WHEATON-GLENMONT, Md. — A police stop involving three teens in Wheaton over the weekend has led one Montgomery County resident to call into question the conduct of the county's police officers who were involved in the incident.
The incident allegedly occurred Sunday afternoon, along Blueridge Avenue, near Arcola Elementary School, according to nearby resident Eduardo Ortiz.
He said he and his neighbors were outside when two Montgomery County police officers stopped three teens on the street.
Ortiz said the officers initially asked the teens to sit on a nearby curb. After that, Ortiz said officers told the teens to stand against a wall.
At that point, Ortiz said the officers took pictures of the teens and then fingerprinted them with a mobile fingerprinting device.
Ortiz said officers gave the teens "pedestrian warnings" before they let them go. The warnings are yellow pieces of paper, published by the Montgomery County Police Department, that show pedestrians legal violations they may have made while walking around town.
Ortiz said the teens were walking in the street. But, he said part of the reason they were doing that was because Blueridge Avenue does not have a sidewalk.
Pictures of the warnings the teens received also did not show the violations they allegedly committed.
Ortiz, and his three neighbors, Dr. Angela Patterson, Rick Mathews, and Robb Regan have filed a formal complaint with the Montgomery County Police Department over the incident. It describes the officers' stop as "baseless".
"We do not simply write to complain about this baseless stop and the Police Officers’ actions in lying to residents of the neighborhood, but also to ask for clear answers to the following questions," the complaint reads.
The complaint's questions include:
- If this was a legal stop, what was the basis?
- What happens once a person’s biometrics are captured?
- Since these teens were released without a clearly completed warning, charge, or arrest, will their data be expunged from the system?
"Generally we see people walking down the side of the street all day long (and we saw people both during and after this stop walk by), and we have never seen any one else be stopped or questioned on why they were walking by," the complaint reads.
Dr. Angela Patterson, who lives in the area, said she saw the end of the incident. She said as the mother of a 17-year-old she was concerned what could have happened if her child was stopped by police.
Patterson said one of the officers told her the reason the teens were being stopped was because it was "pedestrian safety week". But, she said she could not understand why police would enforce traffic safety to such a degree in her neighborhood.
"We've never had any pedestrian fatalities on the 1800 block of Blueridge," she said.
Captain C. Thomas Jordan, a spokesperson with the Montgomery County Police Department, said the department was aware of the social media post Ortiz made on Twitter about the alleged incident.
He said the department has looked into the incident.
"From what I understand, the officers were doing pedestrian safety education," Jordan said.
He said the officers found the teens walking in the "middle" of the road. Jordan added that department officers are taking a proactive approach to address pedestrian safety in the county due to the high number of fatal pedestrian accidents that have happened recently in the region.
He said officers did use an "Automated Fingerprint Identification System" (AFIS) on the teens because they lacked identification.
Jordan said if the officers had ultimately decided the teens needed to be cited, the department would have needed their identification in order to do so.
But, neighbors Robb Regan and Rick Mathews also expressed concern with another alleged aspect of the officers' stop.
Both men said as they questioned the police as to why they stopped the teens, one officer, from his cruiser, said they were "gang members" before driving away without further explanation.
"He said it was 'pedestrian safety' week and then mentioned that they were gang members," Regan said.
Ortiz said when he caught up with the teens after the incident, they said the officers did talk to them about whether they were in a gang or knew of any gang related activity.
In response to the allegation, Jordan said the Montgomery County Police Department is looking into the complaint that has been formally filed. He said the department could not comment any further on the case until all the facts have been ascertained.
"We take all complaints seriously and do everything we can to gather all the facts before making any determinations or taking additional actions," he said.
Both the offices of Montgomery County council members Nancy Navarro and Will Jawando have said they plan to look into the incident.
"I am concerned about what was posted on social media," Jawando said. "And, my staff has spoken to the resident who posted about the incident and has reached out to the Montgomery County Police Department to get to the bottom of what occurred."
Jordan said the commander of the Montgomery County Police Department's Fourth District has reached out to the county's engineering department to address sidewalk concerns along Blueridge Avenue.