Alsobrooks’ criminal past undermines her tough-on-crime persona

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks is touting her crime-fighting record as Democrats race for Maryland Senate against former Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD).

But Alsobrooks’ more than a decade of serving in two separate county jobs focused on solving crime problems undermines recent claims the Senate candidate made during the campaign.

The race could decide control of the Senate, and both candidates have made fighting crime a key part of their campaigns. A recent poll found that the issue is a top concern for voters in Maryland counties bordering Washington, D.C., including Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.

Alsobrooks’ latest ad touts a 50 percent reduction in violent crime during her time as Prince George’s County’s top prosecutor from 2011 to 2018. That number is accurate, but Alsobrooks failed to mention that crime increased in the years following her appointment as county executive in late 2018.

The same FBI data shows that overall violent crime in the county increased by more than 30% between 2018 and 2022. Local police data shows that car thefts increased by nearly 500% between 2019 and 2023.

“It’s a prosecutor’s job to keep families safe, and as state’s attorney, I did that without apology,” Alsobrooks said in her announcement. “I believe anyone who commits a heinous crime or harms a child should be held accountable.”

Alsobrooks said that as county executive, she “made an investment in recruiting and training more officers,” referring to the proposed budget for fiscal year 2025. Her proposal would mean a 2% increase, or about $7.6 million, for the Prince George’s County Police Department to fund 100 recruits.

She previously helped enact police reforms in response to the 2020 murder of George Floyd. That included Prince George’s County donating $20 million in 2021 for a new police training facility and a new mental health facility for inmates, even as violent crime soared. From 2019 to 2020, murders in Prince George’s County increased by 58%, robberies by 19%, and aggravated assaults by 15%.

A spokeswoman for Alsobrooks’ campaign did not address the rise in crime during her time as county executive.

“The facts speak for themselves: As Prince George’s County’s chief law enforcement officer, Angela Alsobrooks oversaw a 50% drop in violent crime. As county executive, she increased the police budget by 22%,” Gina Ford, senior communications adviser for Alsobrooks’ campaign, said in a statement to Washington Examiner“She is proud to have opened a first-of-its-kind mental health facility in the county. And on her first day in the Senate, she will fight for an assault weapons ban so we can combat the tragic epidemic of gun violence in our country.”

As district attorney, Alsobrooks oversaw at least two violent criminal cases in which prosecutors reached plea deals for lesser crimes and sentences.

In one 2012 case, a man took a plea deal to beat a 72-year-old man with a baseball bat after he tried to rob him, after Alsobrooks reduced charges of attempted first- and second-degree murder to first-degree assault.

In another case that same year, Alsobrooks’ office reached a plea deal with a teenager who stabbed his 92-year-old neighbor to death. The teen was sentenced to 60 years for second-degree murder after Prince George’s County Deputy District Attorney Tara Harrison said prosecutors lacked evidence for a first-degree murder conviction, but she said the verdict showed “justice was served.” The elderly woman’s granddaughter vowed to fight for his parole when the time comes.

The campaign has previously boasted support from law enforcement officials, including the sheriffs of Anne Arundel County and Baltimore City and five state attorneys. Alsobrooks’s agenda on crime remains vague, stating on his website that he “strongly believes in the need for comprehensive change that promotes safety, justice and equality for all residents.”

Hogan, who served as governor from 2015 to 2023, has drawn endorsements from a range of law enforcement and emergency services officials, casting himself as a “law and order” candidate in contrast to Alsobrooks’ prosecutorial background.

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His anti-crime plan includes increasing funding for law enforcement, toughening prosecutions of repeat offenders, taking guns away from mentally ill people and people with violent crime records and ending municipal asylum policies that would protect undocumented migrants from deportation.

“At every turn, Angela Alsobrooks has underfunded and underfunded public safety in Prince George’s County,” Hogan spokeswoman Blake Kernen said in a recent statement accompanying Alsobrooks’ ad about crime. “While Angela Alsobrooks has defunded the police and spoken out against police officers, he has refunded the police and supported blue-collar workers.”