News Releases

Honoring Retired Lieutenant Thomas B. Jacocks; End of Watch: December 14, 2018

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Tomorrow, the Montgomery County Police Department family will join the loved ones of retired Lieutenant Thomas B. Jacocks in laying him to rest.

Lieutenant Thomas B. Jacocks completed his last tour of duty with the Montgomery County Police Department on November 30, 2016, at the age of 84 after 61 plus years of dedicated service with the agency.  He retired as the longest-serving member of the Police Department and of a single agency in the state of Maryland, a legacy that remains unmatched.  Although Jacocks officially retired from the Department in 2016, he continued his police work as a volunteer at the Public Safety Headquarters into 2018.

Jacocks saw many changes in policing and the county over his 61 plus years of service. On Jacocks’s first day on the job, he was one of 180 officers serving a population of about 200,000.  When he retired, he served as one of more than 1,200 officers who served a population of over 1,000,000 residents. If you were ever fortunate to sit down with the soft-spoken Jacocks, the stories that he would tell you from his seasoned perspective about police work were fascinating.

Thomas B. Jacocks was born on October 26, 1932, in Washington, D.C. According to family members, Jacocks announced at dinner one evening when he was six years old, that he was going to be a police officer when he grew up. Jacocks graduated from Bethesda-Chevy Chase (BCC) High School in 1951 and in the summer of 1952 enlisted in the Army during the Korean War; he was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. In 1954, after his military tour ended, he applied to become a Montgomery County Police Officer. He was sworn in on July 1, 1955, and began his career as a patrol officer in Bethesda. He married Peggy and they moved to Kensington where they raised their five children: Elise, Patricia, Clare, Joseph, and Justin.  Jacocks rose through the ranks from Patrol Officer to Detective Private First Class, Detective Corporal, Detective Sergeant, Detective Sergeant First Class, to Lieutenant. During his career, he worked in the 2nd District (Bethesda station), the Juvenile Aid Bureau, the Warrant and Fugitive Bureau, the 4th District (Wheaton-Glenmont station), the 3rd District (Silver Spring station), and as the Court Liaison Officer.

Jacocks also dedicated over 30 years of service to the Maryland Special Olympics program. He was a fundraising leader for the Department’s annual Torch Run that benefits Special Olympics and attended every Department Torch Run since Maryland’s inception of the program in 1985.

Regarding his death, Chief Manger said, “For over 60 years, Lieutenant Thomas Jacocks served the residents of Montgomery County. He’s left a legacy that cannot be duplicated.”

RLI

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Release ID: 18-544
Media Contact: mcpnews 
Categories: remembrances