Nearly five years after Straughan Lee Griffin’s carjacking death in Annapolis, law enforcers are divided over how to prevent the type of violent crime that killed him.

The prevailing philosophy for responding to carjackings and other armed robberies — complete submission — has changed, said Officer Hal Dalton, a spokesman for the Annapolis Police Department.

“Traditionally, police everywhere used to tell people not to resist robbers,” he said. “We’ve rethought that now. They have to make their own choice based on their own abilities.”

But in Howard County, police still advocate acquiescence.

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“We never advocate fighting, unless you’re fighting for your life,” said Officer Jennifer Reidy, a Howard County police spokeswoman. “No piece of property is worth your life.”

She recommended people park in well-lit areas and travel in numbers.

“Criminals are looking for the person that is vulnerable,” Reidy said.

In many carjackings, the driver becomes a captive, as was the case of a woman who was raped and assaulted after a man forced his way into her car in Annapolis last May. Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Paul Harris sentenced Walter Jose Grey III to life in prison for the crime this week.

But, Dalton said, Harris also gave Grey a 30-year prison sentence for another carjacking just two months later, when the woman jumped out of the car during a stop and Grey fled.

“You might want to resist abduction right then and there,” Dalton said. “Now there’s a new breed of criminal for whom it’s not good enough just to take your money. They want to hurt and injure.”

Though national statistics are scarce, local jurisdictions in the state have recorded a slight increase in carjackings in the past five years, officials said. The uptick is widely attributed to ever-more sophisticated vehicle security systems deterring theft of unoccupied vehicles. The state led a national effort to make carjacking a federal crime in the 1990s.

In Annapolis, carjackings hit a five-year high in 2006, at 21. In 2002, when a gunman shot Griffin while he unloaded his Jeep on Cumberland Road, there were six carjackings in the city. Thirty-one carjackings occurred in Anne Arundel County last year, up four from 2005.

One of Griffin’s alleged attackers, 22-year-old Leeander Blake, is on trial in federal court for murder and carjacking.

Howard County recorded 12 carjackings in 2006, three more than in 2005.

jpalazzolo@baltimoreexaminer.com