The Fascinating History of the Office of the Sheriff, 1696-1996
by Lt. Lou Oertly, Prince George's County Sheriff's Office.
On April 22, 1696 Thomas Greenfield was appointed by Governor Sir Francis
Nicholson as the first sheriff of Prince George's County, Maryland. the
first courthouse in the county was established by Sheriff Greenfield in
Saint Paul's Church in Charlestown, Maryland. This was the county seat
until November, 1696 when it was moved to a storehouse owned by Mr.
David Small. The County seat then moved to Upper Marlboro in the 1720's
where it still houses the County Government, Courts and Corrections
Center. The original duties of the Sheriff included the collection of taxes,
making public proclamations, calling the court into session, administering
corporal and capital punishment, maintaining the county jail and
enforcing the law. The office had no budget as the Sheriff was paid a
fee for each service that was performed. For example, he might be paid a
portion of a hogshead of tobacco for each prisoner in the county jail or
for each paper of warrant served. Some of these responsibilities have
become obsolete or have been taken over by other governmental agencies but
the Sheriff has retained some of the original common law duties of the
original Sheriff.
Prince George's County remained a rural county for the next two-hundred
years. The Office of the Sheriff along with local constables
provided the county with more than adequate police protection. After the
Revolution, Sheriff's were elected by the voters and not appointed by the
state governor.
During the war of 1812 the Sheriff's Office was involved
in an incident which resulted in the writing of our national anthem.
When the British army marched on Washington they passed through
upper Marlboro. The local residents cooperated with the invading
army and the British Commander saw to it that no major damage was done to
local property. After the battle of Bladensburg and the burning of
Washington, the British army marched back through Upper Marlboro. This
time some of the British soldiers looted local farms and
were arrested by a Sheriff's Posse. The stragglers were placed in the
county jail. When the British commander learned of the arrests of his
soldiers, he ordered the arrest of the ringleaders of the posse in turn.
One of these was Dr. William Beam who was arrested and held for ransom on
a British warship. His brother-in-law, Francis Scott Key went to the
British fleet anchored off Baltimore Harbor and witnessed the attack on
Fort McHenry. This inspired him to write the Star Spangled Banner
.
The Office of the Sheriff continued to perform it's routine duties
until the onset of the American Civil War. During the civil war Prince
George's County was placed under martial law and occupied by Federal troops.
There was a considerable underground movement during these years leading
to common conflicts between the local authorities and the federal troops.
In one documented incident a Confederate soldier shot and killed a
Federal soldier and upon making his escape stole a local farmer's
horse. The Sheriff formed a posse and captured the horse thief in the
southern part of the county. While returning the prisoner to the jail,
the Sheriff was intercepted by Federal cavalry, who demanded
that he turn over his prisoner. There was a tense standoff as the
Sheriff did not consider the killing of the Federal soldier a crime. The
arrival of additional troops apparently persuaded the Sheriff to turn
over the prisoner.
When a particularly horrendous crime was committed in the county, the
Sheriff or the State's Attorney could request that the Governor assign
some detectives from the Baltimore City Police to investigate the
crime. This was routinely done until 1929 when the county created its own
police department. Prince George's County was rapidly expanding and
becoming a suburb of Washington, DC. The locally elected sheriff and
constables could not keep up with the additional responsibilities of the
growing county. The newly created Police Department was detached from the
Sheriff with an appointed Chief of Police. The Sheriff continued to
maintain concurrent law enforcement jurisdiction with the police
department and to run the County Jail. Inevitably this resulted in
conflicts between the two agencies. In 1969, the Sheriff's office was maintaining
a volunteer posse of over 500 citizens to complete its taks and the
Legislature decided that something had to be done. A statute was
passed defining the duties of the Sheriff's Office. These included:
providing the Service of all court civil and criminal process (i.e.
summonses, subpoenas, attachments, eviction orders, domestic violence
orders, etc...
processing and servicing all criminal warrants, writs of
attachments, Grand Jury Indictments, emergency psychiatric commitments and
other court orders to take a person into custody;
providing security for the District and Circuit Courts located in
Prince George's County;
transporting of prisoners to and from the courts and other places of
confinement including the extradition of wanted fugitives form other
states or nations to face legal action;
operating the county detention facilities (revoked in 1978);
The full power of arrest (all Deputy Sheriff's are now trained and
certified as police officers);
Criminal investigations are limited to issues involving the Office of
the Sheriff or by court order (Investigation of Casino Laws were added in
1994).
This law excluded general criminal investigation allowing the Sheriff's
Office to develop a particular expertise in the above areas. Deputy
Sheriffs from all over the country now come to Prince George's county to
observe and train in these fields.
One little known fact is the unique relationship between the Sheriff's
Office and United States Marshals. In the late 1950's a former Sheriff
of Prince George's County was appointed U.S. Marshall for the District
of Columbia. He brought with him a cadre of former Deputy Sheriff's.
These officers provided a more pro-active concept of law enforcement for
the Federal court system and became the nucleus of the Marshall's new
service. The U.S. Marshall's are now regarded as one of the premier law
enforcement agencies in the country with it's structure and philosophy
based on the principles established in the Prince George's Sheriff's
office. The Marshall's Service and the Sheriff's Office maintain
a close professional relationship and assisted each other on fugitive task
forces and other investigations.
The Sheriff was responsible for the operation of the County jail until
1978 when the county formed the Department of Corrections, staffed by
former Deputy Sheriffs. The county now has a state of the art
correctional facility with a command staff made up of former Deputy
Sheriffs.
The Office of the Sheriff was called upon again in 1994 to enforce the
Casino Gambling regulation for the county. This includes investigating
criminal matters and regulating licenses and permits for charitable
training.
Today the Office of the Sheriff has a staff of roughly 290 personnel
including the Sheriff and four appointed assistants, the remainder are
full time merit employees of the county. It's current responsibility as
the enforcement arm of the courts and support services for other law
enforcement agencies actually includes the processing of over 30,000
warrants, serving over 150,000 pieces of civil process, serving over 5,000
domestic violence protective orders, carrying out over 5,000 evictions,
providing security for 40 courtrooms with lockups which handle over
18,000 prisoners, transportation of over 30,000 prisoners and extraditing
of over 1,000 fugitives from other states. The Office of the Sheriff is
the 10th largest law enforcement agency in the state making more arrests
than all but five law enforcement agencies.
The Deputy Sheriff's Association of Prince George's County became the
official bargaining agent for Deputy Sheriffs in 1980. During these
years they worked to encourage professionalism and training in the
Office of the Sheriff. In 1993 the Deputy Sheriff's Association was
elected as the bargaining unit for the civilian employees of the Sheriff's
Office and chartered as Lodge 112 of the Fraternal Order of Police.
The Office of the Sheriff provides services to the citizens of
Prince George's County twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, and
365 days a year. The Sheriff's Office has been a vital link in the
criminal justice system for 300 years, providing the citizens of Prince
George's county with professional law enforcement.
Pictures made possible by Sgt. David Norman. Thanks to him and
the Prince George's County Sheriff's Office for allowing us to share
their history on the web.
Prince George's County: 
On April 22, 1696 Thomas Greenfield was appointed by Governor Sir Francis
Nicholson as the first sheriff of Prince George's County, Maryland. the
first courthouse in the county was established by Sheriff Greenfield in
Saint Paul's Church in Charlestown, Maryland. This was the county seat
until November, 1696 when it was moved to a storehouse owned by Mr.
David Small. The County seat then moved to Upper Marlboro in the 1720's
where it still houses the County Government, Courts and Corrections
Center. The original duties of the Sheriff included the collection of taxes,
making public proclamations, calling the court into session, administering
corporal and capital punishment, maintaining the county jail and
enforcing the law. The office had no budget as the Sheriff was paid a
fee for each service that was performed. For example, he might be paid a
portion of a hogshead of tobacco for each prisoner in the county jail or
for each paper of warrant served. Some of these responsibilities have
become obsolete or have been taken over by other governmental agencies but
the Sheriff has retained some of the original common law duties of the
original Sheriff.
The Office of the Sheriff continued to perform it's routine duties
until the onset of the American Civil War. During the civil war Prince
George's County was placed under martial law and occupied by Federal troops.
There was a considerable underground movement during these years leading
to common conflicts between the local authorities and the federal troops.
In one documented incident a Confederate soldier shot and killed a
Federal soldier and upon making his escape stole a local farmer's
horse. The Sheriff formed a posse and captured the horse thief in the
southern part of the county. While returning the prisoner to the jail,
the Sheriff was intercepted by Federal cavalry, who demanded
that he turn over his prisoner. There was a tense standoff as the
Sheriff did not consider the killing of the Federal soldier a crime. The
arrival of additional troops apparently persuaded the Sheriff to turn
over the prisoner.
