Hagerstown Police Department (Maryland)

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines for companies and organizations. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources: "Hagerstown Police Department" Maryland – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject, potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral. Please help improve it by replacing them with more appropriate citations to reliable, independent, third-party sources. (December 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Hagerstown Police Department is a full-service, 24/7 law enforcement agency serving a population of 43,527 (US Census Estimate 2020) in 12.56 square miles (32.5 km²) within the municipality of Hagerstown, Maryland, county seat of Washington County. Hagerstown closely borders Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia.^[1]

History[edit]

On May 24, 1824 the council created the modern Hagerstown Police Department.

There have been six line-of-duty deaths within the HPD.^[2]

• Officer Charles E. Gall, EOW October 10, 1866
• Officer Murphy E. Flory, EOW June 26, 1901
• Officer John C. Middlekauff, EOW August 17, 1914
• Chief of Police George W. Fridinger, EOW February 28, 1918
• Officer Lynwood N. Vewcomer, EOW June 3, 1951
• Officer Donald Ralph Kline, EOW December 13, 1975

HPD has had a total of 23 Chiefs of Police since 1867

• 1867 - unknown .... William Freaner
• 1882 - 1893 .... D. Williamson
• 1893 - 1909 .... John E. Benner/Alexander John E. Benner (one source has Benner retiring in 1900.)
• 1912 - 1918 .... George W. Fridinger
• 1918 - 1931 .... Thomas H. Barber
• 1931 - 1933 .... J.J. Cassidy
• 1933 - 1937 .... Clarence G. Emmert
• 1937 - 1940 .... Carl H. McCleary
• 1940 - 1943 .... William H. Peters
• 1943 - 1946 .... Max M. Rickard
• 1946 - 1956 .... Jesse Bailey Brown
• 1958 - 1966 .... Blair P. Overton
• 1966 - 1968 .... Harold Kisner (Acting)
• 1968 - 1968 .... Grayson Wigfield (Acting)
• 1968 - 1972 .... Grayson F. Doarnberger
• 1972 - 1986 .... Clinton E. Mowen
• 1986 - 1993 .... Paul L. Wood
• 1993 - 1994 .... Robert I. Hart (Acting)
• 1994 - 1999 .... Dale J. Jones
• 1999 - 2000 .... Robert I. Hart (Acting)
• 2000 - 2012 .... Arthur Smith (Charles Summers, Acting while Smith was in Afghanistan.)
• 2012 - 2015 .... Mark Holtzman
• 2015 - 2016 .... Paul Kifer (Acting)
• 2016 - 2018 .... Victor Brito
• 2018 - Present .... Paul Kifer

Organization[edit]

Captain Paul “Joey” Kifer is Hagerstown's current Chief of Police .^[3]

The current headquarters of HPD is 50 N Burhans Blvd, Hagerstown, MD 21740. Before being renovated for law enforcement use, the building was the Western Maryland Railway Passenger Station.

See also[edit]

• List of law enforcement agencies in Maryland

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Hagerstown Police Department homepage

39°38′45″N 77°43′35″W / 39.64583°N 77.72639°W / 39.64583; -77.72639