The Annapolis Public Safety Committee met on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, from 4:46 PM to 6:22 PM in City Council Chambers. Alderwoman O'Neill chaired the meeting, with Alderman Smith-Brown present and Alderwoman Contee absent. The sole substantive agenda item was a comprehensive overview of the Annapolis Police Department (APD), presented by Acting Chief Miguez, Deputy Chief Brandford, and other command staff. The committee approved the meeting agenda and minutes from March 18, 2026, by voice vote.
APD Overview and Presentation: Acting Chief Miguez led a detailed presentation covering the department's history (dating to 1867), organizational structure, command staff, internal affairs, patrol division, investigations division, administrative services, recruitment, training, and current crime reduction efforts. Key highlights included:
Councilmember Questions and Requests:
This meeting to order of the uh Annapolis Public Safety Committee meeting at 4 46 p.m. on Wednesday, April 15th. Um as far as our roll call to my right, I have President Haldeman Smith Brown. Right. Uh Daisha Conte is not in attendance today, and Karma O'Neal is. Um may I have a motion to uh confirm the agenda. Or I move to approve of the agenda. I'll second that. All in favor, please say aye. Um next up, do I have a motion to approve um meeting minutes from 318 26? Yes, I moved to approve the meeting minutes from March 18th, 2026. I'll second that. All in favor, please say aye. Okay. Motion carries. Um next up on our agenda is our general discussion, and today we have the Annapolis Police Department. Welcome. If you wouldn't mind introducing each person and position. Sure. I'm acting chief of the police department, Amy Megeth. And to my right is Deputy Chief Major Stanley Brantford. Director Lakeisha Blue Captain Guy Thacker, Patrol Division. Captain Moore Howard Operations and Captain Hill Hurley administrative services. Right, anybody else? Okay. Yep. Thank you. So you've uh you've let us be the last to present, uh, which we thank you for. We got to experience the Office of Emergency Management and the Fire Department's presentations, and I took uh some good ideas that they had and built built on them for our presentation. Uh I left uh some time at the end for questions, so we certainly want to get to that. We are trying to give a broad overview of the whole police department and the work that we do, not necessarily getting into the details. And so we want um we do we have a finite amount of time for the committee meeting. We've definitely invite uh anyone to come and tour. I know that um Alderman O'Neill did that in the past, came to the police department and um got a tour of our facility, uh also ride alongside we we definitely um encourage that as well to learn more about how um the work we do. So I'm I'm gonna get started. So we're gonna uh go over the department um kind of on a broad scale, talk about the command staff again, what what it means, what we're in charge of, uh, and then uh the different divisions specifically, the work that we do, uh some practical matters that are helpful for the older people to know in general, and uh then if we have time at the end going over some current crime data um for Annapolis. So you're gonna get a copy of this presentation. So I'm not gonna read everything on the page, but you know, like any department, we have a mission statement, we have a vision, um, you know, our is to protect life and property, prevent and reduce crime, maintain order, and enforce the law within our community while protecting the constitutional rights and dignity of those we serve. I also have goals, which include you know, obviously keeping the community safe, strengthening public trust, being uh organizationally excellent, strengthening our workforce, and optimizing resource management. Also our core values, honor, respect, integrity, and service. The fire department recently went through a comprehensive strategic plan uh for the next few years. We strive to do a process like that this year, um involving the public, involving our employees, uh really getting feedback and creating a plan for our department. One of the things I took from the past presentations was uh Chief Romale spoke about the history, and I do think it's important to touch on the history of the police department. Well, the first commissioner and the chief of police that was 1867, which is the date that we usually date our police uh department to. Obviously, the city charter 1708. It's you know, it's on the front of the um the dais there. Uh there were constables and watchmen that were uh organized in the city to just basically look for fire fires and um be out in the middle of the night. Um that 1867 date was when those duties were formalized. Over time, uh our structure and the size increased as the city grew. So the department until 1973 operated out of city hall, uh, just like the fire department mentioned that they operated out of City Hall and next door across the street at the fire station.