Jenkins will become first sheriff to serve fifth term in Frederick County

Clara Niel, The Frederick News-Post, Md.
·2 min read

Nov. 23—When he is sworn in next month again as sheriff, Chuck Jenkins will become the first person to hold the position for a fifth term.

Jenkins, a Republican, defeated Democrat Karl Bickel in the general election.

Final results show that Jenkins received 54,034 votes, or 51.35%, and Bickel received 51,084 votes, or 48.55%, a difference of 2.8 percentage points.

Jenkins's swearing-in ceremony will be on Dec. 8 at 10 a.m. at Calvary Assembly of God at 8234 Woodsboro Pike in Walkersville, according to a press release from the sheriff's office.

Asked to comment on his election victory, Jenkins sent a press release. "The very core of our mission in protecting the public is to enforce the laws, remove the criminals from the street, and keep them out of our fine county to the extent we can," the press release said.

In the release, Jenkins said his priorities for his next term include protecting students and staff members in schools and maintaining "proactive law enforcement strategies" he implemented that have decreased serious crimes in the last eight years.

Jenkins has served in the sheriff's office for 32 years. He was elected sheriff for the first time in 2006.

According to a state crime dashboard, the rate of Part I crimes — murder, rape, aggravated assault, robbery, theft, auto theft and burglary — in Frederick County decreased from 2,138 per 100,000 people in 2006 to 1,021 in 2020.

This follows a statewide trend, the dashboard shows, in which the combined rate of property and violent crimes fell by nearly half, from 4,160 per 100,000 people in 2006 to 2,038 in 2020.

The same trend is similar nationally, according to the FBI's Crime Data Explorer. In 2006, the Property I crime rate was 3,826 per 100,000 people, and it decreased to 2,357 in 2020.

This is the third time Bickel has run against Jenkins and lost.

In an interview Monday, Bickel said he was disappointed with the results. He said he does not know if he will run a fourth time.

"You never know what the future will bring," he said.

In 2014, Jenkins beat Bickel by 26 percentage points, a little more than 19,400 votes. The margin became slimmer in the 2018 election, when Jenkins beat Bickel by 6 percentage points — nearly 5,700 votes.

Follow Clara Niel on Twitter: @clarasniel