WASHINGTON 鈥斅燩rince George’s County’s police chief says his focus for 2017 will be tackling drug-related crime.
It was a deadly year in Prince George’s County, which recorded the most homicides the county has seen in five years. In 2016, there were 98 homicides, up from聽77 in 2015.
Drug-related homicides saw a spike that Chief Hank Stawinksi calls concerning.
“Our aim is to understand how this new environment, with respect to the decriminalization of marijuana, is impacting the violence,” Stawinksi said.
Stawinski said he is considering reorganizing the department with a new focus on the narcotics trade.
“If you take the drug-related homicides out of our numbers, you’ll find we’re where we were a few years ago. So that’s our primary focus in terms of protecting the community going forward,” he said.
Stawinksi said he wants to organize the community against crime.
