The third time has proved to be the charm for Deputy Sheriff Beth Smith.
Today, she will become the first woman in the 345-year-old history of the county Sheriff's Department to be promoted to lieutenant.
The Pasadena resident said she had applied for the supervisory position twice before and been ranked No. 1 on the promotion list each time, only to be passed over.
All that will change at a 4 p.m. ceremony in the courthouse. The 32-year-old deputy will get her new rank and will be given command of Administrative Affairs. She will supervise the warrant investigation team, the dispatchers and the clerical staff and oversee national accreditation and public relations.
"There has never been a woman promoted like this through the ranks," Sheriff George Johnson said.
Deputy Smith joined the department seven years ago after working for a Baltimore security firm. She has worked on the warrant team, child support services and courthouse security.
"I have done practically every job here," she says.
Sheriff Johnson said he chose Deputy Smith from a list of five candidates he interviewed shortly after he was elected in November. Deputy Smith ranked the highest and he said he was impressed with her military background.
"She was a sergeant in the mili tary and had supervisory experience from there," he said. "She is thorough and meticulous."
Deputy Smith grew up in Charleston, W.Va, and after high school she enlisted in the Army to support herself and her son.
"I always wanted to be a police officer," she said. "But I had to wait until I was 21. So, I needed a job and joined the Army. I became a military police officer and was stationed at Fort Meade."
After five months in the Army, she said she was promoted to sergeant and worked at the Fort Meade jail until she was honorably discharged in 1985.
Military police officers, she said, not only have to enforce the state and local laws, they also have to enforce military regulations. At the military jail she was responsible for guarding inmates who had done more than just break Army regulations.
"They were not there just for insubordination," she said. "They were there for the same type of crimes that people in the detention center here have committed."
Her hardest assignment, she said, was enforcing child custody orders and taking children from one parent and giving them to another.
Deputy Smith said she plans to stay with the Sheriff's Department and create challenges for herself.
"I never could stand still," she said. "I always wanted to better myself."