Ben Conarck

Baltimore County councilman calls for investigation into traffic stop racial disparities Baltimore County Councilman Izzy Patoka said he has spoken with Inspector General Kelly Madigan, and has not filed any formal motions as of yet, “though there could possibly be.”

Baltimore County councilman calls for investigation into traffic stop racial disparities

‘Driving while Black’ persists in Baltimore County Black drivers make up most of the traffic stops in Baltimore County, despite being 30% of the population — disparities police have known about for years but have failed to fix.

New investigation w/ @invisibae.bsky.social:
Baltimore County has the worst racial disparities in traffic stops throughout Maryland. Officers accused of profiling are quickly exonerated despite issuing 70-89% of their tickets to Black drivers. Read more:
www.thebanner.com/community/cr...

‘Driving while Black’ persists in Baltimore County Black drivers make up most of the traffic stops in Baltimore County, despite being 30% of the population — disparities police have known about for years but have failed to fix.

How ‘driving while Black’ persists in Baltimore County

Notably, the least-bad explanation here seems to be that prison officials negligently let a schizophrenic man waste away in an isolation cell covered in his own excrement.

How a Maryland prisoner died an ‘excruciating’ death from dehydration Lamont Mealy died of dehydration in an isolation cell at Western Correctional Institution in 2023. A lawsuit claims state officials covered it up.

How a Maryland prisoner died an ‘excruciating’ death from dehydration

How a Maryland prisoner died an ‘excruciating’ death from dehydration Lamont Mealy died of dehydration in an isolation cell at Western Correctional Institution in 2023. A lawsuit claims state officials covered it up.

New: Correctional staff at a Western Maryland prison shut off the water to a mentally ill man’s cell, then allowed him to suffer for eight days before he finally died of dehydration, according to a recent court filing.
www.thebanner.com/community/cr...

Baltimore County state’s attorney confirms police chief on ‘Brady list’ over $3 parking violation Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger says police Chief Robert McCullough’s story matches state records.

New: the Baltimore County SAO is willing to confirm the chief's explanation, but will not turn over the underlying five-word "partial sentence" justifying his placement on the Brady list. The public defender's office says he's violating a police transparency law. www.thebanner.com/community/lo...

Baltimore County officials stay quiet on police chief. Exec says he has her ‘full support.’ No one in power has offered an explanation for why the county’s top cop appears on a list of officers with potential credibility concerns.

New for @thebaltimorebanner.com: Members of the Baltimore County Council remained silent in the face of questions about the police chief’s inclusion on a prosecutors’ list that tracks officers with potential credibility concerns.
www.thebanner.com/community/cr...

Baltimore County’s police chief is on a list of cops with credibility concerns Robert McCullough, the Baltimore County Police Department chief, appears on a list of law enforcement officers whose potential credibility concerns require disclosure to defense attorneys if they’re c...

Baltimore County's Chief of Police is on the county's Brady/Giglio list — a list of officers whose credibility concerns are required to be disclosed to defendants if they're called as a witness in court. No one will say why. Great reporting by @conarck.bsky.social: www.thebanner.com/community/cr...

My great uncle was the first ever CFO of B&G and I believe that authorizes me to accept your apology on their behalf

Baltimore County’s police chief is on a list of cops with credibility concerns Robert McCullough, the Baltimore County Police Department chief, appears on a list of law enforcement officers whose potential credibility concerns require disclosure to defense attorneys if they’re c...

NEW: A few weeks ago, @muckrock.com
shared the Brady list for Baltimore County. Scanning it, I noticed the police chief was on there. I then spent weeks trying to figure out why. But no one — not the state's attorney, nor the police department — is explaining it. www.thebanner.com/community/cr...

One of the more interesting reporting adventures of the year so far…
Hint: no one is saying why

Why is the Baltimore County police chief on a list of cops with credibility concerns? Robert McCullough, the Baltimore County Police Department chief, appears on a list of law enforcement officers whose potential credibility concerns require disclosure to defense attorneys if they’re...

Why is the Baltimore County police chief on a list of cops with credibility concerns?

Maryland State Police barracks used ‘candy box’ to encourage more traffic stops The incident comes three years after leaked documents detailed a quota-like system.Ary

Maryland State Police barrack used ‘candy box’ to encourage more traffic stops

Maryland State Police barracks used ‘candy box’ to encourage more traffic stops The incident comes three years after leaked documents detailed a quota-like system.Ary

New: Three years after @thebaltimorebanner.com revealed a quota-like system being used by Maryland State Police to encourage more traffic stops and DUI arrests with incentives like new vehicles, a leaked photo showed a barrack using candy bars instead. www.thebanner.com/community/cr...

Bar chart showing that 20% of Americans who have seen AI summaries in search results believe these summaries are extremely or very useful. Far more (52%) see them as somewhat useful, while 28% see them as not too or not at all useful. The chart is based on an August 2025 Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults.

Bar chart showing that 6% of Americans who have seen AI summaries in search results have a lot of trust in the information they get from these summaries. Another 48% have some trust in this information, while 34% have not too much trust and 12% have no trust at all. The chart is based on an August 2025 Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults.

So far at least, Americans are lukewarm about AI summaries in search results. Relatively few who have seen them think they're extremely or very useful (20%) or have a lot of trust in the information they get from them (6%). New data from @pewresearch.org: www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

It's nice to see more and more #crime and #criminallegalsystem reporters here on Bluesky. Journalists play a key role in shining a spotlight on the American criminal legal system.

Today, we’re sharing a list of reporters and journalists that inspire us and keep the conversation going.

Prisoner charged with stabbing 2 guards had earlier killed his cellmate More than two years ago, Daniel Myers, who was behind bars on an assault conviction, stabbed to death 27-year-old Nicholas Delfosse after warning a prison official that he would kill anyone they put in...

Prisoner charged with stabbing 2 guards had earlier killed his cellmate

Prisoner charged with stabbing 2 correctional officers had earlier killed cellmate More than two years ago, Daniel Myers, who was behind bars on an assault conviction, stabbed to death 27-year-old Nicholas Delfosse after warning a prison official that he would kill anyone they put i...

New: Two Maryland correctional officers were seriously injured in Nov after being stabbed by a prisoner at the state’s super max facility. The prisoner charged by prosecutors is notorious for having issued a warning to prison staff before killing his last cellmate. www.thebanner.com/community/cr...

Employee accused of improperly inviting ICE to Baltimore courthouse no longer at her job The corrections department had opened an investigation into the actions of a pretrial services employee.

New: A Maryland corrections department employee is no longer at her job following an investigation by the agency into whether she improperly invited federal immigration agents to a Baltimore courthouse to detain a defendant she suspected of being undocumented.
www.thebanner.com/community/cr...

People keep getting sick in this jail. Baltimore County says that's normal. Dr. Kunchok Dorjee‚ an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said that numerous reports of infections and symptoms coming from one setting is a clear “red flag.”

People keep getting sick to their stomachs at this jail. Baltimore County says that’s normal.

People keep getting sick in this jail. Baltimore County says that's normal. Dr. Kunchok Dorjee‚ an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said that numerous reports of infections and symptoms coming from one setting is a clear “red flag.”

New: For months, dozens of people have reported stomach pains and bloody stool after being booked into the Baltimore County jail. Those with symptoms test positive for a bacteria called H. pylori. What's making them sick? County officials aren't expressing concern. www.thebanner.com/community/cr...

Brother of 70-year-old woman killed by police calls for reforming city’s crisis response The brother of 70-year-old Pytorcarcha Brooks, who was shot and killed by Baltimore Police officers last month, demanded “action” in response to his sister’s death — a tragedy, he said, that should ha...

New:City council members are requesting a series of changes to Baltimore's crisis response system after 3 people died in police shootings/in custody in June. The council president wants mandatory de-escalation training and more 911 calls diverted to MH professionals www.thebanner.com/community/cr...

A prisoner in Western Maryland wrote me today about these conditions. He reports that they are being let out for 15 minutes to shower and “most days we are not getting that.” He says religious services have been reduced to 2x/month.

“We are being mentally, socially, and physically devastated.”

ICE agent lied to angry crowd about having a warrant before Baltimore County arrest ICE officers arrested a Honduran man, Adolfo Nimrod Hernandez-Ramos, because they suspected he was undocumented and he lived near their intended target.

An ICE officer told an angry crowd he had a warrant before a Baltimore County arrest. He lied

ICE agent lied to angry crowd about having a warrant before Baltimore County arrest ICE officers arrested a Honduran man, Adolfo Nimrod Hernandez-Ramos, because they suspected he was undocumented and he lived near their intended target.

NEW: Federal prosecutors charging a Baltimore County man with resisting or assaulting ICE officers revealed in a court filing that one of the officers lied to a gathering angry crowd of onlookers about having a warrant, among other details @thebaltimorebanner.com
www.thebanner.com/community/cr...

‘Indefinite lockdowns,’ extreme heat, prompt letter from Maryland prisoner advocacy group The Prisoner Rights Information System of Maryland put the state on notice over constitutional violations it's attributing to "indefinite lockdowns" at state prisons.

New: In Maryland prisons, incarcerated people are spending 23 hrs/day in their cells, an advocacy group that provides legal services to prisoners says. The group is warning that the conditions violate the federal prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/cr...

A Maryland prison has a security fence problem. It just fell down again Compromised and aging fencing at a medium-security prison in Hagerstown has put the facility under strain

In March 2024, a wind storm nearly toppled the 41-year-old security and fencing system at a medium-security Maryland prison in Hagerstown. Last week, heavy winds sent the fence teetering again, placing Roxbury CI and its prisoners under restricted movement. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/cr...

How Reuters collected and analyzed prison temperature data Reuters analyzed air conditioning and indoor temperature log data, obtained through public records request, to better understand how heat affects U.S. prisons

"None of Maryland’s 14 state prisons have air conditioning," via @reuters.com www.reuters.com/world/us/how...