Cameron Will File for St. Mary's Sheriff

By Kenneth C. Rossignol
ST. MARY’S TODAY

LEONARDTOWN --- St. Mary’s County Public Safety Director Tim Cameron, who recently retired from a 25-year career with the Sheriff’s Department, told ST. MARY'S TODAY that he will file for the Republican nomination for Sheriff on Monday, Jan. 9th.
Cameron will pose a significant challenge to the effort of Sheriff David Zylak remain as St. Mary's Sheriff.
Zylak, who’s ability to win another term ran into serious problems only 3 weeks after he was sworn in as Sheriff in 2002 when he suddenly proposed a command structure of a major and five captains, a proposal he never shared with the electorate, has stumbled and bumbled his way through the past three years.
Despite being given record amounts of funds to deal with the burgeoning problems of law enforcement, Zylak failed to deal with the crisis of corruption involving the loot scandal that he inherited from the previous sheriff, leaving a sour taste for many who had hoped for reform in the law enforcement agency.
Sheriff Zylak failed to fire those involved in the scandal, saying that the possible litigation coming from those he didn't fire may have caused the county legal jeopardy.
Therefore, Zylak failed to understand that the citizens expected the law enforcement officers to have to abide by the same laws as anyone else. That is, if you steal a tractor-trailer load of building supplies from the sheriff’s secure storage area, jail is the end destination.
But in the loot scandal, the husband of the State’s Attorney Richard Fritz's campaign treasurer, who was also the Captain at the Sheriff’s Department, who turned over the loot to his best friend and his stepson, was allowed by Zylak to retire instead of going to prison.
With the central campaign issues of the coming campaign being that of the Sheriff constantly seeking raises for his wife who works in the Sheriff’s Department as a civilian administrator; the loot scandal; and loopy proposals for even more supervisors in a department dominated by all full-figured white males, the last minute promotions of blacks and women in the last six months to bring about a fairness appearance will test whether the electorate has lost its memory.
As Sheriff, without any meaningful effort at diversity in hiring or promotions, Zylak's record should serve as an embarrassment to local Democrats.  Until Zylak started to feel the heat from some Democrats on the issue last year he had made no effort to promote women, none of whom held a rank higher than corporal or blacks, none of whom had risen above deputy first class. 
In the St. Mary's Sheriff's department, under Sheriffs Pettit and Voorhaar only white guys were able to be commanders, a tradition continued by Zylak.  A visit to the sheriff's headquarters lobby shows the portraits of the five sheriff's division commanders portraying the reality that the face of the agency has no color.
Zylak is a good campaigner and a down to earth deputy who rose through the ranks as a patrol supervisor and shift commander, never in favor with the previous sheriffs.
Under Sheriff Voorhaar, Zylak was sent to the department’s version of Siberia and made the jail administrator, a favorite practice of the antiquated system of supervising the warehousing of prisoners in St. Mary’s County where the great liability of incarceration is directed by someone who doesn’t even know the rudimentary principles of running a correctional institution.
But apparently the system works as long as prisoners do not escape too often.
Cameron, who was not in the chosen few during the beginning administration of Sheriff Zylak was also consigned to running the jail. Just as Zylak was able to learn the ropes and do a fair job at operating the facility, Cameron proved competent as well, although he would have served the county and Zylak better as the commander of the patrol division or criminal investigations.
Cameron had been the commander of the special operations division, a unit which includes the Swat Team, traffic accident reconstruction and carrying out such enforcement activities as sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrol. He participated in advance training with sniper schools and has taught that training to other agencies.
While serving as patrol and special ops commander, Cameron was busy on the home front raising two children with his wife Angie and running off on weekly trips to Johns Hopkins pursing a degree and taking part in police leadership training courses where one of his instructors is the former Superintendent of the State Police, Col. David B. Mitchell.
Cameron expects to receive his degree in May of this year from Hopkins, which will make him the first candidate for Sheriff in St. Mary’s to be able to offer the voters a deep breadth of experience in the county’s own local law enforcement agency, being clear of any of the department’s scandals and actually have college education pertaining to law enforcement.
Raised in St. Mary’s County, Cameron’s large and extended family is expected to play a large role in his campaign, except for his wife’s father-in-law, retired deputy Tom Haynie, who is planning a third try to be sheriff. Haynie ran for the GOP nomination in 1998 and again in 2002, losing both times. Haynie now is the chairman of the Republican Central Committee and has been active in building the party.