Howard’s top cop recalls career
“It’s not a bad time to leave, when you are still excited about your job and not burnt out,” said 51-year-old William McMahon, who retires on June 30 after 28 years on the police force and eight years as the police chief of Howard County.
“I’m blessed. I still love what I’m doing day after day,” McMahon said, as he was interviewed just before taking off on a 300-mile bike ride from Philadelphia to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. The event, in which other police chiefs around the country are also taking part, is meant to raise funds for the families of police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty.
Is McMahon, who apparently is still in tip-top shape, ready now for a second career?
“I have no plans yet,” he acknowledged. “I don’t have anything lined up. I don’t know if I’ll stay in law enforcement.”
One thing he does know is that his wife, Annette, a professional tutor, won’t want him around their Ellicott City home all day.
”I’m sure she is going to want me to do something,” he laughed. They have three adult children, Megan, 26, Krissy, 24, and Brian, 19.
Maj. Gary Gardner, 55, a 30-year veteran of the Howard County Police Department, will take command after McMahon retires. The department has 649 full-time police and civilian employees and operates on a budget just under $100 million.
Taking charge during tragedy
McMahon, who selected his retirement date four years ago in a deferred retirement payment program, became a national figure last January, after the murder of two young people and the suicide of the killer at the Columbia Mall.
While supervising scores of police officers on the scene of the killings, he became Howard County’s face and voice to the nation, delivering continual updates to the press as events unfolded.
The police chief said one of his first thoughts after getting the news of the mall shooting was that “the people involved were the same age as my kids.”
The two victims were Brianna Benlolo, 21, of College Park, and Tyler Johnson, 25, of Ellicott City. Darion Aguilar of College Park, their killer who later committed suicide, was 19.
McMahon, who was on his way to St. Michaels for a short vacation with his wife, hustled back when he first got news of the mall shooting. He was one of the first ranking police officers on the scene. His calm, professional presence under the glare of national TV earned him kudos both locally and nationwide.
The Baltimore Sun, among others, lauded the police chief for his handling of the situation. The newspaper said in an editorial: “During those trying few days, it was McMahon who was in the midst of it all, keeping us informed of what his officers learned, and more importantly, providing the kind of leadership that gave the community at-large the kind of confidence that everything that could be done to make some sense of this tragedy was being done.
“It was McMahon at his best, and to those around the country, showed Howard County at its best during the worst of times.”
McMahon indicated that the professional police response did not come out of a vacuum. “We’d been doing exercises on responding to an active shooter in the mall,” he said.
Guns, media and mental health
The chief seemed reluctant to get into a discussion about laws that would more closely scrutinize who should or shouldn’t be allowed to own a gun
“I think people who want to do evil things will do evil things. I’m not sure more gun laws will stop them,” he said.
McMahon appeared more concerned about authorities dealing with the mental health issues that were found confronting many mass shooters, including the Columbia Mall killer
“I think the conversation should go beyond guns,” he said. “We have to make sure that people who have serious mental health issues get the treatment they need.”
The police chief did reluctantly express one criticism about the handling of the mall shootings by the media. “You recognize that the media has a job to do,” he started out. “But the main frustration was some of the misreporting — such as the reports that the victims and the shooter had a relationship; that there may have been a romantic involvement. How bad must that have been for the parents.”
No connection has been found between the killer and the victims.
Falling crime rate
During McMahon’s eight-year reign as police chief, crime in the county reportedly dropped by some 9 percent. He noted that, since he became police chief in 2006, auto thefts have been reduced by half, robberies cut by about one-third, and burglaries were down by 10 percent.
He said his department has been making special efforts to crack down on repeat offenders and on domestic violence.
Until the mall killings, there had been four or five homicides a year among the county’s 300,000 residents.
The police chief said policing in Howard County has had “special challenges, both good and bad,” since it is located between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. — both high crime areas in the recent past.
The people who move to Howard County have been “very protective” of the high quality of life in their communities,” he said, noting that the department has started strong outreach programs. “We make sure that the community knows we are there to help them, that this trickles down to the officer on the street.”
McMahon has put an accent on reassuring seniors on crime, assigning an officer to be in charge of outreach to them. (See sidebar, “Protecting older residents.”)
“For many older residents, their perception is that their community is changing, so we spend a lot of time” in offering help to them, he said.
Asked why he has served close to three decades as a police officer, McMahon responded: “Well, my family has no history of policing. But I took interest when I was about 14 or 15 years old.
“I decided then, as corny as it sounds, that I wanted to do things that make a difference, and to help people.”