Law Enforcement Legacies: The Sewell Family

When we (Officer.com) first launched the Law Enforcement Legacy feature column last month, we announced that two types of families would qualify: 1) those who have at least one law enforcement professional in three consecutive generations, and 2) those who have three or more law enforcement professionals in two generations or less. So, if you and two of your brothers or sisters are all officers, you qualify. If you, your brother and your dad are all deputies, you qualify. Meet the Sewell family. Two generations, four law enforcement professionals… even if one married in.

Lt. Bernard “Bernie” Sewell (ret) started his career in 1977 in a place called Forest Heights, Maryland which is just southeast of Washington DC. Bernie worked there for a little more than two years before switching to Prince George’s County Police Department in 1979. Officer Sewell’s career in PG County spanned twenty years and a host of assignments. Like every officer, he started out in patrol as a private and made the move into the Special Operations Division (SOD) where he was promoted to Private First Class.  When he moved back to patrol he was promoted to Corporal, then Sergeant and finally Lieutenant which was his rank at retirement.

Through the course of his career he worked with / supervised Street Narcotics enforcement efforts as well as Community Oriented Policing (COPs) teams. Before retiring as a Lieutenant he was the sector commander in PG County’s District II, headquartered in Bowie, Maryland. Along the way he had been promoted four times and received the Chief’s Award for a particular robbery arrest that proved… complicated.

After retiring, like so many officers, he wasn’t ready to set the badge aside. As a result, Lt. Sewell (ret) became Deputy Chief Sewell at the same police department where he had started 20 years before: Forest Heights Police Department. From January 2000 through 2003 and into 2004, he was Deputy Chief Sewell. In 2004 and through 2005, he served as Chief of Police in Forest Heights. In 2005, after 28+ years of service, he hung his gunbelt up – kind of. He went on to work in southern Maryland and still serves as a Safety Advocate in Calvert County schools, overseeing and protecting middle school (6^th-8^th grade) children.

In addition to another relative of Bernie’s who also serves - but will remain without further identification due to the sensitive nature of their current assignment - Bernie’s daughter, Candice, joined the ranks of law enforcement professionals in 2007.  As early as 2005 Lt. Sewell (ret) recalls his daughter having talked to a recruiter for Maryland Park Police. When he was interviewed he said that he didn’t remember pushing his daughter toward the work but just assumed she saw it as an honorable job and was motivated to pursue it as a result.

Candice applied and was accepted, graduating from the academy and going to the PG County Patrol division of Maryland Park Police. MD Park PD has two divisions: Prince George’s County and Montgomery County (even though the name would suggest it’s a state wide organization). Working patrol before switching to the mounted unit, Candice returned to patrol and in November of 2014 was promoted to Sergeant. To date, she is the youngest sergeant in the history of the PG County division of Maryland Park Police.

Somewhere along the way she met and married Ian Webster… Corporal Ian Webster of the Prince George’s County Police Department. When he was interviewed, Ian stated that his interest in law enforcement developed after doing security work at a large theme park (Six Flags America) and then going on a ride-along with the PG County Police. Cpl. Webster joined PG County PD in 2006 and after spending two years in patrol he applied for and transferred to the Special Assignment Team (SAT). To date, Cpl. Webster has received several performance based Commander’s Awards as well as an Unit Citation for performance during the Baltimore Riots.

While Ian may have married into the family, Lt. Sewell speaks highly of him and we include him in the count of four officers in two generations of Sewell family… making them our second Law Enforcement Legacy family. Their service, spanning a total of well over 50 years combined (so far), is recognized and appreciated.