Message
from the Chief
Welcome to the Frederick Police Department website. We are very proud of this website and are constantly improving it. This hope that this website will allow you to better understand the operations of the Frederick Police Department and the services we provide to our community. Through the information provided, you will be able to appreciate some of the challenges we face as well as our accomplishments. Our website was totally revamped in 2002 and is one of the many methods we use to communicate with our citizens and visitors.
Likewise, we are extremely proud of our city and consider it one of the finest in the country. Located less than an hour west of Baltimore and north of Washington, DC, and with a population of about 59, 000, Frederick is Maryland's second largest city. With its fair climate, exceptional quality of life, reasonable cost of living, physical beauty, and educated labor supply, Frederick has been recognized as one of the most desirable smaller cities in the country in which to live and raise a family.
Frederick is the seat of Frederick County, Maryland's largest county, which hosts spectacular mountains, rolling farmlands, a major river and countless recreational streams. Our history is rich, with links to the founding fathers and the Civil War. Established as a frontier town by English and German settlers in 1745, Fredericktowne outfitted wagon train parties crossing the Allegheny wilderness. It is the birthplace of Francis Scott Key, author of our National Anthem. Known as the "Spired City" from a John Greenleaf Whittier poem, it was here that Colonel George Washington planned the campaign against the French at Fort Duquesne, and where in 1861, Maryland's legislature met and decided against secession. Both McClellan's and Lee's armies marched through the city. In 1864 the Battle of the Monocacy delayed and subsequently thwarted the Confederacy's last attempt to storm Washington.
Frederick offers big city convenience with small town atmosphere. Renowned for its wonderful examples of 18th, 19th, and early 20th century architecture, the 33-block historic district has been immaculately preserved and provides a spectacular setting for thriving commerce, cultural activities, and a robust tourist business. Frederick is the home of Hood College and Frederick Community College.
The Frederick Police Department is committed to fairness, compassion and excellence. We are a technologically innovative, progressive, community- oriented agency, committed to ensuring Frederick City's exceptional quality of life. We partner with our citizens, striving to ensure satisfaction. We steadfastly believe that our commitment to provide enlightened and sophisticated police service makes Frederick a unique and wonderful place in which citizens thrive. Our citizens and visitors enjoy the close-knit feeling of community, and our officers are an integral part of the lives and activities of Frederick.
Frederick Police Officers have the highest respect for all citizens, treat all citizens as equal customers, and never tolerate taking another person's dignity. We understand that we exist to serve the public – and that police power derives from the people. We expect excellence and respect in all we do. I believe that the police profession is the epitome of public service.
The FPD consistently proves itself an enlightened and sophisticated department that aggressively combats crime through a variety of traditional and innovative police strategies, by working with citizens and identifying problems and concerns, prioritizing those issues, and planning together how we and the rest of the government and citizens alike will address these concerns through additional efforts of prevention, building healthy neighborhoods, and focused law enforcement. The outstanding men and women of this agency, both sworn and civilian, have embraced this concept. We hire the best and brightest: people who have a strong desire to serve Fredericktonians with the highest regard for and pride in the badge of the Frederick Police Department. Members of this agency believe in the tenets of community policing and problem solving. We make community policing the manner in which we conduct our business throughout the agency by creating ownership and accountability at all levels. We recognize that police work is really police service -- not simply law enforcement. We constantly strive for improvement in all areas by evaluating best practices with the goal of always raising the bar of excellence.
The Frederick Police Department offers a wealth of career opportunities in patrol, investigations, crime analysis, community services, criminal records, communications, canine operations, drug enforcement, and special emergency response teams. The Department, accredited by the Commission on Accreditation Law Enforcement (CALEA) in July of 2003, operates our own superior Police Training Academy certified by the Maryland State Training Commission, has state-of-the-art technology including a fully digitized communications system, and our fleet of patrol cars that contain mobile digital computers as well as cameras.
If you want to make a difference, if you want to be part of a truly excellent police agency, if you believe that public service can bring out the best in you, and you want to enjoy and help maintain the excellent quality of life in Frederick, then you belong with the Frederick Police Department!
