The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors has passed on plans to switch from a sheriff’s office with an elected top official to a police department with an appointed chief after receiving a report that said the change would be costly and complicated. Instead of creating a voter referendum to form a police department, the board instead voted to seek a statewide constitutional amendment that would install some basic requirements to be a county sheriff.
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The county weighed the change after a Democrat with no law enforcement experience in 2019 ran against incumbent Sheriff Mike Chapman (R) and won 45 percent of the vote, a result which troubled supervisors from both political parties.
After hearing complaints from deputies about the “toxic work environment” in the Loudoun sheriff’s office, and federal court rulings that upheld Chapman’s right to fire any deputy for any reason, the county board chair, Phyllis Randall (D), in 2020 suggested a voter referendum on shifting the county’s law enforcement to a board-controlled police department. The pushback was strong, and Chapman published a detailed study saying that his department was doing an effective job of policing and that building new sheriff’s and police offices would cost tens of millions of dollars.
Loudoun County weighs switching from a sheriff to a police department
Randall and the Democrat-controlled board then stepped back and hired the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) to do a deeper analysis of creating a new police department. The IACP study, released last week, found that the cost would not be tens of millions — it would be hundreds of millions.
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The IACP estimated it would cost Loudoun at least $213 million over the first 10 years to create and staff a new police department and headquarters, and should probably cost $307 million if done according to IACP recommendations. And this would not necessarily improve crime fighting in Loudoun, where crime statistics are regularly low. The sheriff’s office also scored high in public satisfaction and safety surveys, for the richest county per capita in America. In 2020, Chapman accused Randall of a “reckless power grab” because it would take away the voter’s ability to select the county’s top law enforcement official and place it “solely in the hands of an elected Board of Supervisors. Randall denied that. And even with the formation of a police department, a sheriff’s office would still need to remain in place to handle tasks such as running the county jail and protecting the courthouse, which police in Virginia don’t do.
“The cost of over $300 million over 10 years is just breathtaking,” said Supervisor Kristen C. Umstattd (D-Leesburg) at a board meeting last week. “And when you look at the public satisfaction with the current sheriff’s office, I can’t come up with a good argument to move in the direction of a county police department.”
“Who should the chief law enforcement officer be accountable to?” asked Supervisor Caleb A. Kershner (R-Catoctin), who also balked at the “astronomical” cost. “Is it to the people, or the board and the county administrator? I have a tendency to believe that going directly to the people is generally the safest route.”
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Supervisor Juli E. Briskman (D-Algonkian) was dubious of the study’s findings that declared the county had an efficient sheriff’s office. “I think the numbers in the study are inflated,” Briskman said. “They come from policing standards that our sheriff’s office doesn’t adhere to now.” She said she was very concerned that only seven sheriff’s supervisors and two members of the command staff were women. “Some work on equity and diversity is needed,” Briskman said.
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Of Virginia’s 95 counties, the sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer in 86. But in Northern Virginia, Fairfax, Arlington and Prince William counties and Alexandria City, all have both police departments and sheriff’s offices. Prince William in 1970 was the most recent to add a police department in the region. The sheriffs handle their local jails, security at their county courthouses and serve civil process.
The IACP report was authored in part by retired police executives such as former Fairfax County chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr., former Leesburg chief Joseph Price, and former Hennepin County, Minn., sheriff Rich Stanek. At the board meeting, Roessler said in his interactions with Loudoun deputies, including on ride-alongs, “I found the morale to be extremely high.” He noted that “any chief or sheriff will have difficulties” winning over everyone on a large department.
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A workforce survey conducted for the study did not get high participation from deputies, however, with less than half of the field operations personnel returning surveys and less than 20 percent responding in all other divisions. About 80 percent of the respondents were male, and two-thirds were White.
When the poll posed the question, “I can freely communicate opinions, concerns, and suggestions without fear of negative consequences,” 60 percent agreed or strongly agreed, while 23 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed. Other questions about strategic planning, ethics, internal communications and performance appraisals all received more than 70 percent agreement that the office was treating them fairly and operating correctly, among those who responded.
The IACP study also noted that among the five large Northern Virginia jurisdictions, Loudoun has by far the lowest rate of serious crime per capita, about 1,900 incidents per 100,000 residents, while Prince William is the next lowest with 2,700 incidents per 100,000 residents. Loudoun averages about two homicides per year in a county of more than 423,000 residents.
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In a National Community Survey on livability, the study noted that 89 percent of Loudoun residents reported that their “overall feeling of safety” as excellent or good, 87 percent reported they were satisfied with the sheriff’s services and 87 percent reported their overall quality of life to be “excellent or good.”
The logistics of creating a new police department would be daunting, the IACP study said. In addition to a new building, an entirely new set of officers and commanders would have to be hired, new vehicles and equipment would be needed, and policies and procedures would have to be created, at a new cost to Loudoun of $20 million to $30 million per year for the first 10 years. Current deputies would not automatically transfer to the new police department and would be free to go elsewhere, which troubled some supervisors.
“I thought the report was well-done,” Chapman said in an interview, “and validated our earlier report. One of the key takeaways was we had high marks with morale, and that was certainly echoed by Chief Roessler … We have the lowest vacancy rate we’ve ever seen, 4.5 percent, and we’re turning pre-certified people away. We’ve had 50 people pre-certified from other agencies come work for us. That is a testament to the satisfaction people feel working for this agency."
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Chapman also noted the 89 percent approval rating from citizens, coming at a time when approval of police has plummeted. “I would put that up against any agency in the country,” the three-term sheriff said, “especially over the last two years we’ve had.”
In the board meeting, Randall didn’t seem convinced. “I have had sheriff’s deputies approach me in huge numbers,” she said. “It’s fairly continuous … The term I hear most often is ‘toxic.’ So I don’t know that I would agree that something’s not broke.”
The chair then tore into Chapman for his criticism of her on social media and official county communications channels. “The charge is, I personally want to be in control — which is such a ridiculous charge. I don’t want to be in control of anything, but I do want to listen to the voices of the deputies.”
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Supervisor Michael R. Turner (D-Ashburn) said Virginia sheriffs “are not accountable to anybody once they’re elected. If you’re a voter and you think you can hold the sheriff in Virginia accountable, you’re wrong. They are absolutely all-powerful for four years.”
But Randall and others acknowledged that Chapman, a longtime former Drug Enforcement Administration agent and Howard County police officer, was more than qualified. The supervisors worried that in a “wave” election year, an unqualified person could suddenly become the chief law enforcement officer. “The qualities that make a good candidate,” Supervisor Matthew F. Letourneau (R-Dulles) said, “don’t always make a good individual serving in that office.”
A sheriff in Virginia is only required to be 18 years old and a resident of the county. To add minimum requirements to a state constitutional officer would require a change to the state constitution, however, which would have to pass through the Virginia General Assembly twice. Supervisor Tony R. Buffington Jr. (R-Blue Ridge) suggested making the amendment specific to Loudoun, but Randall said she wanted to try for a statewide requirement. Chapman said he thought that might make finding a suitable candidate in smaller counties very difficult, but he supported it for large counties such as Loudoun. The board voted 8-to-1 to research minimum requirements and submit such a proposal in its 2023 legislative package.