Abbreviation FCSO | ||
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Common name Frederick County Sheriff's Office Legal personality Governmental: Government agency General nature Law enforcement
Civilian agency Agency executive Charles A. Jenkins, Sheriff | ||
The Frederick County Sheriff's Office (FCSO) is the primary law enforcement agency serving a population of 222,938 residents within the 662.88 square miles (1,717 km2) area of Frederick County, Maryland.
Contents
Divisions
The Sheriff's office is organized into two divisions: the Operations Division and the Administrative Services Division.
Operations Division
This division consists of three operating units: Patrol, Special and Judicial operations units.
Sections within the Patrol unit include the Patrol, Canine, Traffic, Community Deputies and Honor Guard sections.
The Special Operations unit comprises the Criminal Investigations, Gaming, Pawn, Special Assignment, Task Force, and Crime Analysis sections. A juvenile specialist, evidence custodian and the Special Services Team are also part of Special Operations.
A Civil Process unit, Child Support section, Court Security force, and Alarms/Permits unit are part of Judicial Operations.
Administrative Services Division
Services provided by this division are organized into four functional service sections: Training, Personnel, Fiscal and Support.
Training Services includes the In-Service Training, Police Academy Training, Field Training, Intern Program, Citizens Police Academy, and Community Assistance Patrol Academy sections.
Personnel Services includes the Background/Recruiting, Polygraph and Accreditation sections.
Fiscal Services comprises the Budget Development and Management, Planning & Research, Grants, Capital Improvement Projects, Purchasing, Quartermaster, Agency Property Management and Billing Coordination sections.
Support Services includes the Police Information Specialist, Records Section, Fleet Management, Building Management, Victim Services, School Resource Section, Community Services Section, Crime Prevention, Youth Services, Crossing Guards, Reserve Deputies and Volunteer sections.
Headquarters
The sheriff's office shares its headquarters building with the local Maryland State Police unit and the Frederick County Emergency Communications Center. The building is at 110 Airport Drive East, Frederick, MD 21701.
Misconduct by officers
Sergeant Theodore Randolph “Randy” Dorsey was indicted in November 2006 on arson charges related to destroying his vehicle as part of an insurance scam.
Deputy Sam Bowman was indicted in 2011 on several charges of having sexually abused a 14-year-old girl. He was assigned as a school resource officer at Walkersville High School.
In December 2013, Deputy First Class Todd Joia was charged with entry without breaking in nearby Berkeley County, West Virginia. The case is related to the theft of more than two thousand dollars from a pair of gambling machines. The deputy was suspended when his arrest was made known to his department. In February 2014, he resigned from the office, was sentenced to a year on probation and restitution.
During the same week, Deputy First Class Kevin Darnell White was suspended when he was arrested for an off-duty drunken assault in nearby Hagerstown, Maryland. He was also suspended and later acquitted of all charges.
Daniel Vail
At one o'clock in the morning on 10 January 2013, deputies dressed in military gear tried to conduct a no-knock arrest warrant on nineteen-year-old Daniel Vail. Vail was wanted in a nearby county for a home invasion. The deputies threw a stun grenade into Vail's bedroom to disorient him. Unnamed deputies said the naked man had a shotgun in his hands. After the deputies ordered him to drop the weapon, they fired eighteen bullets, killing Vail. An internal investigation by the Fredrick County Sheriff's Office cleared the deputies of any wrongdoing.
Ethan Saylor
On 12 January 2013, three Frederick County sheriff's deputies were out of uniform while working after hours as security guards. They were called to a movie theatre where a man with Down's Syndrome refused to leave the cinema after the movie was over. The three, Lieutenant Scott Jewell, Sergeant Rich Rochford and Deputy First Class James Harris confronted Ethan Saylor and his caregiver. In the confrontation the three men fell on the 26-year-old Saylor and handcuffed him. He then died of asphyxiation. A grand jury did not return any charges in the case. As of July 25, 2013 the federal Department of Justice was investigating Saylor's death as a civil rights case.