I punched out of northern PG County twenty years ago. Back then, the PG County Police had a nasty reputation for brutality. "If you don't police yourselves, you'll get policed and you won't like it." The PG County Police didn't police themselves ...
PG County was a sewer more than thirty years ago, when I moved there. I routinely got propositioned for the sale of drugs just walking across the street from my apartment to the 7-11. It's sort of amazing that I was never personally the victim of any crime ... just witnessed a lot of crime, gang activity, and a general sense of lawlessness. I didn't really realize how bad it was until I moved to a saner location.
I don’t know where you lived, but I’ve been here all my life and never experienced being propositioned for drugs, never was a victim of crime -except having my car registration sticker stolen; and all my interactions with police have been positive.
It is certainly not what it was when I was young, and all of us have progressively exercised more caution (I would not send my child to the public schools here, for instance). But a lot of it has to do with how you conduct yourself and with whom you associate.