Enforcement of Criminal Laws in Maryland

In Maryland, criminal laws are treated very seriously and those found to be in violation are often prosecuted to the full extent of the law. With this in mind, the following are the crimes that law enforcement officers have recently made a priority and how they are viewed by prosecutors and judges. To learn more or discuss your case, call and schedule a consultation with a Maryland criminal lawyer today.

Maryland Law Enforcement Priorities

DUI is always a priority for law enforcement in Maryland. That is largely due to lobbying from groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving or other similar groups. Officers enforce this law by holding DUI checkpoints and sobriety checkpoints as well as saturation patrols around the time that people are getting out of the bars.

Can These Priorities Lead to Innocent Individuals Being Charged?

Innocent individuals are often charged with crimes in Maryland. In statistics-driven law enforcement, officers are rewarded for making arrests rather than for actually limiting crime, so that can lead to an increased likelihood that innocent individuals will be charged with crime so that the arrest statistics look better. Innocent people being charged can also result from saturation patrols where almost anyone gets pulled over at 2:00 am in the morning and is suspected of being drunk. An attorney can be extremely valuable if an individual is innocent because a defense attorney can help establish an individual’s innocence. They can stop the state from getting a conviction on an individual who did not in fact commit a crime.

Are There Any Crimes Law Enforcement is Trying to Crack Down On?

Not specifically, once the case is charged, the prosecution is going to vigorously prosecute the case. This goes for DUIs, drug cases, assault, solicitation, and theft cases. Prosecutors are not in the business of letting criminals get away with crime. Once an individual is charged, they can expect that their case will be prosecuted vigorously.

What Are Some Problems With The Current Criminal Justice System?

Some of the significant problems with the courts come from them being overburdened. Cases don’t have an adequate amount of time devoted to them because of the high volume of cases in some jurisdictions. That can lead to feelings of “assembly-line” justice where individuals are not treated as individuals and where individual facts of the case are not highlighted. It can feel like a “cookie-cutter” approach to the judicial system. The way to fix that problem is by doing more research on the problem, but also by having more judges, more courtrooms available, smaller dockets and fewer cases per prosecutors and defense attorney. That would lead to a more individual take on the justice system rather than the “cookie–cutter” approach that we see a lot of today.