After a protective order is issued by a judge, the documents go directly from the courthouse to the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office, said attorney Blaine Hoffmann, the director of legal services at Heartly House.

Heartly House provides services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse.

Hoffmann attributes the efficiency of serving protective orders in the county to the sheriff’s office and court staff working together.

The sheriff’s office is the only police agency in the county that handles protective orders. Each order must be served by a deputy.

Before joining Heartly House in April 2007, Hoffmann worked in Baltimore. He said protective orders are often lost in the shuffle in larger jurisdictions such as Baltimore and Baltimore County. “It’s a huge problem,” Hoffmann said.

The most common difficulties deputies face in serving protective orders are finding a defendant has moved, is not home, or the person filing the order does not have a valid address for the defendant, said Cpl. Jennifer Bailey, sheriff’s office spokeswoman.

“Sometimes, victims just don’t know where they’ve gone,” Hoffmann said.

Deputies are required to serve protective orders because of the safety risks involved, he said. A deputy cannot be sure whether a person is armed or dangerous.

A deputy also might find a person being served a protective order is home, but will not come to the door, Bailey said.

Tracking the number of unserved protective orders is almost impossible, she said. Victims file orders daily and deputies might have as many as 10 or 15 unserved orders, or none.

Deputies are always attempting to serve protective orders between calls for service, she said. When they are unable to, the documents are given to deputies on the incoming shift.

This continues until the order has been served, she said.

“We are very persistent,” Bailey said. “We’re very vigilant in trying to get the paperwork served.”

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