About Us

What does the Sheriff's Office do?

We are a law enforcement agency. We make arrests and file charges. We enforce the traffic code. Because of the demands of our core duties, we do not patrol neighborhoods or respond to calls as do municipal or state police officers. We will assist these agencies when requested.

What are those core duties?

From the judges to the defendants to the attorneys and everyone in between, we are responsible for security and safety in the four courtrooms of the Common Pleas and Central Court in Adams County. The courthouse is open 240 days each year. For 159 of those days courts are in session and we are directly involved in courtroom security duties.

We are tasked to transport prisoners to and from the Adams County Adult Correctional Complex (ACACC) for their court proceedings; on average, 1,800 annually. Many prisoners brought here come here from prisons outside of Adams County even out of state. They are transported during the 81 days when there is no court in session and returned afterwards. On average we completed 840 such transports annually.
We are responsible for serving warrants from the Court of Common Pleas which range from non-payment of fines, failure to appear on up to criminal charges. Many of these individuals are either out-of-county or out-of-state. For the remainder, the Sheriff’s Office verifies information and executes the warrant by making an arrest or indicating the address information is not valid or the whereabouts of the wanted person is not known. In the past three years, our Warrant Team tripled its warrant attempts and doubled the warrants served.
The Sheriff’s Office has participated with the US Marshall's Fugitvie Task Force Operations as Special US Deputy Marshals by serving arrest warrants for individuals charged with violent crimes in Adams County.
Deputies serve civil process such as Civil Complaints. With a deadline of 30 days to complete, deputies travel all over Adams County often taking multiple trips when parties are not home. We served on average approximately 1,500 complaints per year.
Personal Property Judgments must be served within 90 days. A levy is completed and personal property sales are scheduled. When the sale is set, deputies return to the property to conduct the sale. In a recent year, we served 250 judgments.
Real estate judgments are served to property owners, the property is posted, and a Sheriff’s Sale is set. There are about 300 of these sales per year.
We serve Protection from Abuse orders (PFA’s). Individuals are served, instructions are given and court orders explained as regards the consequence of failing to comply with the order of the court. In some cases, evictions are made. In others, weapons are seized by order of the court. More than 100 PFA’s were served in an average year by Sheriff’s Deputies.
Deputies serve subpoenas notifying people they are needed as witnesses in court; over 300 per year recently.