McCarthy to head into sixth term as Montgomery County state’s attorney
New youth charging law, school security enhancements, AI fraud schemes are top of mind
By
Elia GriffinJune 26, 2026 6:11 p.m.
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With a sixth term on the horizon, Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said Wednesday that his top priorities include navigating a new juvenile charging reform law, advocating for school security improvements and preventing fraud schemes targeting older residents.
McCarthy, 74, is expected to return for another four-year term leading the county state’s attorney’s office after running unopposed in Tuesday’s Democratic primary election. No Republicans ran for the job, which means McCarthy is certain to be re-elected in November.
“I’m very grateful to the citizens of Montgomery County who are going to allow me to continue as state’s attorney for a very long time,” McCarthy told Bethesda Today in a phone call Wednesday afternoon.
As of Friday afternoon, McCarthy received 87,168 votes, according to unofficial results from the Maryland State Board of Elections. Some mail-in ballots remain to be counted, as well as provisional ballots, which can’t be counted until July 1 at the earliest, according to state law.
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According to McCarthy, fraud schemes are becoming more sophisticated with the use of AI to target victims. “That’s going to be a challenge for us to get out there to educate people, to try to prevent them from being victims,” McCarthy said.
Older residents in the county have already been targeted by so-called gold bar scams or those involving people falsely posing as government officials to obtain their financial information. Some have lost their life savings in such schemes.
McCarthy also reiterated to Bethesda Today that he supports reinstating school resource officers (SROs) in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). There were two shootings on MCPS campuses – James Hubert Blake and Thomas S. Wootton high schools – this school year, and multiple students were arrested for possessing guns.
“I think that [reinstating SROs] would be a step in the right direction to try to bring a little bit more of a balance to the safety of our kids by having those officers, very dedicated men and women who want to work with our children and help make those places safer,” McCarthy said.
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He noted that he had opposed the transition from an SRO program to the Community Engagement Officer (CEO) program, in which officers are assigned to a high school cluster but aren’t permanently stationed inside any school.
McCarthy also wants to see and will continue advocating for enhanced security measures in schools. Those enhancements could include the use of metal detector batons while students enter school or attend sports games, he said.
“All of our neighboring jurisdictions are using these enhanced security measures to make sure when the kids go into school, [weapons] can’t be brought in. We’re not doing that. Why aren’t we doing that?” McCarthy said.
He said he is eager to take part in the conversation around security improvements in county schools, noting the importance of learning what has worked in nearby jurisdictions such as Washington, D.C., and Prince George’s County.
In addition, McCarthy said his next term will include implementation of the Youth Charging Reform Act, a law signed in May by Gov. Wes Moore (D). The law limits the offenses for which youth between the ages of 16 and 17 are automatically charged as adults with the goal of reducing the number of juveniles charged as adults.
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McCarthy said that cases in which juveniles are charged with such crimes as first-degree assault or a handgun offense will be heard in juvenile court when the bill goes into effect in October.
In preparation, McCarthy said he was concerned about whether the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services would have enough resources and programs to deal with an increase in the number of potentially violent offenders.
“My concern continues to be about whether or not they are ready because we have considerable delays getting children into treatment right now,” McCarthy said.
“If we want our kids to be safe and our communities to be safe, we’ll work with anybody to make sure it gets done. But there are some grave concerns about how this is going to work out and how this is going to affect public safety,” he added.
Other issues that McCarthy said he plans to focus on are organized retail theft and addressing street takeovers and car rallies, in which groups of people and drivers stop traffic to perform car tricks in roadways.
“I think that we, along with our federal partners and state partners, need to be far more aggressive on organized retail theft,” McCarthy said.
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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine