State of Emergency

The snow has apparently created a "State of Emergency" in Howard County. One of the things this does is extends the ability of certain police powers:

This declaration serves several functions including making more state resources available to the County's Emergency Management Division, extending the availability of certain police powers, and better positioning the County to receive federal reimbursement for resources used during this historic snowfall.

I wonder what that means? It's a little scary that the HCPD is clearly in the more alpha position than the County Executive in Howard County. In fact, the HCPD does not take the County Executive or executive staff members seriously. The police union has essentially purchased the CE. So it's just great the PD has been given more powers.