More News

Capt. Willie Parker-Loan has had a singular agenda in the month since taking command of the Montgomery County Police Department's 6th District station: Move its 130 personnel from rented space in a Gaithersburg strip mall to its own building across Route 355 by the end of the year.

Orchestrating the relocation may not thrill like the whodunits that inspired him after coming through the police academy 20 years ago, but once the move is done, he can turn his focus to taking the pulse of Gaithersburg and Montgomery Village.

"When the dust really settles, I really look forward to getting out into the community," said Parker-Loan, 44. "It's going to take me some time to get that understanding of what really are the issues, of ‘This is how this community needs us to work.'"

He will rely on long-time district officers and on the breadth of experiences in his career, which has wound through seven police divisions.

"I'm going to use everything I've been involved in to really address the problems here," said Parker-Loan, who took over after Capt. Alan Goldberg moved to the midnight shift. "And the officers are going to be empowered to go out there, too. ... The employees here need to know that I'm behind them to proactively think, to get out and aggressively deal with issues and be reactive. And the citizens need to know that, as a new commander, I'm listening to you."

One of his priorities is to resurrect and meet quarterly with the district's citizens' advisory group. Community Services Officer Diane Tillery is compiling a group of about 20 property managers, community leaders and other residents, she said.

With 121 officers and 10 civilian personnel serving nearly 200,000 residents — one of the county's most diverse police districts — Parker-Loan faces a problem common to police forces: six of the station's officers are multilingual.

Any shortcomings will be assessed, he said, but the station's success still boils down to old-fashioned police work.

"We look at the statistics. ‘OK, is there a spike in crime, what type of crime, how do we address that?' We put our minds together, get our resources and deal with it," he said.

So far this year, statistics show that the district's crime is down 6 percent from 2008, with the greatest declines in aggravated assaults, burglaries and auto thefts.

Gaithersburg City Police Chief John King — for whom Parker-Loan was a lieutenant for parts of 2006 and 2007 when King directed the county's Field Services Bureau — is expecting a smooth transition. County officers and city officers respond equally to calls for service in Gaithersburg, but the county police department has investigative units that handle specific serious crimes on a longer-term basis.

"He's an excellent cop, a good investigator," King said. "He spent a lot of time on the midnight shift, so he has a good range of experience of what's going on in the county and the community here in Gaithersburg."

Not everything is smooth, though. The 6th District has been the focus of some officer flare-ups in recent years. In 2008, an officer crashed his cruiser on I-270 and pleaded guilty to DUI and another officer was involved in a barroom brawl and was cleared of an assault charge. In June, police apologized for an officer who had given blank parking tickets to a tow-truck driver. And next month, another 6th District officer goes to trial facing charges of perjury and misconduct after she allegedly falsified her testimony in the case of a Rockville man she arrested for DUI.

And weeks before Parker-Loan was reassigned to the 6th District, a Montgomery Village man was apprehended by federal immigration agents with the apparent help of at least two 6th district officers, prompting an internal investigation.

Parker-Loan is at the center of another contentious internal matter, over his part in the investigation into an assistant fire chief who in November 2008 crashed into several cars on Interstate 270, allegedly while under the influence of alcohol.

The county's inspector general wants to examine the police department's internal report, but Police Chief J. Thomas Manger has declined to release the documents. Parker-Loan and Sgt. Edward Shropshire are suing the county to prevent the release of the documents.

A Montgomery County Circuit Court judge is set to rule this week on a motion to dismiss the case.

Whatever the outcome of any internal or disciplinary matter, Parker-Loan said, it puts police on the difficult path of showing confidence in officers and regaining the community's trust.

"We're here for the community and we're going to do the best job we can. Are we going to make mistakes at times? Absolutely, everybody makes mistakes. But do we learn from those mistakes? That's what matters," he said. "It's a balancing act that's very hard to do. But how the community feels that their police department is interacting with them is extremely critical."

Correction: This story has been edited to clarify which police department covers which types of calls.