Baltimore County, Maryland (U.S.)

Last modified: 2014-12-20 by rick wyatt
Keywords: baltimore county | maryland |
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image by Rick Wyatt, 3 March 1998

• Description of the flag
• Police flag

- indicates flag is known.
- indicates it is reported that there is no known flag.

Municipal flags in Baltimore County:

• Dundalk (unofficial)
• Lansdowne
• Towson

See also:

• Baltimore County Police Department
• County and Municipal flags of Maryland
• Maryland
• United States of America

Description of the flag

Baltimore County Flag: Quarterly; 1 and Paly of six, Or and Sable, a bend counterchanged. 2: Argent, a plowshare Gules. 3: Argent, a cog-wheel Gules. 4. Same as first quarter.

The flag was designed by John McLemore, a 12th grade student at Parkville Senior High School, and was selected over 29 other entries in a county-wide contest during March and April 1962. It was adopted by executive Order on 28 August 1962.

The flag was not universally accepted. One county councilman and a number of other people criticized the flag as being too communist looking. The F. M. Stevenson Co. manufactured a hundred of these flags, but as of August 1963, a year after the flag was adopted, very few had been sold (The Baltimore Sun, 9 Aug 1963).

Bob Barnes (reference archivist at Maryland State Archives), 9 January 1998

Police Flag

image by Randy Young, 21 April 2014

This graphic is based on a photograph of the flag on parade found on a political blog (votenomalley.blogspot.com/2012/07/4th-of-july-2012-recap.html); the direct link to the photo itself.

The Baltimore County Police Department is the primary law enforcement agency for Baltimore County, Maryland. The BCPD's jurisdiction does not reach into the City of Baltimore, which became an independent city from the county in 1851 and has its own police department. The flag of the BCPD is light blue with the department's badge/patch centered on the field. The badge/patch features the seal of Baltimore County superimposed on a royal blue or navy blue geographic outline of the county, fimbriated gold. The word "POLICE" appears in white letters above the county seal on the blue of the county geographic outline.

Randy Young, 21 April 2014