Police chief defends team in first comments on Elkridge home raid
Says 'nobody feels good' about dog that was killed
By Mike Santa Rita
msantarita@patuxent.com
Posted 2/26/09
(Enlarge) Howard County Police Chief William McMahon defended his tactical team's actions in the Jan. 15 home raid in Elkridge in which a dog was killed. During his first interview since the raid, he said, "Nobody feels good" about the dog. (Staff file photo)
“From what I know about this, this was an appropriate use of tactical,” McMahon said last Friday during an interview, his first comments on the police raid. “We had stolen weapons that could present a danger to the community, so it was important for us to get them.”
On Jan. 15, police raided the home of Mike Hasenei, 39, of the 6600 block of Deep Run Parkway, looking for a rifle and other police gear. The rifle and gear had been stolen from two marked police cars reportedly broken into on Jan. 14 in the Elkridge community of Mayfield. No arrests have been made.
During the raid, police shot and killed Hasenei’s Australian cattle dog.
After the raid, Hasenei filed a complaint with the police’s internal affairs division, which is still being investigated, McMahon said.
The raid, reported first in the Howard County Times Feb. 5 and later by two local television stations, sparked a sometimes heated debate on the newspaper’s Web site (explorehoward.com) that eventually grew to 83 comments.
On Monday, Hasenei said he was unimpressed with the chief’s explanation.
“I think it’s a joke,” he said. “I understand looking for stolen weapons but how they got my address in this is bewildering. I didn’t resist arrest. ... You didn’t identify yourselves. It doesn’t give you a right to hit me and it doesn’t give them the right to shoot my dog.”
Added Hasenei: “I still haven’t had a ‘sorry’ or an explanation of this yet.”
McMahon said that “nobody feels good about” the dog that was killed.
“Probably the person who feels worst about it is the person that did it,” he said. “The vast majority of times when we’re confronted with animals we don’t shoot them. We’re able to secure them, put them in a separate room.”
Hasenei had noted that he was a legal gun owner and said that was no reason for police to break down his door, but McMahon said police do not break down doors just because a resident owns a gun.
“I don’t think we’ve ever broken a door down just because somebody had a registered gun,” McMahon said.
McMahon said bringing animal control officers to the scene of a tactical team’s raid could be “appropriate at times,” but practical matters like securing the animal control officers’ safety and the availability of such an officer when the raid occurs make it difficult.
“I hate to say, ‘Yes, we should have had them there,’ because that may not be true,” McMahon said. “If you’re going in there because you think there’s a danger and you think there may be weapons in the house, we need to be very careful about who else we bring into the threshold of that event until it’s secure.”
McMahon said his seven-member tactical team consists of some of the most highly trained officers in the department. He said the team is sometimes backed up by a 16-member support team.
“We want people that have proven sound judgment, sound use-of-force decisions, sound decision-making, maturity, responsibility,” he said. “Just because you’re a great shooter or you’re a 6-foot-4, 280-pound bodybuilder, that’s not getting you on the team.”
In Howard County and nationwide, the use of police tactical teams has expanded in the past few decades.
Tim Lynch, an attorney and director of the libertarian Cato Institute’s project on criminal justice, said tactical teams originated in the 1970s to be used in hostage and barricade situations. They were modeled after a team assembled by the Los Angeles Police Department, he said.
Gradually, Lynch said, the teams began to be used in more and more situations, such as when serving warrants.
“The original idea was to have in place specialized teams in extraordinary situations that went beyond the expertise of the average patrolmen,” he said.
Lynch said the expanded use of tactical teams is troubling because it has increased the “militarization” of the police, which creates a battlefield mentality.
“We think that when police adopt the tactics of the military, there’s a disdain towards constitutional rights and a mentality of looking towards the public as the enemy, rather than people who have constitutional rights,” he said.
In 2008, the Howard County police tactical team was used 108 times, according to police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn.
The team was used in hostage or barricade situations, when serving search and seizure warrants and in vehicle entries, which could occur when tactical officers remove violent crime suspects under surveillance from a car at a traffic stop.
Figures on the use of tactical teams in previous years were not immediately available.
McMahon said that since Howard County began its tactical team in 1975, “probably there’s been some expanded use, but I think there’s reason for that. There’s a higher propensity for violence.
“Many of these search warrants are drug-related. And I think there’s a higher correlation now between drug activity, drug transactions and weapons.”
McMahon himself was on the team in the early and mid-1990s, and later came back to supervise it, he said.
“I’ve certainly seen the term ‘cowboy’ thrown around and I think that’s completely inaccurate and insulting,” he said.
user comments (26)
user milton says...
Why has the investigation not concluded? Do the officers investigating this incident suspect that perhaps the dog shot itself two times?
Posted 3:57 PM, 02.24.09
user bmoreluv187 says...
were you charged with nything? they find anything in ur house? ur a better man than me i would killed the dude for killin my dog for no reason. they should have atleast gave him a chance to put the dog in another room. but it's the Howard County police and u can't expect them to get anything right. u should sue them for bein incompetent
Posted 5:33 PM, 02.24.09
user columbia314 says...
What was the reason for the delay in reporting this incident to the community in the first place. As a Howard county resident I feel this is only one of many instances that was swept under the rug in an effort to hide/mask crime statistics here in the county. As all county residents know we are paying a heafty price to live here. That heafty price should include safe streets. With that being said; Do we know if the streets are as safe as they claim? With the ammount of money I pay to live here they better be. Unfortunately, I have a feeling they are not!
Posted 10:11 PM, 02.24.09
user mdl7 says...
Are they now making it a habit to enter without identifying themselves? What sort of house were they entering? Was this one of those "frotified" crack houses? It seem it was a regular residence in Howard County. With the taxes I have recently paid - I'm hoping that our tactical boys are going after bigger game than Australian herders. Go after some of that trash hanging around the various strip malls around the county. And since they are not taking that trash off the streets - residence are more at risk and afraid. It's a vicious cycle - crime going up, the polic not identifying themselves when entering - so what happens when one of these armed citizens kills an officer? Can we stop before it get's to that? I guess it just makes sense. - Just the thoughts of an overburdened tax payer.
Posted 8:18 AM, 02.25.09
user independent says...
It's not safe anymore - but the reason is not average criminals, it's the over-reaction to average criminals that has any one of us in the cross-hairs. Police are underpaid and deserve much more from the community than what they get, but this dog-killing is way over the top. 108 times they used this tactical team in one year! Residents didn't know until this incident. What else don't we know?
Posted 11:41 AM, 02.25.09
user asdfgh says...
Over-reaction to average criminals? I would submit that there are no "average criminals," just like there are no "routine" traffic stops. Nobody knows what is going to happen until it happens. Therefore, in the interest of safely executing a legal search warrant, the police will use specially trained teams to do so. Don't get mad at the police for using the tactical team 108 times in a year, get mad at the criminals who make it necessary!
Posted 5:41 PM, 02.25.09
user gratefolks says...
whoa. 108 times means once every three days the police saw it necessary to use an elite team to control a situation. this sounds more like Basra or the Wild West than the 6th wealthiest county in America. No, the Fourth Amendment was ratified specifically because the Founders knew that those in power will only seek to gain more power if left unchecked. And yes, the police were given a search warrant. However, in both instances when they executed the search they found nothing. So, either their police work is dishonest and deceptive in drafting the affadavit or the judge did not scrutinize the document with diligence. I won't even address the obsolescence of our current drug laws; Nixon's racist mess is what we're left to clean up.
Posted 7:11 PM, 02.25.09
user asdfgh says...
People, I hate to break it to you, but HoCo isn't Mayberry. Is 108 times too much? I have no idea, I'm not a police commander and neither is anyone else on here. If the police used the team that many times, I am comfortable in trusting their judgement. Out of 108 times there is one dead dog? That's a damn good batting average (of course, I too wish the dog hadn't been killed). Gratefolks, I'm not sure how you come to the conclusion that since the police didn't find anything, they must have been "dishonest and deceptive" in their warrant. Do you have any idea how this process works?
Posted 7:26 PM, 02.25.09
user nbscfood says...
MR.HASENEI IS A PERSONALL FRIEND/ LIKE A BROTHER. WITH MY PAST LAW ENFORCEMENT EXPIERENCE, I HAVE A PRETTY GOOD JUDGE OF CHARACHTER. A LITTLE PRIOR INVESTIGATIVE WORK WOULD HAVE REVEALED THAT MR. HASENEI IS NOT OR NEVER HAS BEEN A CRIMINAL. THE OLD WEST DAYS ARE OVER. THE DEPARTMENT I WORKED FOR WOULD NEVER BUST OPEN A LAW ABIDING CITIZENS DOOR ON ONLY A WHIM, WE WERE TRAINED TO DO OUR HOMEWORK FIRST. AND WE WOULD NEVER CHANGE THE NAME ON A SEARCH WARRANT. NOT ONLY IS IT UNETHICAL, ITS AGAINST THE LAW. I AM SURE THE JUDGE THAT ISSUED THE SEARCH WARRANT WOULD AGREE THAT THE OFFICERS EXECUTING THE WARRANT ARE NOT ALLOWED TO ALTER THE DOCUMENT AT THE TIME OF EXECUTING THE WARRANT WITHOUT HIS/HER KNOWLEDGE. THEY CAN NOT CHANGE THE NAME OR THE ADDRESS AND GO FROM PERSON TO PERSON OR HOUSE TO HOUSE BY CHANGING THE DOCUMENT LIKE HOWARD COUNTY DID. I AM ALL FOR OFFICER SAFTEY, BUT A LITTLE HOMEWORK WOULD HAVE PROVED THAT NOT ONLY WERE THEY NOT GOING TO FIND ANY OF THE PROPERTY OR SUSPECTS, BUT THERE SAFTEY WAS ALSO NOT IN DANGER. DO YOUR HOMEWORK AND STOP WATCHING THE WESTERN MOVIES. THIS AINT HOLLYWOOD, THIS IS REAL LIFE IN HOWARD COUNTY.
Posted 7:35 PM, 02.25.09
user asdfgh says...
Woah woah woah nbscfood. Either you're privy to some info that nobody else is, or you are very mistaken. The police didn't c hange anything on the warrants. The police spokeswoman said there were multiple warrants served that same night. So, logically, one could conclude that one of the warrants was for Hasenei"s house, and one for his stepson's house. It looks to me like the police suspected the stepson, and since the stepson's MD ID card lists Hasenei's address as his own, it is completely logical that the police would obtain a search warrant for that house as well.
Posted 8:07 PM, 02.25.09
user nbscfood says...
I GUESS PRIVY IS THE WORD. I WAS UNDER THE ASSUMPTION THAT ALL KNEW THE NAME WAS CHANGED ON THE WARRANT WHILE IT WAS BEING SERVED. AND AGAIN THE HOMEWORK STATEMENT FALLS INTO PLAY, THE STEPSON IS MENTALLY CHALLANGED AND COULD NOT MENTALYY COMMIT SUCH A COMPLEX CRIME.
Posted 8:41 PM, 02.25.09
user asdfgh says...
It's news to me. If it's true, this ought to get interesting...
Posted 9:13 PM, 02.25.09
user independent says...
asdfgh: You are no safer than Mr. Hasenei. It can happen to you, or me, or our neighbors. Wait, it already has.
Posted 7:19 AM, 02.26.09
user asdfgh says...
Oh please, let's not get overly dramatic, independent. Actually, it happened 108 times last year, and I'm darn glad it did. I am absolutely safer than Mr. Hasenei, because I do not give the police reason to believe stolen police property is in my house. The police were acting on information they obtained, apparently involving Hasenei's stepson, that directed them to this house. The fact that this information was "wrong" is irrelevant because they had every legal right to serve the warrant and enter the house.
Posted 8:28 AM, 02.26.09
user independent says...
You're describing the mistaken pet-killing in front of a child reaction as overly dramatic. Not sure where your borderline is, but that crosses mine.
Posted 12:49 PM, 02.26.09
user inconclus1ve says...
Howard County is a safe place....much safer than other areas in the region.
Posted 3:31 PM, 02.26.09
user citizentaxpayerjane says...
The chances are slim, but it can certainly happen to any one of us.
Posted 9:41 AM, 02.27.09
user milton says...
I would like to know if the police SWAT team would have entered this man’s home with guns blazing if he lived in a million dollar home in River Hill rather than in a trailer in Elkridge. The police must have had preconceived notions about this individual to perform this raid in such an incompetent manor.
Posted 11:14 AM, 02.28.09
user user1234 says...
Perhaps if Howard County citizens took as much time and interest in their community as they do complaining on blogs the SWAT team would'nt be needed 108 times.
Posted 1:15 PM, 02.28.09
user milton says...
I seriously doubt that the SWAT team was need 108 times, although it was certainly used 108 times. If the police put half as much effort into securing their dangerous assault rifles in their patrol cars as most of put into securing our harmless iPods, the SWAT team would not have been called to this house, eh?
Posted 3:23 PM, 02.28.09
user user1234 says...
again i say, the weapon was stored in accordance with their policy, so blame the policy makers.... i guess no blame goes to the criminals that broke into a car and stole the weapon eh Milton?
Posted 7:14 PM, 03.01.09
user milton says...
Blame the policy makers? That’s cute. I don’t leave my iPod unattended in plain view in my car, and you can’t kill anyone with an iPod. I don’t need a policy to tell me common sense, and I hope that the police don’t either. Of course the person/people who stole the assault rifle deserve blame, and no one suggested otherwise. But those clowns aren’t smiling for the newspapers and rationalizing their foolish actions like McMahon is.
Posted 8:33 PM, 03.01.09
user user1234 says...
locked into a steel rack that is then welded to the frame of the vehicle in a marked police car in front of a residence, if they were able to rip that out of a vehicle im sure they would have found your iPod with your Barry Manilow collection
Posted 8:50 AM, 03.02.09
user napalm52 says...
Ok lets get to real point her the warrant was so thin on 2nd hand information on hear say with no phyiscal evidence. I makes me very scared to find out that if you did nothing wrong and don't have a criminal back round that the anyone can say something that is not true and a warrant can be issued and the swat team show up. Now have you heard anything if they have any leads on this case did they find the articles that were stolen. Do they have any one else they are checking out. The answer is no they put all there eggs in one basket off of 2nd hand information with no phyisical evidence with a warrant based all on hearsay and found nothing killed a dog changed the warrant and wasted a lot of tax payers money. I don't know about the tax payers of howard county but when your rights are walked all over you should start looking over your shoulder it may one day happen to you.
Posted 12:32 AM, 03.06.09
user givemeabreak says...
I am completely against these types of paramilitary tactics, and as a general rule, I hate police officers. However, to address napalm52's issue, warrants can be based on hearsay and physical evidence is not required (I don't practice criminal law, but that is how I remember it from law school/BAR prep). Hearsay really only comes into play during trial.
Posted 4:31 PM, 03.13.09
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