A mid-June weekend was coming to an end at the Castlebay Irish Pub in Annapolis when, inside the Main Street bar and restaurant, a fight broke out.
Edward O’Brien, a 56-year-old man from Pennsylvania, was part of a sprawling brawl. According to charging documents, by the time police arrived, he had choked and punched a woman in the face and bloodied a bartender. When officers attempted to arrest him, he lunged toward them and attempted to grab one of their handguns.
By the time Monday came around, O’Brien had been charged with multiple counts of first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, resisting arrest and disarming a law enforcement officer. He has since been indicted by a grand jury and a trial date could be set by late September.
The Annapolis Police Department wants its new summer crime plan to prevent incidents like the one at Castlebay.
The plan puts more officers near bars through the end of August, while also dedicating resources to serve outstanding warrants and combat violent and property crimes.
Deputy Chief Maj. Stan Brandford said the agency’s plan is not a response to an increase in bar fights or rowdiness around City Dock. Instead, with the expected influx of tourists and events throughout downtown Annapolis, “We just want to make sure we have a presence in that area,” Brandford said.
It’s not the first time the department has taken such measures. Last year, amid a rise in nearly every part-one crime — homicides, robberies, burglaries, rapes, serious assaults and thefts — Annapolis Police Chief Ed Jackson began offering overtime hours to add extra patrol officers to “areas affected by violence.”
Annapolis Police define “part-one” offenses as those it reports to the Maryland State Police and the FBI.
By the end of the eight-week period in last year’s plan, two teenagers had been shot and killed in Annapolis, while rates of every other part-one offense had decreased, the Capital Gazette found. Jackson then extended the department’s summertime strategy into the fall.
When the chief launched this year’s summer crime plan June 6, rates for the department’s high-priority crimes remained mostly stagnant or declined when compared to that point in 2023 — Annapolis is investigating just one homicide in 2024 and only aggravated assaults saw a notable increase, with 17 more incidents than last year.
The department’s 2024 summertime plan revolves around nighttime safety in the downtown area. The priority, according to an outline, is to increase foot patrols “in areas affected by violence, physical altercations, loud noise, general disturbances and alcohol related incidents … to provide residents and citizens a sense of safety.”
Some components of last year’s plan were picked up by the department again this summer, such as arresting individuals on outstanding warrants and locating illegal handguns. General enforcement policies and educational opportunities — such as car theft prevention — are also listed.
“It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Every area has its own challenges,” Brandford said Monday. “But we try to get good police service wherever its needed.”
The plan also includes the department’s long-term solutions such as community policing favored by Jackson. Specifically, it describes the Annapolis Police re-entry program for citizens returning home from prison, participation of the Gun Violence Intervention Team, which helped launch a violence interrupter and mediator program earlier this year in Eastport, and collaboration with community groups, government agencies and local businesses.
“Every community and every person deserves to be safe and our city will not be resilient and successful until mental and physical health, economic and social imbalances are recognized and effectively addressed,” Jackson wrote in the plan. “The more we invest in leaving no one behind, the safer and secure each person and each community will be.”
The plan is expected to remain in effect until Aug. 31, according to the outline.