The St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office is an equal opportunity employer and encourages all interested persons to apply.  A person desiring a position with the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office as a Deputy Sheriff or Correctional Officer should be of good moral character.  They should have at least a high school diploma, be in good physical condition and be able to pass an in-depth background investigation, a polygraph examination, a psychological examination, a drug screening test, and a physical exam.  

Duties and Responsibilities

Deputy Sheriff:

A Deputy Sheriff is responsible to enforce laws, protect life and property, and to provide a safe and secure community to live, work and visit.  A Deputy Sheriff is expected to exercise good judgment, common sense and apply appropriate discretion in the performance of their duties while guided by their training, sense of fairness and knowledge of the law.

Correctional Officer:

A Correctional Officer is responsible for providing the safe, secure and humane supervision and treatment of inmates placed in the St. Mary’s County Detention Center; they must also treat visitors with politeness and respect.  Correctional Officers are required to maintain a positive demeanor when confronted with stressful situations of scorn, ridicule, danger, and/or chaos.

 

Your first step is the Preliminary Screening Sheet. All items should be completed in their entirety. Any fields left blank could inhibit your progression in the process. Click here for Preliminary Screening Sheet in PDF format.

Your second step is the physical agility test.  The applicant should be able to complete twenty push-ups in one minute, twenty sit-ups in one minute, run a half mile in five minutes, scale a fence that is 5 feet high, and complete a weight pull of 150 pounds dummy for a distance of 50 feet.

Your next step is the written test. Applicants for Deputy Sheriff must score at least 75% to continue to the next step of the hiring process, and Correctional Officer applicants must score at least 70%. The written test is designed to test your knowledge, skills, abilities, reading comprehension and mathematics skills. Those applicants passing the written test will then advance to an oral interview board.

The oral interview board consists of the Personnel Coordinator and three sworn members of the Sheriff's Office of various ranks and experience.  Once the interviews are completed, the applicants will be ranked according to the total score.  The total score is obtained by taking 70 percent of your written test score and adding thirty percent of your oral interview score to obtain your average which must exceed 70 percent or better.  Once this is tabulated for the applicants, an eligibility list is then established.

As positions become available applicants will be offered a conditional job offer (CJO) to those ranked at the top of the eligibility list.  This conditional job offer is contingent upon the applicant successfully completing and passing the polygraph, psychological, physical examinations, and background investigation.

Those applicants who successfully pass these final steps will be hired by the Sheriff's Office provided funding is available, and positions become vacant, and scheduled for entrance level training at the Southern Maryland Criminal Justice Academy