Carroll County Sheriff Jim DeWees signed up to run for reelection almost as soon as he possibly could.
The Republican filed paperwork in February to run in the 2026 primary. It was only the second day that candidate paperwork was being accepted.
DeWees is running for a fourth term as sheriff; he’s been unopposed in the last two elections. His predecessor Kenneth Tregoning served four consecutive terms, before declining to run for a fifth in 2015.
A South Carroll High graduate and former Maryland State Police captain, DeWees, 54, of Westminster, has been critical of the state juvenile justice system, signed onto the 287(g) program to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and has stood firm in defending landowners against the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project powerline.
So far, DeWees has no opponents, but the filing deadline for candidates isn’t until February 24, 2026.
Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Baltimore Sun: You’ve been sheriff for a little over a decade and there have been so many changes in that time that have focused on law enforcement, from Freddie Gray to George Floyd to now, people focusing on ICE, and behavioral health, Narcan… What’s it been like being a leader in law enforcement during all those changes?
DeWees: I’m 36 years into doing this, so my first memory of actual change was actually Rodney King in Los Angeles [whose 1991 beating by Los Angeles Police Department sparked outrage and riots], and I had just become a state trooper and there was change from that. And as my career evolved, there were always incidents nationally and locally that forced change in law enforcement… And I think good law enforcement leaders see those things coming before they happen, and adjust to it before it takes over their organization, and so, over the last 11 1/2 years, I’ve done everything I can to look at incidents around the country or even locally and try and adjust and make sure that [Carroll County Sheriff’s Office] policies are sound, that we’re doing the right things, that we’re treating people fairly, that we have the technology in place before it shows up on my doorstep. So making sure that before Annapolis says ‘you’ve got to do it,’ we’re already doing it. And I think good law enforcement leaders see those things, and they make those adjustments before those things happen.
What do you see as the big challenges for Carroll County today?
Believe it or not, this will shock you: The thing that I get the absolute complaint the most about, is people speeding in neighborhoods… [Residents] care about what they can see out their front door. And so, people speeding down the roads or aggressive driving or not stopping at stop signs, and kids playing in the roadways, [people] passing school buses when they shouldn’t… When it comes to violent crime, there’s very little that takes place in Carroll County, and traditionally, the violent crime that does take place is usually domestic-related, and we’re really, really good at solving those crimes.
I know you were critical recently of state juvenile services, saying how they’re letting criminals travel into Carroll County and things like that.
The problem with the [Department of Juvenile Services] system is that the policies of the person that was running the DJS system were more about rehabilitation than holding individuals accountable first, and you can’t provide rehabilitation for someone that doesn’t admit that they have a problem or isn’t going to be held accountable. They laugh about it. I’m not overrun by juvenile crime, but what we are seeing is a heavy influence from Baltimore in Carroll County, and the individuals that we’re coming into contact with — maybe adults, young adults, but they had extensive criminal histories with the juvenile system, and obviously weren’t held accountable because they’re out here committing now adult crimes. And in one case — stealing a car and killing a resident out in Taneytown — that individual had a laundry list of contacts with law enforcement and the juvenile justice system, but was never, ever held accountable, and certainly wasn’t rehabilitated. In fact, so much so, that after they killed the individual in Taneytown, they stole another car in Anne Arundel County, got into a high-speed pursuit down there, got off on that, out of jail, on that and went into Frederick County. And it wasn’t until they got into a high-speed pursuit in Frederick County where they were eventually apprehended and put in jail, and then we were able to find them and charge them with the crime that that took place in Taneytown. And I just think that the juvenile justice system under the leadership of the former secretary did a pitiful job. And they now have a new acting secretary. I’m hoping that her policies are different and that they change and they hold individuals accountable before they start talking about rehabilitation.
So, you are hopeful that things will get better?
Yeah, it’s a statewide organization… As a young state trooper, when I arrested a juvenile, it was a DJS worker, a case worker, that would come to the State Police barrack and interview the individual. I can’t tell you the last time I actually saw a juvenile justice worker. Like, they don’t come out. They triage everything from the phone and they don’t literally come out and investigate and decide whether there needs to be a placement or they send someone home with their parents. By and large, they send people home to their parents, and those people continue to commit crime after crime after crime, and nothing seems to be done about it. And that’s all policy driven from the former secretary, and even the governor recognized that after the pressure he got on him. He was forced to make a change, and we’re hoping the change was the right one that remains to be seen.
Talk about your approach to the sheriff role, in general. How do you compare yourself with Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler, for example, since you’ve been sheriffs for basically the same amount of time, and you’re both roughly the same age?
He’s older. (laughs) We both retired around the same time, and we were elected at the same time, and honestly, our offices look the same. He’s a primary law enforcement chief for his county, he oversees corrections in his county, he also has court security. So we look the same. Our populations are different. He (has) maybe 100,000, 150,000 more people in his county than I have, and his organization mirrors that. He’s got more deputies in both the jail and law enforcement that I have, but we look roughly the same.
It seems like he’s been more outspoken on some topics. He’s on national TV sometimes. You seem more low-key.
I try to be that way, but listen — I don’t like going on TV. I don’t want to be on national news. I don’t want to be even on the local news. I only, I guess, comment on things that directly affect what goes on in my county and in my community. And I live on this premise: that the decisions that I make for my office and the people that I am sworn to protect in this county, the decisions I make on a day-to-day basis, are based off of experience and what I think are right and wrong, not based on getting reelected, ever. And if I’m making the right decisions and I’m doing the job for the people and people feel safe in this community, they’re going to reelect me every time I run for office. But I don’t think … my constituents, the people in Carroll County, they don’t generally want to see me on national TV. They don’t want to see me giving opinions where opinions don’t affect them. They want to see me doing the job day in and day out, and when it’s time, then offer an opinion. The DJS thing is an issue, and it was an issue that was affecting my county, and it was an issue that was affecting the region. So that’s why I was so outspoken on that. So that’s my approach, is that when it affects what goes on in my community and in my county, then you’ll see me be more outspoken, but by and large, I’m pretty moderate about how I handle things. I’m a little more low-key.
Since you mentioned residents being worried about speeding, crashes and road issues — do you think that is one of the big, pressing issues for Carroll County?
You know, Carroll County is really unique because we only have, like, 2 miles of interstate, and it’s interstate that we don’t really even claim; it’s down in the furthest part of the county, Interstate 70. And literally, you go from Frederick into Carroll County for a minute, and then you’re in Howard County. And so, in Carroll County, everything’s really rural. There’s very few four-lane roadways, and so there’s a lot of traffic that that migrates through Carroll County to get up into Pennsylvania. And then people that live here, it’s kind of a transient community that leaves and goes to work in Baltimore and D.C. and comes back. And so, we patrol the neighborhoods and take a priority there, to make sure people’s properties are safe while they’re gone. And then, I think we do a really good job of handling the complaints when it comes to traffic enforcement. If you are not a proactive police department, and you’re not addressing poor driving or aggressive driving, or you’re not addressing criminal behavior, then you’re going to simply get run over and your community is going to be going to have a lot of crashes, going to have a lot of fatalities, and it’s going to have a lot of crime, and eventually violent crime. … My philosophy is to be very proactive, and I am very proactive about traffic enforcement — not necessarily writing tickets, because I’ll tell you, we do about 21,000 traffic stops a year in my organization, and in about 70% of the stops we make, a warning is issued. So, most people would think we give out more tickets than warnings, and that couldn’t be any further from the truth.
Has there been more traffic, or poor drivers in Westminster, for example, as more development happens in the city?
I think driving up [Route] 140 is an adventure sometimes… I don’t necessarily believe that people are driving more aggressively. I think people are driving without being attentive. There’s so much going on in the car these days that they’re not paying attention to how they’re doing stuff, and there’s simply no excuse for it… But if you look at the statistics, statewide traffic enforcement, traffic stops, traffic tickets, are down significantly. Significantly. And that’s because of a lot of the legislation, and there’s a lot of fear and making traffic stops from, you know, deputies, troopers, officers are fearful of getting complaints. People are rude on traffic stops. It’s difficult to make traffic stops, but it is part of the job that needs to be done.
Has that been true in Carroll, too?
No, not so much. In fact, I know it because every one of my deputies has a camera in their cars and a camera on their body. And we review traffic stops regularly, and, by and large, 98% of the people are cooperative and understand that they have a responsibility to drive with some common sense, and if they don’t, we stop them. And they understand that there’s that social contract between us and them, that you stop when we put our lights on behind you, and you understand that there’s a place to grieve what we’re saying took place, and that’s the courts. I can’t say that takes place everywhere, but in Carroll County, people are law-abiding, and they understand that this type of enforcement needs to be done.
If you’re reelected, is there anything that you’re still really hoping to accomplish?
Every day, day in and day out, I come to work and I tell my commanders that work for me when they come to work, how can we enhance the quality of life for the deputies that are out patrolling the streets or walking interiors of the jail… There’s other things that I want to accomplish. I do have a new building that’s being built, and I want to see that through to make sure that that’s put together the right way for the next sheriff, and that is a modern building with modern technology that is sorely missing in my organization. We are working out of facilities right now that are deteriorating as we sit in them, and it will consolidate a number of facilities that we have around the county into one, and make us far more efficient than we’ve been, which will really help the quality of the policing that we do.
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