Amanda Glass-Winner

CUMBERLAND — For many people, the phrase “I do” refers to a commitment from one person to another as both enter what they hope will be a lifelong partnership in marriage.
For Amanda Glass-Winner, the utterance of the phrase before Allegany County Circuit Court Clerk Dawne Lindsey equated to a different kind of promise. Glass-Winner, 34, was sworn in Thursday afternoon as the second female deputy in the history of the 218-year-old Allegany County Sheriff’s Office and the first in nearly four decades.

“We’re fortunate to have her,” said Sheriff David Goad, who joined several deputies as witnesses to the swearing-in ceremony. “She’s very well-trained. From time to time, it is good to have a female officer (available).”

With everything else being equal, Goad said Glass-Winner can provide gender-specific guard duty when needed and can assist when holding or searching female inmates. That could become even more relevant if Congress strengthens the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003, which could require that officers be the same gender as the subjects they oversee or search.

Otherwise, Glass-Winner said, it’s business as usual for her and her male colleagues. Like them, she will be charged with serving civil papers, overseeing evictions, providing court security and conducting extraditions. She said being female has no impact on her approach to the job. “I don’t see how it does,” she said.

The Frostburg native, who still lives in the Frostburg area, returned to uniformed service Nov. 16 after a break of about two years. Previously, she was a corporal with the Cumberland Police Department, where she also served as field training officer and DARE instructor in the county school system. She also was shift supervisor and remains a certified instructor with the Maryland Police Training Commission.

Glass-Winner fills the first of three deputy positions able to be filled by Goad after a February court agreement with the Allegany County Board of Commissioners split Goad’s budget with the recently expanded Bureau of Police. The agreement expires Dec. 31, 2010, and Commissioners Jim Stakem, Bob Hutcheson and Dale Lewis have not indicated those three positions will exist beyond that expiration date. “I don’t foresee that happening,” Glass-Winner said of the elimination of her job. “If I lose my job ... I’ll find another one.”

In a little more than two weeks, Glass-Winner said she’s found the office environment to be positive and that “despite everything that’s happened, morale has stayed high.”
Goad acknowledged the commissioners could eliminate the position at the end of next year but “hopefully, that won’t have a bearing” on her employment. He said in the court agreement, the commissioners acknowledged the need for additional manpower for the sheriff’s office.

“Come 2010, you can’t say they’re not warranted,” Goad said. Eliminating the three positions would be “absolutely ridiculous.” “Of course, you could have a whole new slate of elected officials, including my office,” Goad said.

Glass-Winner spent more than seven years with the Cumberland Police Department. She said her time as a U.S. Navy police officer, serving in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the Naval Weapons Station in Charleston, S.C., helped her land her first civilian law enforcement job with the North Charleston Police Department.

Sheriff David Goad observes as Circuit Court Clerk Dawne Lindsey, center, swears in Amanda Glass-Winner as an Allegany County sheriff’s deputy. Glass-Winner is the second female deputy in the sheriff’s office’s 218-year history.