Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) on Tuesday announced that he was nominating Woodrow W. “Jerry” Jones III, the Maryland Transportation Authority chief of police, to become superintendent of the Maryland State Police.
Jones will succeed Col. William M. Pallozzi, who is retiring after more than 30 years with the State Police and has held the top job since March 2015. Replacing Jones as chief of the MDTA police will be Lt. Col. Kevin M. Anderson, head of the MDTA Police’s Bureau of Operations, Hogan said.
Col. Woodrow W. “Jerry” Jones III, the new superintendent of the State Police. State government photo
“With a distinguished career in law enforcement spanning more than three decades, Colonel Jones has both the experience and the character to lead what I believe is truly the best state police organization in the nation,” he said in a statement.
Jones became chief of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, the seventh-largest law enforcement agency in the state, in November 2015. The 600-person agency polices Maryland’s toll roads, tunnels, and bridges, as well as BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport and the Port of Baltimore.
Jones began his law enforcement career in 1988 as a Maryland State Police Cadet. During his 27-year tenure with the Maryland State Police, he spent equal time in both patrol and investigative roles, and served in every command position within the Field Operations Bureau. He retired as Lieutenant Colonel/Field Operations Bureau Chief, a key member of the command staff responsible for leading a patrol force of nearly 1,000 sworn and civilian personnel assigned to 22 barracks.
Jones holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in management from Johns Hopkins University and is a graduate of its Police Executive Leadership Program. He chairs the Maryland Chiefs of Police Association’s Traffic Safety Committee and serves on the Executive Committee for Maryland’s Strategic Highway Safety.
Lt. Col. Kevin M. Anderson, new chief of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police. State government photo
Anderson is a 26-year veteran with the MDTA Police. He began his career as a police cadet, and rose through the ranks to his current position as Chief of the Operations Bureau. He has served as the Commander of the Patrol Division, the Commander of the Airport/Seaport Division overseeing operations at BWI and the Port of Baltimore, the Commander of the Special Operations Division, and the Commander of Special Projects within Strategic Planning.
Josh Kurtz
Founding editor
Founding Editor Josh Kurtz is a veteran chronicler of Maryland politics and government. He began covering the State House in 1995 for The Gazette newspapers, and has been writing about state and local politics ever since. He was an editor at Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, for eight years, and for eight years was the editor of E&E Daily, which covers energy and environmental policy on Capitol Hill. For 6 1/2 years Kurtz wrote a weekly column on state politics for Center Maryland and has written for several other Maryland publications as well. Kurtz regularly gives speeches and appears on TV and radio shows to discuss Maryland politics.
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