Cameron Demolishes Zylak

ST. MARY'S TODAY

LEONARDTOWN --- Republican frontrunner for St. Mary's Sheriff's office, Tim Cameron, has pledged to net the big fish in the drug trade and said his differences with incumbent David Zylak stem from policing priorities and direction.

He repeated his call for the need of Comprehensive Crime Fighting Strategy to ensure long-term security and well-being of the citizens.

Cameron, in a question and answer session, told students and faculty at the College of Southern Maryland that it's about priorities that he is among them, adding he would leave the matter at that. His aides claimed Zylak avoided the debate at the College of Southern Maryland and in stead was meeting people at the Wildewood Center Tuesday evening.

The debate on Tuesday was organized by the Sociology Department of the College of Southern Maryland, which is headed by well-respected Prof Michael Maloney.

Cameron said reduction in crime was his top priority and disagreed with the statistics touted by Zylak that showed violent crime had gone down in St. Mary's. "There's been an 8.6 percent increase in Part 1 crimes and 15 percent increase in Part 2 Crimes," Cameron said of Zylak's tenure.

The battle of ballots between Cameron and Zylak appears to be a David and Goliath struggle, though the roles appear reversed with the Goliath in this case is Cameron who is determined to root out the evil in society. Zylak's tenure had been marred by criticism his wife Debra was running the show for him.

Cameron claimed it is a shame that Zylak tells the men in uniform, "Morale is not my problem it is yours." On the contrary, Cameron said he attaches utmost priority to the morale of the police force.

Cameron said there were models available to nip crimes in the bud and vowed to implement Compstat, a program that succeeded in brining down the crime graph in New York. He said Compstat ties in G.I.S.  with pin mapping. "This way we are going to lock out the bad guys," he said.