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New commander has a familiar name
Twin Beaches news
Friday, Oct. 9, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by DARWIN WEIGEL
Calvert County Sheriff's Office First Sgt. Craig Bowen started Aug. 31 as the new Twin Beaches commander. Bowen, who has been with the sheriff's office for 23 years, was the Twin Beaches commander from 1998 to 2003.
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Bowen is a familiar surname around the county with its roots dating back to the 1600s.
The new Calvert County Sheriff's Office's commander of the Twin Beaches, First Sgt. Craig Bowen, is also familiar to Calvert's two municipalities since he commanded the patrol unit from 1998 to 2003.
"It's like coming home again," Bowen said.
Bowen, who grew up in Huntingtown, said many of the names in the two town halls and owners of businesses are the same as when he worked in Chesapeake Beach and North Beach years ago.
During Bowen's first month, he said he has been taking a look at what First Sgt. Mat McDonough was doing as commander and will "take it from there."
McDonough was commander of the Twin Beaches prior to Bowen being promoted and transferred to the position Aug. 31.
"I'm just trying to get my feet wet again," Bowen said, adding he has a good group of eight deputies and a corporal to work with and was already familiar with most of them.
Despite needing to learn some of the new road names in recent residential developments around the towns, Bowen's not new to policing, having 23 years of service with the sheriff's office.
"When I started there were 20 deputies," he said.
Cpl. James Wahlgren, who is assigned to the Beaches, said, "The transition has been very smooth. I've worked with Craig over the years a lot. He and I [Bowen] will probably have a very good working relationship, like I had with [First Sgt. Mat] McDonough." Bowen was Wahlgren's commander the first time he worked in the Beaches in 2001 and he was easy to get along with, Wahlgren said.
Bowen's easy-going personality was evident as he smiled and spoke with several people at Trader's Steak and Ale Restaurant last week and he gave a wave to passing cars out front, who neighborly tooted their horns at him.
Also assigned to the Beaches, Deputy David Gatton has known Bowen since grade school and said he brings a lot of experience to the Beaches.
"There's not a lot he hasn't seen and not a lot he hasn't done." Gatton said he sees Bowen as level-headed and an all around good person.
With just the area of the Twin Beaches to focus on, Bowen said the deputies are able to get to know the people in the community.
"They see the same deputies over and over again so they get to feel comfortable. This is community policing at its best," he said.
Bowen is assessing whether to assign deputies to specific areas around the two towns so people will get to know a certain deputy and possibly have more of a community outreach effect.
"A lot of people don't want to bother us, but that's what we're here for," Bowen said, encouraging residents to voice their concerns.
In Chesapeake Beach on the first Monday of each month at 7:30 p.m., Mayor Bruce Wahl has scheduled a series of neighborhood meetings at the town hall for citizens to share their concerns with him, department heads and a Twin Beaches deputy allowing immediate responses to concerns. Some residents of Richfield Station shared concerns over speeding vehicles in the subdivision at their meeting in August so patrols were set up to better enforce the speed limit in that neighborhood, Wahl said at September's town council meeting.
Along with fostering a relationship with residents, Bowen said he likes to check in with the employees at town halls each day and visit businesses on a regular basis.
A new tool for community outreach, an e-mail address, twinbeachsheriff@co.cal.md.us, was also just set up as another way citizens can contact the patrol unit.
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