Baltimore County Sheriff's Office Explained

Agencyname:Baltimore County Sheriff's Office
Abbreviation:BCoSO
Patch:MD - Baltimore Sheriff.png
Patchcaption:Patch of the Baltimore County Sheriff's Office
Employees:70
Country:United States
Divtype:State
Divname:Maryland
Subdivtype:County
Subdivname:Baltimore County
Map:Map of Maryland highlighting Baltimore County.svg
Sizepopulation:805,029
Legaljuris:Baltimore County, Maryland
Headquarters:Baltimore County Circuit Courthouses,Towson, Maryland
Sworntype:Deputie
Sworn:70
Chief1name:R. Jay Fisher
Chief1position:Sheriff
Website:Baltimore County Sheriff's Office Website

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.

History

Prior Sheriffs

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
1851-1853Samuel P. Storm
1853-1855Pleasant Hunter
1855-1857William Pole
1857-1859Richard W. Hook
1859-1861Francis J. Wheeler
1861-1863Joseph Walker
1863-1864Daniel S. Armstrong (died Nov. 9, 1864)
1864-1865James Thompson
Sheriffs Under the constitution of 1864!Term ! Name
1865-1867John K. Harvey
Sheriffs Under the Constitution of 1867!Term ! Name
1867-1869 Thomas Baldwin
1869-1871Nicholas Burke
1871-1873Samuel J. Robinson
1873-1874Samuel F. Butler
1874Samuel W. Worthington
1875-1877 Stephen Barton
1877-1879Samuel W. Worthington
1879-1881William A. Slade
1881-1883Richard C. Tracey
1883-1885Joseph R. Knight
1885-1887Silas V. Miller
1887-1889Joshua Tracey
1889-1891Charles J. Beckley
1891-1893Thomas R. Jenifer
1893-1895Charles H. Holmes
1895-1897William P. Cole
1897-1899Joshua T. Whittle
1899-1901William H. Todd
1901-1903William J. Oeligrath
1903-1905James Rittenhouse
1905-1907Jacob Elliott
1907-1909Abram T. Street
1909-1911James Rittenhouse
1911-1913Michael J. Gaff
1913-1915Leonard G. Quinlin
1915-1917Samuel C. Mahle
1917-1919Abram T. Street
1919-1921Samuel C. Mahle
1921-1923J. Carroll Ensor
1923-1926Caleb C. Burton
Sheriffs elected under 1922 Amendment to the state constitution.!Term ! Name
1926-1930Samuel A. Brooks
1930-1934Bremen A. Trail
1934-1938T. J. Randolph Nicholas
1938-1942 William G. Lynch
1942-1946Gilbert G. Miller
Sheriffs elected under 1946 Amendment to the state constitution.!Term!Name
1946-1950Clarence E. Deitz
1950-1962Gilbert G. Miller
1962-1966Edward G. Mueller
1966-1973Gilbert L. Deyle
1973-1974Leonard M. Carpenter
1974-1984Charles H. Hickey, Jr.
1984-1986Frank B. Wiers, Jr.
1986-1990 J. Edward (Ned) Malone, Sr.
1990-1998Norman M. Pepersack, Jr.
1998-2002Anne K. Strasdauskas

Organization

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]

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

Authority

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.

Patch

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 an 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.

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Sheriffs, Baltimore County, Maryland . Maryland Manual On-Line . State of Maryland . 17 April 2023.
  2. Web site: The Shire the Reeve . 2008-01-01 . https://web.archive.org/web/20071117054841/http://www.co.ba.md.us/Agencies/sheriff/history.html . 2007-11-17 . dead .
  3. Web site: Sheriff's Duties and Powers . 2008-01-01 . https://web.archive.org/web/20071117054856/http://www.co.ba.md.us/Agencies/sheriff/shagduty.html . 2007-11-17 . dead .