Baltimore County Sheriff's Office

The Baltimore County Sheriff's Office (BCoSO) is a Sheriff's Office in Baltimore County, Maryland, US, and the secondary law enforcement agency of the County (after the Baltimore County Police Department) which provides protection for the Baltimore County Courthouse in Towson, Maryland. The Baltimore County Sheriff's Office is one of the oldest sheriff's offices in existence in the State of Maryland, dating back to 1659, the year of the County's founding.

Baltimore County Sheriff's Office
Patch of the Baltimore County Sheriff's Office
Patch of the Baltimore County Sheriff's Office
AbbreviationBCoSO
Agency overview
Formed1659; 365 years ago (1659)
Employees70
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdictionBaltimore County, Maryland, United States
Map of Baltimore County Sheriff's Office's jurisdiction
Size682 sq mi (1,770 km2)
Population805,029
Legal jurisdictionBaltimore County, Maryland
Operational structure
HeadquartersBaltimore County Circuit Courthouses, Towson, Maryland
Deputies70
Agency executive
Website
Baltimore County Sheriff's Office Website

History

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Prior Sheriffs

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Source:[1]

Sheriffs Under the constitution of 1776
Term Name
1777 William Aisquith (resigned)
1777-1778 Henry Stephenson
1778-1779 Edward Cockey
1779-1780 Joseph Baxter
1780-1782 Job Garritson
1782 William McLaughlin
1782-1785 Edmund Ford
1785-1788 Philip Graybill [Graybell]
1788 William Gibson
1788-1791 Thomas Rutter, Jr.
1791-1794 Robert Gorsuch
1794-1797 Henry Stephenson
1797-1800 Cornelius H. Gist
1800-1803 James Wilson
1803-1806 Thomas Bailey
1806-1809 John Hunter
1809-1812 William Merryman
1812-1813 John Hutchins (died in office)
1813-1815 John Chalmers
1815-1818 Matthew Murray
1818-1821 John Stevenson
1821-1824 Sheppard C. Leakin
1824-1827 Standish Barry
1827-1830 William Bale
1830-1833 Henry Green
1833-1836 Henry S. Sanderson
1839-1839 John W. Walker
1839-1842 William D. Ball
1842-1845 Nicholas Tracy
1845-1848 John Kettlewell
1848-1851 Joshua F. Hynes


Sheriffs Under the constitution of 1851
Term Name
1851-1853 Samuel P. Storm
1853-1855 Pleasant Hunter
1855-1857 William Pole
1857-1859 Richard W. Hook
1859-1861 Francis J. Wheeler
1861-1863 Joseph Walker
1863-1864 Daniel S. Armstrong (died Nov. 9, 1864)
1864-1865 James Thompson
Sheriffs Under the constitution of 1864
Term Name
1865-1867 John K. Harvey
Sheriffs Under the Constitution of 1867
Term Name
1867-1869 Thomas Baldwin
1869-1871 Nicholas Burke
1871-1873 Samuel J. Robinson
1873-1874 Samuel F. Butler
1874 Samuel W. Worthington
1875-1877 Stephen Barton
1877-1879 Samuel W. Worthington
1879-1881 William A. Slade
1881-1883 Richard C. Tracey
1883-1885 Joseph R. Knight
1885-1887 Silas V. Miller
1887-1889 Joshua Tracey
1889-1891 Charles J. Beckley
1891-1893 Thomas R. Jenifer
1893-1895 Charles H. Holmes
1895-1897 William P. Cole
1897-1899 Joshua T. Whittle
1899-1901 William H. Todd
1901-1903 William J. Oeligrath
1903-1905 James Rittenhouse
1905-1907 Jacob Elliott
1907-1909 Abram T. Street
1909-1911 James Rittenhouse
1911-1913 Michael J. Gaff
1913-1915 Leonard G. Quinlin
1915-1917 Samuel C. Mahle
1917-1919 Abram T. Street
1919-1921 Samuel C. Mahle
1921-1923 J. Carroll Ensor
1923-1926 Caleb C. Burton
Sheriffs elected under 1922 Amendment to the state constitution.
Term Name
1926-1930 Samuel A. Brooks
1930-1934 Bremen A. Trail
1934-1938 T. J. Randolph Nicholas
1938-1942 William G. Lynch
1942-1946 Gilbert G. Miller


Sheriffs elected under 1946 Amendment to the state constitution.
Term Name
1946-1950 Clarence E. Deitz
1950-1962 Gilbert G. Miller
1962-1966 Edward G. Mueller
1966-1973 Gilbert L. Deyle
1973-1974 Leonard M. Carpenter
1974-1984 Charles H. Hickey, Jr.
1984-1986 Frank B. Wiers, Jr.
1986-1990 J. Edward (Ned) Malone, Sr.
1990-1998 Norman M. Pepersack, Jr.
1998-2002 Anne K. Strasdauskas

Organization

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As of 2008, the BCoSO is headed by R. Jay Fisher, Sheriff of Baltimore County. The BCoSO currently has an authorized complement of 70 sworn deputies. The rank structure is as follows:[2]

  • Sheriff (1)
  • Undersheriff (1)
  • Captain (1)
  • Lieutenant (2)
  • Sergeant (6)
  • Deputy & Deputy First Class (60)

The BCoSO is subdivided into five sections as follows:[3]

  • Courtroom Security Bureau and Transportation Division - responsible for transport and temporary housing of defendants to and from the Circuit Court, and other detention facilities.
  • Field Operations Bureau - Legal Process Division; is responsible for the service of court-ordered processes such as Writs of Execution, Writs of Summons/Subpoenas, Writs of Possession (evictions), Ex Parte/Protective/Peace Orders, and service of Criminal/Juvenile/Civil Warrants.
  • Field Operations Bureau - Warrant Unit; has the responsibility of non-support warrant service.
  • Administrative Services Division - is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the BCoSO
  • Security Division - is responsible for the constant security of the courthouse and surrounding property and is staffed by both sworn deputies and non-sworn security personnel.

Authority

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The authority of the Sheriff and all sworn deputies are constitutional in origin. All are certified police officers with full arrest authority under guidelines of the Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commission and the Constitution of the State of Maryland.[3]

Patch

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The agency's uniform shoulder patch depicts two Maryland Militiamen, who also happened to be Baltimore County Deputy Sheriffs, who were killed, during the British land and sea attack at the Battle of North Point on September 12, 1814, in the War of 1812 (later celebrated as a state, county, and city holiday as "Defenders' Day" - simultaneous with the bombardment of Fort McHenry from the Patapsco River on September 13-14th, and the inspiration for the writing of the national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner" by Francis Scott Key, 1779–1843). Daniel Wells and Henry McComas have historically been given credit for shooting and killing the commanding British General Robert Ross and were later both killed in the following skirmish and battle. A memorial known as the "Wells-McComas Monument" to the two fallen Militia Soldiers/Deputies is located on North Gay Street by the intersecting Aisquith and Orleans Streets in "Ashland Square" in East Baltimore City, where they were buried beneath after being exhumed in the 1870s from their original grave site and moved with great ceremony and publicity to Ashland Square. A smaller memorial where the two Deputies/Militiamen and nearby General Ross were killed is located on Old Battle Grove Road in Dundalk near "Battle Acre", the small, one-acre park donated to the State on the 25th Anniversary of Defenders' Day, in 1839 marking the center of the North Point Battlefield off Old North Point Road, its later parallel by-pass - North Point Boulevard at the intersection with German Hill Road, from September 12, 1814. Here to celebrate the extensive week-long "Star-Spangled Banner Centennial Anniversary" in 1914, the historic site was surrounded by a decorative cast-iron fence and a large stone base with a bronze cannon surmounting it and with a historical bronze plaque mounted on the side. Large stone-base signs with historical markers visible to passing traffic noting the "Battle of North Point" and "War of 1812" sites were also erected north and south of the historic battlefield area in the median strip of the 1977-era Baltimore Beltway, (Interstate 695) by the Maryland Department of Transportation's State Highway Administration that were placed through the efforts finally in 2004 of various local historical preservation-minded citizens and the Dundalk-Patapsco Neck Historical Society. An attempt to at least mark the general area of the historic battlefield site despite the high-speed highway routed through its fields along with the surrounding intensive post-World War II commercial and residential development unthinkingly constructed around the narrow peninsula field between Bread and Cheese Creek off Back River to the north and Bear Creek leading to the Patapsco to the south.[citation needed]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Sheriffs, Baltimore County, Maryland". Maryland Manual On-Line. State of Maryland. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
  2. ^ "The Shire the Reeve". Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2008-01-01.
  3. ^ a b "Sheriff's Duties and Powers". Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2008-01-01.