Longest-Serving MCPD Officer Celebrates 60 Years in the Department (PHOTO)
He attended Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in 1951. Joined the Army during the Korean War in the summer of 1952. He became one of Montgomery County’s finest in 1955.
PHOTO | MCPD
Montgomery County Police Lieutenant Thomas Jacocks, the longest-serving member of law enforcement at a single agency in the state of Maryland, is celebrating 60 years in the force.
Jacocks, 82, currently serves as a deputy commander of the 2nd District in Bethesda. Other police officers, police staff, family, and friends are scheduled to honor Jacocks during a low-key gathering on July 15 at the Bethesda station.
“It is my honor to have Lieutenant Jacocks as a member of my command staff. His dedication to the job today is as strong as it was when he joined the Department in 1955. Sixty years in any profession, let alone law enforcement, is something rarely achieved and I wish him well as he begins his sixty-first year,” said 2nd District Commander Dave Falcinelli.
Back in 1955, Jacocks was one of 180 police officers working in a county with approximately 200,000 people.
Today, the officer is part of a department that has more than 1,200 officers in a county with more than 1 million people.
“Lieutenant Tom Jacocks celebrates 60 years on the job today. My guess is that he will make a couple of traffic stops to and from the office. He still wears the uniform proudly,” said Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger.
Besides being a police officer, Jacocks has been a fundraising leader for the department’s annual Torch Run that benefits Special Olympics. He has dedicated 30 years to the Maryland Special Olympics program and has not missed a tournament since its first edition in 1985.
PHOTO | MCPD
Family members said it was during dinner time- when Jacocks was only six- that he announced he was going to be a police officer when he grew up.
Throughout his 60 serving years, the officer married his wife, Peggy, moved to Kensington and raised five children.
He also worked his way up in the ranks. According to a news release, Jacocks went from patrol officer to detective private first class, detective corporal, detective sergeant, detective sergeant first class until he was promoted to lieutenant. Besides Bethesda, Jacocks has worked at the Wheaton and Silver Spring stations.
Out of the 14 police chiefs who have worked for the police department, Jacocks has served under 8 chiefs since 1955.
As for retirement plans, police officials said, July 15 is a celebration of his 60 years in the department. Retirement date has yet to be set.
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