A brotherhood of sheriffs from throughout Maryland headed to Carroll County on Tuesday night to back Sheriff Kenneth Tregoning, calling for a referendum to decide the county?s top police agency.
“The same criticisms that have been directed at the sheriff?s office can be directed at a county police force,” Harford County Sheriff Jesse Bane said at the county?s final public hearing on commissioners? decision to scale down the sheriff?s office and create a county department with an appointed chief.
“If you want to see how your sheriff can expand into a professional law-enforcement agency ? and it already is, you just don?t realize that yet ? I welcome you to come to Harford County.”
Bane was elected in 2006 to head his office, the main police agency in Harford.
Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Howard counties have departments with appointed chiefs.
“If a police chief were the answer to the problem, Baltimore City would not have the problems it has today,” said Bane, who sat in the front row beside Tregoning. “That is not a slap at Baltimore City.”
John Bartlett Jr., head of the state?s Fraternal Order of Police, also supported Tregoning.
Bartlett went through a similar controversy in 2001, when he was Calvert County sheriff. Commissioners there eventually voted against creating a police department after being threatened with a referendum.
“The voters are pretty smart people,” Bartlett said. “I?m here to support that this go to referendum.”
Prince George?s County Sheriff Michael Jackson, who heads the Maryland Sheriffs? Association, backed the referendum, although the primary agency in Prince George?s is the police department.
Carroll commissioners did not hold a public hearing before voting 3-0 in October to move to a county police department with an appointed chief, reduce the size of the sheriff?s office and abolish the state?s only Resident Trooper Program, in which the county contracts state troopers to patrol.
Carroll?s delegation backs a bill that would send the decision to a November referendum.
“The difference for the citizens is that they have no way to be heard unless it goes to referendum,” said Mike Canning, executive director of the Maryland Sheriffs? Association. Of the sheriff system, he added: “It?s not only law enforcement; it?s a way of life.”
