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Dena Levitz writes in today’s DC Examiner:

By focusing so heavily on the Hispanic MS-13 gang, Montgomery County Police are glossing over a much more dangerous and steadily increasing group, the Bloods, one of the nation’s experts on gangs told The Examiner.

Det. Patrick Word, the lead gang officer for the Gaithersburg Police Department and president of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Investigators Network, said this week that information presented to the public at a summer news conference was at least six months old and does not tell an accurate tale of the gang situation regionally.

Sgt. Chuck Welch, who is in charge of Montgomery County’s gang task force, acknowledged that the Bloods are on the rise countywide, with an increasing number of neighborhood gangs modeling themselves after the infamous gang and citizens joining the ranks while in prison. However, he said the strategy in Montgomery County, at least at present, is not to go after Bloods in a targeted fashion.

Data collected by MARGIN six months ago credited the Bloods with having 400 members in the region, but Word said that number has since more than doubled to 860. And what’s worse is that this is a gang known for committing more serious crimes.

“They’re into violence, robbery, extortion, prostitution, auto theft, everything else but drugs,” Word explained.

In a story in today’s Washington Post, Miranda S. Spivack writes:

Timothy Firestine, Montgomery County’s longtime finance chief, was nominated yesterday by County Executive-elect Isiah “Ike” Leggett to head the sprawling county government, whose annual budget is about $4 billion.

Leggett said he picked Firestine, 51, as chief administrative officer because of his “extreme intelligence,” broad knowledge of government, management skill and winning personality.

Firestine said one of his goals is to reexamine the business-like model for government that Duncan championed. Although Firestine generally favors that approach, he said improvements are needed.

“We need to regroup on our customer service and citizen responsiveness,” he said..

Council member Marilyn Praisner (D-Eastern County), expected to be elected council president next week, said she was “ecstatic” about Firestine’s appointment, calling it “a brilliant choice.” Praisner, who has headed the council’s management and fiscal policy committee for 16 years, said Firestine is adept at seeing the big picture and crucial details.