State’s Attorney Scott Patterson Looks Back on 50 Years of Public Service

Periodically, the Spy sits down with community leaders at the end of their long successful careers to capture those professional lives and times. Beyond the genuine historical value of these interviews, it is a moment for these very gifted stakeholders to offer some wisdom and outlook after decades of experience and challenges.

This time around, we asked Scott Patterson, the State’s Attorney for Talbot County, to stop by the Spy studio to participate in the project. After half a century of being on the front row of Maryland’s judicial system, first in Montgomery County, followed by Anne Arundel and since 1983, Talbot County, Patterson has chosen to step down as State’s Attorney in January of 2023.

And during this long tenure, Democrat Scott Patterson has seen a thing or two about crime, our courts, and how society must hold people accountable for doing bad things. In our interview last week, he talked candidly about the ongoing challenge of making sure that his team of lawyers and staff are committed to doing the “right thing” while also fighting for funding to recruit the top professionals that Talbot County needs to maintain high levels of excellence. Scott also talks about his concerns about the legalization of recreational cannabis, gun control, the impact of the George Floyd murder, and the scars experienced by police officers in the wake of the “Defund the Police” movement.

Finally, Scott notes how proud he is of his colleagues and their collective work to make it one of Maryland’s most productive State’s Attorney offices. While as a private citizen, Patterson has endorsed Joe Coale to succeed him in the fall election, he ends with the conviction that whoever replaces him in that office, it will continue with the high standards he expected during his watch.

This video is approximately ten minutes in length.