This spring, Cristie Hopkins had packed her bags and was all set to leave her 12-year stint as lead spokesperson for Harford County Sheriff’s Office. She had gotten an exciting new job at the U.S. Secret Service. But just a couple of days before her start date, she got an email rescinding the offer.

Hopkins, 48, detailed her whiplash work situation in a LinkedIn post at the time. She reached out to her former boss, and the sheriff’s office took her back.

Now, in addition to leading public relations at the sheriff’s office, she also coordinates recruiting and helps train communications leaders at a variety of first-responder agencies.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You’ve been with the sheriff’s office for a fair amount of time.

We’ve been through a lot here at the sheriff’s office. … We’ve had three line-of-duty deaths, two of them — obviously [Senior Deputy] Pat[rick Dailey] and [Deputy First Class] Mark [Logsdon] — taken in a very horrific, tragic fashion [in 2016]. We’ve had two workplace active shooters. We’ve had a school shooting [in 2024]. We’ve had a First Amendment auditor, and then, certainly, [the murder of] Rachel Morin and everything that unfolded through that investigation. … I really never thought that I was ready to leave the sheriff’s office. There was nothing saying that they didn’t want to be here any longer or continue to work for this administration any longer.

So, the Secret Service made the offer?

So, other ancillary [public information officers] reached out to me. And I was like, ‘Do I really want to truck to D.C. every day? (laugh) I don’t know.’ And when I finally got on the phone with with the director of communications for the federal agency, they were very interested in me applying and bringing everything that I’ve learned here on a very public stage to their agency. … And I really don’t offer any ill will to any of them. I don’t think that the powers that be at the Secret Service even necessarily realized what was obviously a big change in the federal government at that time. For me, what was really difficult was that I was literally, like, three days away from starting at this new position. And through their restructuring, they decided to go ahead and zero out that position. It was really difficult to hear that. … But I can’t even begin to express how fortunate I am that the sheriff said, ‘If you want to come back this, this is certainly your home, and you have a place here.’ … Since I’ve come back, they’re like, ‘Oh, congratulations, now you have more to do.’ (laughs) We’ve actually taken over all of recruiting in my office now as well.

In one of your LinkedIn posts, you said: “I promise to continue to do work that is meaningful, has purpose, and makes our world a safer place.” Is that something that you’ve always been committed to?

I believe that every day that I do that job here, and I actually believed that when I worked for a nonprofit [Sexual Assault/Spouse Abuse Resource Center (SARC) of Maryland] as well. … We’ll take Rachel Morin, for example. That really unnerved a community. It was the first real “whodunit” that was going on, and also that she was killed in such a horrific and tragic way right here on a trail that people walk all the time, in a neighborhood that’s, you know, a couple blocks from my house. I said to the sheriff, ‘I have never felt concerned walking out to my car.’ But I will tell you, there were nights when I left here at 11 o’clock, and we didn’t know who that [suspect] was, and in the back of my mind was like, ‘Look over; pay attention.’ … So if I’m feeling like [that] on this side, what is the messaging that we’re putting out to the public? It’s that balancing act of trying to help people feel a sense of calm in their life, keeping Rachel’s story alive so that the hunt continued, and we found this person, and keeping a investigation very close to the vest.

How has the nature of your job changed over the years?

I think the nature of this job has changed just because of where we are in life with technology. Twenty years ago, not even 20 years ago, the news ran at 4 and 5 and again at 11. The Aegis wasn’t printed until Wednesdays and Fridays or whatever that was. You had time to kind of gather your thoughts and get your messaging out, and you don’t have that anymore. When I started here, we had 4,000 Facebook followers, no other social media presence, and we now have 115,000 followers. So there is an upside and a downside to that, for sure, but I think that the biggest change over the last 12 years is just seeing … that fast pace of technology and the ability for misinformation and disinformation to be inserted into a story.

So do you feel like you’re always doing “crisis communications” at this point?

I think this job has helped me reframe my view of what a crisis is. We meet people every day, right, that live in like a crisis mode? I think that I am always at a heightened alert, for sure.

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