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DELEGATE JOHNSON: Mr. Chairman,
I yield four minutes to Delegate Harkness.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Harkness,
there is only a total of five minutes. Do you
have that in mind?
DELEGATE JOHNSON: No. I thought
it was ten minutes, Mr. Chairman.
THE CHAIRMAN: The Debate Sched-
ule says five minutes.
DELEGATE JOHNSON: I am sure you
are correct. I yield then two minutes to
Delegate Harkness.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Harkness.
DELEGATE HARKNESS: Mr. Chair-
man, fellow delegates, when this matter of
sheriff came before the Judicial Commit-
tee, there was almost an even division.
There was a proposal to establish the office
of elective sheriff in the constitution. That
proposal failed to receive a favorable rec-
ommendation in the Committee by a 9 to
10 vote.
We further had in the Committee numer-
ous witnesses who appeared, and there was
almost an even division, I would say,
among those. Some thought the sheriff
should be preserved in the constitution.
Others thought it should not. So with that
division, the minority felt this was a mat-
ter that should be settled once and for all
on the floor of this Convention.
I simply wish to remind the delegates
that the sheriff was provided for in the
Constitution of 1776, has remained intact
in each Constitution since that time up to
the present time.
Now, there has been some talk about the
sheriff's duties in the larger counties have
been largely absorbed. That is true. But
in sixteen or seventeen counties in this
State, the sheriff remains the chief law en-
forcement officer. In addition, regardless of
whether you put the sheriff in the consti-
tution, the sheriff does have certain definite
judicial duties. He goes out and makes ju-
dicial sale, serves writs of subpoena, et
cetera. We provide in this amendment that
the sheriff's judicial duties will be spelled
out by rule, and he should be selected in a
manner prescribed by law, and in such a
manner that it enjoins constitutional di-
mension. Therefore, I would urge the adop-
tion of this amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Mudd.
DELEGATE MUDD: Mr. Chairman, I
would like to yield two or three minutes
as he prefers to Delegate Fox.
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THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Fox.
DELEGATE FOX: Mr. Chairman, ladies
and gentlemen of the Committee of the
Whole: I am aware that the sheriff is an
active office. It was originally called the
"sherrive" back in medieval times, and he
helped to gather doomsday votes, but I
think it is time we sealed his doom as far
as the small counties are concerned, at
least. This constitutional amendment goes
directly contrary to the action that we
have taken so far as local government is
concerned.
We have said in the local government
provision that we are going to allow the
counties to run their own affairs, and I
urge that you not saddle them with sheriffs
that in many counties they do not need. I
served for eight years as a state's attorney
in my own county, and I am afraid many
times in criminal investigations the sheriff
is more in the way than he is a help.
Those counties that would like to have a
sheriff and have some reason for keeping
him, all well and good, but in many coun-
ties he is the jailkeeper primarily, and
exercises some other functions; and I do
not believe that he should be enshrined, as
we have used that word, in the constitu-
tion, nor that small counties should be
saddled with him when they really do not
need him.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Johnson.
DELEGATE JOHNSON: Mr. Chairman,
I yield two minutes to Delegate Carson.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Carson.
DELEGATE CARSON: Mr. Chairman,
I want to admit first that I am very biased
and interested with regard to the sheriffs,
because in Harford County, I think we have
an excellent sheriff's office. That office per-
forms many functions, and you could break
them down into at least three major group-
ings. First, he is the chief law enforcement
officer in Harford County. Secondly, he is
the jail-keeper in Harford County, and per-
forms all the functions of transporting the
prisoners to the court and back, and from
the jail to the various prisons and peni-
tentiaries, and thirdly he is the process
server and performs other functions with
regard to the court which might be classi-
fied as judiciary-type housekeeping func-
tions.
All the deputies in Harford County have
received police training and are in my opin-
ion, and I think in the opinion of people
in our county, competent and well-trained.
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