Drunk Driving Charges Dropped for Former Baltimore County Police Captain

by Marc Shapiro

Baltimore County police officer Matthew McElwee, former commander of the Franklin Precinct, had his drunk driving case dropped Monday.

“We went to court, they just dropped it and that was the end of it,” said Lenny Shapiro, McElwee’s attorney.

McElwee was arrested by Carroll County police on suspicion of alcohol impairment in March after driving through a sobriety checkpoint in Hampstead. He was released with citations after he refused to submit to a blood alcohol concentration test.

McElwee, 44, of Hanover, Pa., was previously the commander of Baltimore County’s Franklin police precinct in Reisterstown. Following his arrest, he was reassigned to Baltimore County police’s operations bureau to work in an administrative capacity.

At the time of his arrest, he was not in his police vehicle nor did he have his service weapon on him.

McElwee took over the Franklin precinct in Jan. 2010, and has seen robberies and other crime statistics decrease under his leadership. He prioritized community outreach, attending community meetings and sending other officers to organizations like the Reisterstown Improvement Association, Reisterstown-Owings Mills-Glyndon Coordinating Council, Chamber of Commerce and Main Street Committee.

The police department is conducting an internal investigation, spokeswoman Cpl. Cathy Batton told The Baltimore Sun. The department is reviewing his status, The Sun reported.