Friday News Roundup: Citizen/Police Mediation; Needle Exchange Expansion?; Music at the Airport

Baltimore City’s Police Department fielded 799 citizen complaints against police officers last year. Most were dismissed, and the civilian and the officer never met face-to-face. Soon they’ll have that chance. The city is launching a voluntary mediation program. We’ll talk with Changa Onyango, Executive Director of Community Mediation in Baltimore, and Sister Alison McCrary, director of a community-police mediation effort already operating in New Orleans. Then: Baltimore and Prince Georges County now offer drug users clean needles. Should needle-exchange be expanded throughout Maryland, or does it divert resources from what most view as the direct way to end addiction, residential treatment? We talk with former heroin addict and Baltimore County drug czar Mike Gimbel and Delegate Clarence Lam of Baltimore and Howard Counties. Plus, Joanna Sullivan is here with the Baltimore Business Journal ‘s top stories...and WTMD’sScott Mullins has the scoop on live music at the airport.