Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones, 59, announced Wednesday that he will end his 38-year career on the department and five-year tenure as police chief on July 1 when he retires.
MoCo360 spoke with Jones to ask him to reflect on his time as chief of police and how he addressed challenges, like increases in gun violence and juvenile, and the pandemic.
Why did you decide to retire now?
I was at maximum retirement time in my 36th year [on the department], so then I went into what they call a deferred retirement program in 2021, which meant that…you have three years maximum that you can do…and then at the end of that three years, you have to retire.
So, in November 2024, I was going to retire no matter what. But…in the last few months, I’ve been thinking about it, and I just feel like the time is right for me to actually retire in July, based upon what I think is a great state of the department right now, and I think we’re ready to pass the baton.
How well do you think that the department has dealt with the rise in violent crimes during your tenure?
(There were 28 homicides in 2023, up from 21 in 2022, and there were 112 carjackings in 2023, which is over a 40% increase from the 79 carjackings in 2022, according to DataMontgomery.)
We made some significant strides in addressing some issues centered around public safety, particularly crime. I’m very pleased to see many of those things come to fruition, even though there’s been a rise in some of those violent crimes, like carjackings, but I’ve also been encouraged by the fact that we’ve had—and continue to have—processes in place to address those concerns and the safety of our community.
What are your biggest accomplishments as chief?
There has been a lot of talk in the community about reimagining policing, and there were a lot of discussions about police and community relationships. And one of the things I wanted to focus on was to make sure that we regained the public trust. …I also felt like we worked hard at increasing our transparency.
And to be frank, we still have work to do right in both of those areas. But I feel like we’ve gotten better at it, engaging with the community, and…we had an audit that we went through, and those recommendations are being implemented. And those are the things that I think are improving our relationship with the community to make it a better place to live.
What was your experience dealing with the challenges of COVID-19 as chief?
That was one of the most significant challenges of my tenure as chief. I ended up sending some police officers home because…in case of a large outbreak, we needed to make sure we had enough officers to be able to handle calls for service for all of our shifts.
Many of the officers who were not patrol officers were sent home during the beginning of the pandemic in order to be on standby. The most fortunate part of that was that it never happened, but we had to be prepared for that. When vaccinations became available, we all partnered with [Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services], who took the lead on this to get our officers vaccinated.
What are your thoughts on reducing juvenile crime, which has been on the rise in recent years?
(In Montgomery County, juvenile-related violent crime increased 95% since 2019 and between fiscal year 2021 and fiscal year 2023, among juveniles: gun violations rose 220%, carjackings spiked 85%, and auto theft complaints increased 65%, according to the Department of Juvenile Services).
I think we need to have a better process for our Department of Juvenile Services to get young people into intervention programs. Accountability is important. Particularly, we have a lot of young people who aren’t necessarily given clear direction.
I think it’s a community-wide effort; it is not just the police. It involves governmental agencies, it involves politicians, it involves community groups and it involves [Montgomery County Public Schools]. There are a lot of external factors that are affecting our young people.
But I will tell you, from the law enforcement standpoint, accountability is still important because when you really think about the juvenile problem, you’re really talking about a very small subset of the juvenile population, definitely less than 1%. We have the same individuals who are committing the majority of those types of crimes and live in our community, so that’s something that needs to have a narrower focus to make sure that those juveniles are getting the services they need. And juveniles are accessing guns more today than ever before.”
Why has there been an increase in gun violence in the county and how should it be addressed?
Our community is accessing guns more than ever before, and it’s contributing to a variety of altercations and interactions with the public and people involved in some of these violent acts. I think it’s important for the community to realize that there are more guns available on our streets today than I’ve ever seen in my career. That’s disturbing.
But we are doing everything we can to address illegal gun possession, as well as ghost guns, working towards trying to figure out the best ways to address that. But again, it’s a community-wide effort as well.
How has it been working with Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, along with the County Council, on law enforcement and public safety issues?
He’s been very supportive of me, particularly over the past few years in his current term. He’s been very supportive of helping our officers and understanding what the needs are…such as pay raises and other benefits along the way to enhance law enforcement. He’s supported us in many of our innovative ideas as they relate to technology, such as the first responder drone program and things of that nature.
And the [County] Council is just the same. Overall, everyone has been focused on supporting a better and safer community from a public safety route, so I have no issues. There might be some differences along the way, but I think overall, we’ve been able to work through most of those.
What are your plans for after you retire?
There’s no job waiting for me. I am not exploring any jobs. I have had a couple of people knock on my door, and my door is always open to have a conversation. But for right now, there’s nothing that is pending. So, we’ll see moving forward. …I’m still a young man, and I’m sure I’ll end up doing something, but right now, I don’t know what that something is.
Elrich said he would like the next police chief to be someone who currently works in the department. What are your thoughts on that?
I support him going inside the ranks of Montgomery County Police to select the next chief. I think we have a strong bench of leaders who are ready to take the next step of being a police chief, and I fully support that. I think they will bring attributes that will be welcoming in this community to take Montgomery County Police to the next level. So…it’ll be interesting to see who he selects.
Jones’ responses were edited for length and clarity.