After 37 years, Holton retires from St. Mary's sheriff's office

To say there were some growing pains in 1997 when Cpl. Andrew Holton was first assigned to work the Lexington Park Community Policing Hotspot Team would be an understatement.

“When I first got the assignment for Lexington Park I was like, ‘I don’t know anybody; I don’t know how this is going to work,’” said Holton, who served alongside Joseph Sommerville and Andrew Newsome to help reduce crime in the southern end of the county.

To make matters worse, when he and his partners would show up, shouts of ‘5-0, 5-0, 5-0, 5-0’ — the code for the presence of police — would ring out and residents would scatter, whether responding to a crime or just on patrol.

Regardless, working with a multitude of community agencies and other community organizations over the years, the team was able to lower the crime rate by 35%, which Holton said was “unheard of at the time.”

The accomplishment is just one of many for Holton, who officially retired from the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office June 28 after more than 37 years.

“I feel good. I don’t want to [retire], but it’s time,” Holton said. “It’s like home. It’s a part of my life [because I’ve] been doing it for so long. I’ll miss the people.”

At the June 25 St. Mary’s County commissioners’ meeting, the 65-year-old Holton was recognized with a standing ovation and a citation recognizing his more than 37 years of service.

“If you’ve been in the county long enough and you’ve been to any event where the sheriff’s office has support, you have seen this guy,” Commissioner Mike Alderson Jr. (R) said. “For as long as I can remember, I can remember him, and seeing him go is like seeing an institution of the sheriff’s office leaving.”

“This is an especially difficult [retirement] because like the commissioner said Andy is an institution,” said Sheriff Steve Hall (R), who read a quote that stated, “‘The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose.’ And I don’t think it was an accident that this came out [in an email] this week to celebrate this man who did absolutely that with all of his time. It’s my opinion that Andrew Holton was destined to be a public servant. It was written on his soul and he did it better than anybody I’ve seen.”

Holton, whose father Andrew Sr. was with the military police in the U.S. Army, joined the sheriff’s office as a patrol officer in 1979. The younger Holton injured his back and neck in an automobile accident in 1984 injured his back and neck and stepped away to take a job as an electronic technician with Maritime Dynamics.

He returned to the force in 1994 and joined the Lexington Park Community Policing Hotspot Team three years later.

Holton was a school resource officer at Great Mills High School from 2007-2009 and held the same position at Chopticon High School for the next 11 years — “I tried to get one more year so I could graduate,” he joked — until 2020 when he worked in child support enforcement.

“It was challenging, but I just tried to work with everybody and show no favoritism,” Holton said in an interview referring to his years in the high schools. “We all have issues and problems, so I just tried to do positive things for them.”

In 1999, he was recognized with the Youth Investment Award from Young Marines and was the 2000 Deputy of the Year for the county. He also received a Meritorious Service Award from the sheriff’s office.

While working in Lexington Park, one Spring Ridge Middle School student was failing but Holton worked with him and he later made the honor roll, he recalled. Holton carried a copy of the students’ report card in his pocket for a long while.

“It was just talking to people and trying to change negative behavior into positive behavior,” said the Hollywood resident, who has three children, Andrew III, Medora and Amanda.

He said the biggest changed he’s experienced over the years is the advancement of technology.

“When I first came in, we had ink pens and whatnot and now we have computers,” he said. “We had a trial period where you could use the computer and I remember thinking, ‘Man, I have to learn this stuff.’”

At the commissioners’ meeting, Holton took the microphone and said, “It’s been a long ride, but a good ride,” and, forever a policeman, spoke about how the sheriff’s office needs more personnel.