a state of emergency, you pull out all stops,\u201d said Col. George F. Johnson IV, NRP superintendent. \u201cThe men and women of NRP came from all patrol districts of the state, from Garrett County to Ocean City, to carry out our mission and keep citizens safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

NRP, the oldest statewide police force in Maryland and the only law enforcement agency with statewide powers besides State Police, responded the first night of unrest with 19 officers quickly gathered from districts close to Baltimore. Hours later, that number nearly doubled and stayed that way until May 3, when many agencies were told to stand down.<\/p>\n

Overnight, there were moments of tension, as officers felt the crowd\u2019s anger and heard the curses from a city in anguish.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs morning broke in Baltimore and people started to emerge, I was wondering how we, in law enforcement, would be received,\u201d Lt. Brian Albert recalled. \u201cAlmost everyone that walked by us thanked us for being there. Some people just said, \u2018Good morning,\u2019 some stopped to chat for a bit, but everyone was glad to see a uniformed officer.\u201d<\/p>\n

NRP officers posed for photos with residents and welcomed gifts and hugs from children.<\/p>\n

Sgt. Johnson, who worked all but one night during the of state emergency, was handed a bottle of water with a school child\u2019s handwritten note on the side: \u201cThank you for being a part of our community and helping our city be a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson grinned and said, \u201cYou ask why I don’t mind doing my part to help, well you don’t have to ask any longer!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Water

Water bottle that reads: \u201cThank you for being a part of our community and helping our city be a better place.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

Officer First Class Greg Harris, a 28-year law enforcement veteran, got to work part of a shift side-by-side with his son, Baltimore City Police Officer Demario Harris.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I heard a Baltimore officer was injured that first day, my antenna went up,\u201d Harris said. \u201cI tried calling but didn\u2019t get an answer. Like any parent, you\u2019re concerned. But I know he\u2019s a good officer and well trained. Getting a chance to work with him was one of the best days of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lt. Albert said all the comments he received from citizens meant a great deal to him. \u201cBut the comment that meant the most to me came from a sergeant from Baltimore City Police Department, who said, \u2018Guys, thanks for helping us out.\u2019 The thin blue line runs deep and I am proud to be part of such a great fraternal organization.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One day, they were looking for illegal hunters and anglers, patrolling state parks and conducting homeland security checks of bridges, power plants and the Port of Baltimore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-nrp-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8538"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8546,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8538\/revisions\/8546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}