Newly elected Montgomery County Sheriff Maxwell “Max” Uy, a 28-year veteran of the office, takes over an agency of long-term leaders. Sheriff Darren Popkin served from 2010 to 2022 and, before that, Raymond Kight from 1986 to 2010. Uy grew up in Fremont, Calif., with a father who had gotten a masters in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a mother who had earned an English degree from the University of California at Berkeley. Uy’s last name, from his Chinese dad, is pronounced phonetically as “We.”
He is the first Asian American sheriff in Montgomery County and is believed to be the first in Maryland, according to Popkin, now the executive director of both the Maryland Sheriffs’ Association and the Maryland Chiefs of Police Association.
The Washington Post interviewed Uy, 50, in his office at the Montgomery County Circuit Courthouse in Rockville.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: How did you start down your career path?
A: I enlisted in the Army in high school on my 17th birthday. Maybe I watched too many movies, but I really wanted to serve.
My mom was worried, of course, as I’m sure my dad was as well. But he knew that I was driven and focused and agreed to sign me up to join.
Q: How did that lead you to Montgomery County and the sheriff’s office?
A: I enlisted as an unassigned airborne ranger. And when I was in training, I was recruited to serve in the Old Guard ceremonial unit across the river in Fort Myer, Va. That was based on a number of factors. I’m tall, had good test scores, clean background. There are three specialty units in the Old Guard. The Tomb Guard — everybody knows the Tomb Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, right? I was not one of them. The Drill Team — those guys are well-coordinated. I would have hurt myself. And then there’s the Continental Color Guard — I was selected to that.
After four years — I’d gotten married young — I wanted to get into law enforcement. A friend of mine was also applying to a number of places and said, “Hey why don’t you try the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.” I was 21.
Q: Can you tick off your main duties?
A: We are the law enforcement arm of the courts. We’re responsible for the safe movement of incarcerated persons securely within the Circuit Court — and to and from the jails. We maintain two holding facilities in the two district courts. We serve civil court papers and serve criminal and civil warrants. We’re charged with doing evictions, enforcing the child support process. We serve domestic violence orders, red-flag orders and mental health Emergency Evaluation Petitions.
Q: What is your biggest challenge?
A: Staffing. By far. We’re not unique in law enforcement in that regard. We are down 16 sworn deputies from 155 positions. We’re finding it harder and harder to attract, recruit and retain the best-qualified deputy candidates.
Q: How much are you competing with other law enforcement?
A: Well, that’s one factor — the Washington capital region in particular. We, the allied law enforcement agencies, are all competing for the same pool of well-qualified candidates. I think also that over the last several years, some of the criticism of law enforcement professionals has affected decisions to go into this profession, which, by the way, I think is still one of the most noble professions. And our salary. Some of the agencies in the area have been successful in getting their starting salary increased recently. Ours is, as I’m finding out, one of the lowest starting salaries in the area, and I’m trying to work on that.
We’re not seeing the numbers of applicants show up for testing sessions, period. Over the years, I’ve seen it fluctuate — from 60, maybe more, to about 30 at testing sessions. Now you can sometimes count the number of people showing up on one hand.
Q: How are you addressing this?
A: One thing is we’re trying to address communities that don’t normally think of law enforcement as a profession. During the campaign, in talking with some of our immigrant communities, you know, law enforcement is not always seen as an honorable profession, based on where these folks come from — certainly in areas where there is corruption and the lines are blurred between military and police. But what I’m really trying to do, every opportunity I have, is tell people: “You get a pension and are able to retire after 25 years at the age of 46, for instance, full health benefits and still a starting pay over $50,000, for no college degree.”
What I also need to look at is how we’re advertising. We have stuck with advertising on websites like Facebook. And I don’t have the answer necessarily, but we need to start looking at how we’re getting our message out.
Q: Are there particular immigrant communities you’re targeting?
A: Anyone you can name. I’d like, as the first Asian American sheriff in Montgomery — and I certainly don’t want to stereotype — but Asian Americans tend not to be represented as much as some other communities in law enforcement. And I’ve had a great opportunity to speak to a number of different groups to really sell the profession overall.
Q: How many times a year do your deputies take someone to a hospital for a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation?
A: We saw an almost 19 percent increase from fiscal year 2021 to fiscal year 2022. The last three years have been 708, 596, 496.
Q: Why the increase?
A: I think that what we saw over covid were increased incidents of domestic violence and increased incidents and challenges of mental illness — whether it’s isolation, economic. I also think there is more of an awareness — the knowledge from family members that they can get a court-ordered evaluation. Perhaps there is a little less stigma with that. We get information out to our citizens through a number of different ways.
Q: Red-flag laws, which allow gun seizures in extreme situations, are controversial. What do you think of them?
A: I personally believe they are a good tool. If a person does get their guns and ammunition seized, there is due process for that the person. They can go to court to tell their side of the story. And many times they do get them returned. In the last four years, we have done 83, 116, 85 and 87 [weapon seizures]. It’s actually been pretty steady.
Q: With dozens of hearings and trials a day, what challenges are there in keeping the Montgomery Circuit Courthouse safe?
A: It’s the division, if you include our work at the two district courthouses, that has the most challenges. It also has our youngest deputies. We deal with so many dynamic things, sensitive issues. We have to staff courts Monday through Friday. So what happens is, with staffing shortages, we have to pull from other sections. If we have a hole there, we have to fill it.
If a judge has a criminal hearing, we’re going to staff it. Sometimes there are gang issues, witness issues, and we will bring more. It’s not always that we’re concerned about the defendant. Sometimes it’s a victim’s family, maybe others in the gallery. If there’s a sensitive civil hearing with bad custody issues or domestic violence, we’re going to staff it.
Q: What’s been your message to your courtroom deputies?
A: I tell them I want them seeing, predicting, talking to judges and prosecutors and correctional officers — learning who might be violent, who might have concerning mental health issues. Defense attorneys also help. They’ll say, “Hey, look, you may want to think about staffing up for this case for this reason or another.” The deputies do a good job of this — starting at the jails when they pick up people to bring to court. Asking them: “How’s it going today?” There’s conversations, appropriate conversations. They’re assessing their demeanor. They’re checking.
Q: Since even the most dynamic trials or hearings can hit long, boring stretches, how do your deputies stay alert?
A: A lot of it is just trying to stay attuned mentally and recognizing if you need to stand up, you stand up. If you need to take a break, you communicate that to others and you take a break. I’m not saying we haven’t had incidents of deputies not paying as much attention as they should. I think we’re all people. But for the most part, they’re good at taking everything in, looking for anything out of place in the entire courtroom. They’re trained to intervene early, stop something at the beginning, to look for what we call pre-attack indicators. And they will act if they have to. At the same time, if it’s a jury trial; I don’t want our deputies commanding defendants or calling out behaviors if they don’t have to. We don’t want to be the ones to cause a mistrial.
Q: How do you strike a balance if, for instance, your deputies see a defendant staring down a juror?
We don’t want courtroom deputies addressing things in too obvious a way. If they saw a defendant doing that, that could be situation where on a break, the deputy might approach an attorney or a law clerk to share their concerns that way.