Who will be the next Baltimore County sheriff: A union leader, deputy or Facebook campaigner?

The Baltimore County Sheriff’s Office is stuck in the 20th century, according to the three men seeking the Democratic nomination to replace longtime Sheriff R. Jay Fisher.

“The sheriff’s office is a modern-day Mayberry,” said Maryland Fraternal Order of Police President Clyde Boatwright, referring to the sleepy North Carolina town from “The Andy Griffith Show.”

“Literally at the sheriff’s office ... there are multiple references around the office to Mayberry. ... There are photos of Barney Fife,” the 48-year-old said, referring to a character in the show.

William Merrill III, 53, another candidate, said he has not seen the office change much since he joined its ranks as a deputy in 2003.

“We should’ve just been following the Baltimore County Police Department,” he said. “Baltimore County’s got gas masks, but we don’t have any. It’s like we’re standing around like stepchildren. ... We don’t have the necessary equipment.”

Adam Schuster, a former sheriff’s deputy in Baltimore County also running to replace Fisher, declined to be interviewed. But on his Facebook page the 39-year-old discussed modernizing the office by implementing remote Zoom hearings for defendants held in the county who are accused of committing crimes elsewhere.

“Why transport a Baltimore County inmate (sometimes multiple) to these outside jurisdictions when they all could be done online via Zoom inside the safety and security of the detention center?” he wrote in April 2025.

The police department is the primary law enforcement agency in Baltimore County — tasked with patrol, answering 911 calls and criminal investigations — while the sheriff’s office is responsible for courthouse security, transporting inmates and serving warrants.

The three candidates have launched very different campaigns. Records show Boatwright, the front-runner, has raised over $72,000. Merrill has raised only $575, and Schuster does not have any money in his campaign’s bank account.

Addressing recruitment

Boatwright, a Middle River resident, was born and raised in Baltimore City. He joined the city sheriff’s office in 2000, became an officer with the Baltimore City School Police three years later and has served as the state police union’s vice president and president.

“I’m the only candidate in the race to have the experience and still currently have the authority to supervise and manage law enforcement officers,” Boatwright said.

Boatwright says he wants to address recruitment first. The office is operating at 40% capacity with only 27 deputies, he said.

Attracting new officers and retaining them is critical to ensuring the office’s future, he added, because Maryland law requires at least one sheriff’s deputy to staff each courtroom.

In Baltimore County, the sheriff’s office has 32 courtrooms to monitor across the circuit and juvenile court system. If a defendant is incarcerated, state law requires two deputies be in the courtroom.

Boatwright wants to establish a 24-hour domestic violence unit and designate deputies to serve court-ordered paperwork.

Also, he said, he wants the county constables — the men and women who staff Baltimore County District Court but are not law enforcement officers — to report to the sheriff’s office instead of a district court administrative judge.

“They have no radios, no firearms, just badges,” Boatwright said. “Those guys are subject to assaults. They’re subject to people drawing weapons to them. ... There’s been a number of incidents.”

Boatwright said he wants to change what he says are the outdated rules in Baltimore County that limit the power of the sheriff’s office.

In 1993, former County Executive Roger Hayden wrested control of the county jail from then-Sheriff Norman Pepersack by asking the Baltimore County Council to approve the takeover, according to multiple articles in The Baltimore Sun.

The jail is currently run by the county’s corrections director, Walt Pesterfield, and is under County Executive Kathy Klausmeier’s purview.

“The sheriff’s office should be a part of the crime fight,” Boatwright said. “That’s a long-term goal, to be the sheriff and in charge of the jail again.”

Deputy first class

When Merrill started at the Baltimore County Sheriff’s Office, the agency had more than 120 deputies.

The New York City native said the office needs to hire back the nearly 100 employees it has lost over the last 23 years because of retirement and stagnant or declining wages.

“The main thing is our staffing, our attention and morale. Because without that we cannot give all our county citizens, you know, the best service they can get,” he said.

Merrill said his experience as an active duty officer for the office puts him leagues above Boatwright.

“[Boatwright] hasn’t done half the things that I have done. He’s a union person,” Merrill said.

During his tenure at the sheriff’s office, Merrill said, he has focused on replacing retiring coworkers by recruiting at military bases, colleges and high schools. He said he wants to petition Baltimore County to allow officers retiring from the police department to join the sheriff’s office.

There are two recruits in the academy now, he said, and 15 others in the backgrounding process. But he noted it takes eight months for a deputy to graduate from the police academy.

“We’ve been knocking on every door we can to try and get people,” Merrill said.

Merrill works in the office’s fugitive unit but often fills in to provide security at the Circuit Court because the office is understaffed. He said he was inspired to run to succeed his boss after Fisher declined to run for reelection.

“He’s always been a fair sheriff,” Merrill said but added that the office should have modernized in tandem with the Baltimore County Police Department. The sheriff’s office computers do not even have spell-check, he said.

Merrill stressed that county residents shouldn’t vote for a candidate based on what’s in their bank account.

“You don’t vote for the person who you think is popular or ... who’s raised the most money,” he said. “Vote for the person who’s the best qualified to do the job.”

Facebook forward

Schuster said in a statement that what separates his campaign from Boatwright’s and Merrill’s is being self-financed.

“I don’t believe in taking in donations because that would mean I owe people favors, and people will feel like I owe them,” he said. “I know I’m the underdog in this election, but I do have a moral code that I stand by.”

The former Baltimore County sheriff’s deputy directed voters interested in his platform to check out his Facebook page: “Schuster for-Sheriff.”