Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks is touting her record combatting crime as part of the Democrat’s closely watched Maryland Senate race against former Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD).
But Alsobrooks’s more than decadelong tenure in two separate county roles that involved handling crime undercuts recent claims made on the campaign trail by the Senate hopeful.
The competitive contest could determine control of the Senate, and both candidates have made tackling crime a major component of their campaigns. A recent poll found the issue was among the top concerns for voters in the Maryland counties bordering Washington, D.C., including Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.
Alsobrooks’s latest ad touts a 50% reduction in violent crime during her time as Prince George's County's top prosecutor from 2011 to 2018. The figure is accurate, but Alsobrooks failed to mention crime spiked in the years that followed after becoming county executive in late 2018.
Using the same FBI data, overall violent crime from 2018 to 2022 rose in the county by more than 30%. Local police figures show carjackings were up nearly 500% from 2019 to 2023.
“It’s a prosecutor’s job to help keep families safe, and as state’s attorney, I did so without apology,” Alsobrooks said in her ad. “I believe anyone who commits a heinous crime or anyone who harms a child must be held accountable.”
Alsobrooks said that as county executive, she “made investments to recruit and train more officers” in reference to her proposed budget for fiscal 2025. Her proposal amounts to a 2% increase, or roughly $7.6 million, for the Prince George’s County Police Department to fund 100 recruits.
Previously, she helped usher through police reforms in response to the 2020 murder of George Floyd. That included in 2021 having Prince George’s County divert $20 million for a new police training facility to a new mental health center for prisoners, even as violent crime surged. From 2019 to 2020 in Prince George’s County, homicides went up 58%, robberies up 19%, and aggravated assaults up 15%.
An Alsobrooks campaign spokesperson did not address the increased crime levels when she was county executive.
"The facts speak for themselves: as the chief law enforcement officer of Prince George’s County, Angela Alsobrooks oversaw a 50% decline in violent crime. As county executive, she’s increased the police budget by 22%," Alsobrooks campaign senior communications adviser Gina Ford said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. "She’s proud to have opened a first-of-its-kind mental healthcare facility in the county. And on day one in the Senate, she will fight to ban assault weapons so we can combat our nation’s tragic gun violence epidemic.”
As state’s attorney, Alsobrooks oversaw at least two violent criminal cases where prosecutors struck plea deals for lesser crimes and sentences.
In one instance in 2012, a man accepted a plea deal for beating a 72-year-old with a baseball bat after trying to rob him once Alsobrooks downgraded his first- and second-degree attempted murder charges to first-degree assault.
In another case from that same year, Alsobrooks’s office struck a plea deal with a teenager who stabbed his 92-year-old neighbor to death. The teenager was sentenced to 60 years for second-degree murder after Prince George’s Deputy State’s Attorney Tara Harrison said prosecutors lacked evidence for a first-degree conviction but said that the sentence showed “justice was done.” The elderly woman’s granddaughter vowed to fight his release on parole when the time comes.
The campaign has previously touted endorsements from law enforcement officials, including sheriffs in Anne Arundel County and Baltimore City, and five state’s attorneys. Alsobrooks's platform on crime remains vague, stating on her website that she "firmly believes in the need for comprehensive changes that promote safety, justice, and equity for all residents."
Hogan, who was governor from 2015 to 2023, has received endorsements from a string of law enforcement and first responders as he positions himself as the “law-and-order” candidate to contrast Alsobrooks’s prosecutor background.
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His crime plan includes more law enforcement funding, cracking down on repeat violent offenders, removing guns from those with mental illnesses and violent criminal records, and ending sanctuary policies for municipalities to shield undocumented migrants from deportation.
“At every turn, Angela Alsobrooks has underfunded and underprioritized public safety in Prince George’s County,” Hogan spokeswoman Blake Kernen said in a recent statement on Alsobrooks’s ad on crime. “While Angela Alsobrooks was defunding the police and speaking out against cops, he was re-funding the police and backing the blue.”
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