Sheriff’s chief of staff under investigation following posts about union president

The chief of staff to Prince George’s County Sheriff John D.B. Carr is under internal investigation for social media posts that criticized the president of the deputies union.

Tracy Brown is on paid administrative leave while the investigation plays out, according to sheriff’s office spokesperson Ghada Tafesh. She declined to answer specific questions about the investigation because it’s ongoing.

Efforts to reach Brown were unsuccessful.

The posts criticized Dep. Lt. Garry Yancy, who is the elected president of the union representing the rank and file, after he spoke with The Banner for a story about a private citizen who collected a fee in exchange for organizing evictions — one of the sheriff’s office’s primary responsibilities.

One post, which has been deleted, showed what appeared to be an AI-altered image of Yancy holding an axe, with text that said “BITTER WITH AN AX TO GRIND.”

In another post that no longer appears on Brown’s Facebook page, she wrote: “When you are unhappy, you have options—choose the one marked ‘Exit.’ The very place where you once took an oath to serve should never become the place you work to destroy.

“What you do does not affect only you; it also affects the people standing around you,” she continued. “Bitterness and vengeance never win, because karma has a way of returning—often when you least expect it."

NBC4 was first to report the investigation into Brown. In a statement to the news station, Carr said: “Back and forth between two members of this office over social media is not where I want our focus, or the public’s, spent.

“That said, the reputation of this office and how we treat one another matters to me, whether that’s face to face or on a screen,” the statement continued. “I expect a high standard of professionalism from command staff and every deputy. Placing Chief of Staff Brown on leave allows Internal Affairs to conduct a full and fair review. It is not a determination of what occurred.”

Tafesh, in a phone call with The Banner, said Brown’s posts do not reflect the sheriff’s views or those of the office. She said Brown was placed on leave Thursday.

Yancy said he takes no pleasure in seeing an employee get suspended and go through an internal investigation.

“I hate that we’re here as an agency,” he said. “We really were a family at the sheriff’s office. That was something we took pride in. But, where we are today, I’m embarrassed to be part of it.”

Yancy said he’s trying to balance his duties as a cop and his duty to speak up for the union.

“Everyone thinks this is personal. It’s only business,” Yancy said. “I have no issues with the sheriff. I only have some issues with how he conducts business.”

Yancy pointed to the office‘s staffing shortage as an example.

Although the union backed Carr in 2022, deputies endorsed his opponent, Ron Oliver, in this year’s June primary, which Carr won handily.

Following The Banner’s reporting on a private citizen’s involvement in evictions, Carr released a statement saying, in part, that his office has worked to address the issue.

Elsie Jacobs, the unofficial “mayor of Suitland,” had been charging property managers a fee in exchange for organizing evictions in the area. Carr told The Banner he was unaware she was charging a fee and emphasized she was not paid by the sheriff’s office.

“When we learned that, we acted,” he said in the statement.

The sheriff’s office contacted apartment communities that worked with Jacobs and informed them that “no consultant fee is required or recognized by this Office, according to Carr’s statement.”

“We have directed deputies to coordinate evictions exclusively with property management going forward, and to identify scheduled eviction days by location rather than by any individual’s name.”

The statement also disputed The Banner’s reporting that Jacobs received a “security detail” of sheriff’s deputies, though that’s how Jacobs, 85, referred to her deputy escorts in an interview.

Carr said those assignments previously were not defined in their policy but he has since added rules for when his office provides transportation to a member of the public.