With a rousing response, at tonight’s Loudoun County Republican Committee meeting retired Deputy Sheriff Eric Noble announced that he will challenge Mike Chapman for Sheriff in 2015. It was obvious that Noble had many supporters in the room. [read_more] Prior to his announcement Sheriff Chapman thanked Noble for his many years of service to the Sheriff’s office. Chapman then spoke of his own many accomplishments while Sheriff.
Eric Noble graduated from UVA in 1985 and went to work for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s office in 1987. He remained with the department until his retirement earlier this month. During his 27 years in office Eric Noble served in 4 of the 5 divisions in the Sheriff’s office retiring from the position as the Senior Commander in charge of the Corrections and Court Services Division. Noble has been recognized for a VALOR Award 4 times. He was also recognized with the Director’s Award for Academic Excellence in the 69th and 70th sessions of the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Academy and more recently graduated from the 239th Session of the FBI’s National Academy.
Noble has many concerns about the current Sheriff’s office and the many problems within the department. We at The Bull Elephant have heard many such concerns from the deputies in the field and all the way up the line to the top deputies in Sheriff Chapman’s office. It often seems that the Sheriff is in a job for which he was not prepared and has not coped well in this leadership position. We have spoken with no one in the Sheriff’s department who is pleased with what has happened under Chapman’s command. Noble is particularly concerned about low arrest rates in Loudoun compared to all the neighboring jurisdictions. The other jurisdictions around us are arresting more people for drug offenses and arresting them faster than Loudoun. I have heard reasons for this discrepancy which will be addressed in further posts on the Sheriff’s office.
Eric Noble has set the following priorities for his future office as Sheriff:
- Keeping families, most particularly our children, safe in Loudoun County. Noble
believes that by re-focusing on core law enforcement services and re-aligning personnel to increase staffing levels in Field Operations, the agency can move back to being a regional leader in putting criminals behind bars.
- Developing a framework by which every decision is based on what is legal, moral
and ethical. Noble believes that only by holding the entire agency to the highest standards of legal, moral and ethical conduct can the agency truly generate and maintain public trust while upholding individual liberties and constitutional right.
- Demand fiscal responsibility. Noble believes that the incumbent has shown scant interest in managing a budget that has been overspent in personnel expenditures in every year of his term. Equally concerning are inappropriate expenditures of taxpayer dollars that Noble will put a stop to.
Eric Noble has made it clear that should he become Sheriff no employee of the department will lose his job regardless of who he or she supported for Sheriff. From his press release,
Noble believes that every employee should have the right to hold an opinion and support the candidate of their choosing without fear of losing their job.
Eric Noble lives with his wife in Round Hill. He is the father of two adult daughters and step-father to two adult sons.
Noble has the experience and expertise to handle the big job of Sheriff in Loudoun County. He is a committed Republican who has promised to work hard to help elect other Republicans in November 2015. As his campaign unfolds we look forward to learning more about him, and his plans for the future of the Loudoun County Sheriff’s office.
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In attendance at the last LCRC meeting, I took Chapman during his speech, as nervous, fidgety, scared and stumbling through what was obviously an attempt to pre-empt Eric Noble’s announcement to run for Sheriff. Incidentally, Chapman’s claims can almost all be refuted and when the time comes they will be from what I understand. It is laughable that he claims that he has turned in so much money back to the County coffers. Lets see physical proof of this. Noble’s strongest skill is in the budget department. Chapman doesn’t even understand his own budget or the process it must go through. His skills include spin, self aggrandizement, intimidation and character assassination. He famously said to a command staff member after being elected, ” I don’t have to be nice to anyone for the next 3 and a half years.” Chapman is a bureaucrat plain and simple. He has no knowledge of local law enforcement nor any connection or love of the County he serves. Those who write and speak on this bureaucrat’s behalf beam of ignorance. I predict that they will eventually be embarrassed to associate themselves with chapman. Eric Noble will bring sound fiscal solvency and common sense to the Agency. Improved morale will translate into better enforcement as deputies have all but abandoned proactive enforcement making some stats go down giving a false sense of crime reduction. DUI arrests and juvenile alcohol violations are down but the population rises, bucking all trends of adjacent jurisdictions. This bureaucrat has no comprehensive traffic safety plan but pedestrians struck by vehicles are up. Noble – 27 years law enforcement experience in Loudoun County – our best bet.
I’m interested to see what Chapman does in the next few months. Will he continue to highlight accomplishments like:
The “Vacancy
Savings” Which ended up meaning just about nothing after he already
gutted the patrol division to create a full-time SWAT team, fill several pet project units, and other things. It didn’t help that several
of those deputies that were “fast tracked” as part of the hiring push quit/didn’t graduate the
academy/had to be transferred to other divisions. Speaking of the
full-time SWAT team, whats with the the grand standing on this very forum about putting them
back to the stations to fix a problem with staffing? Chapman created the
staffing problem and pulled the SWAT guys in the first place. No
acknowledgement of that terrible decision? Or the decision to not at least try to replace those people?
The “Night Differential” Which is still the lowest in the region? Chapman hasn’t even gone back before the board to even pretend to request it be increased. When he originally promised deputies he would do so in the following years. Chapman also attached differential to hours instead of shifts, so deputies who continue to see shift hours changed on short notice (like evening shifts specifically) have continued to loose differential pay and receive a smaller paycheck as a thanks for their efforts.
The “Pay Increases” Which were mostly given at the discretion of the Board related to all employees. Chapman also allowed a flawed pay – for – performance system to be established within the Sheriff’s Office. Chapman says it was county policy, but his budget is that of a constitutional officer. Deputies still consistently receive the lowest entry-level salary in the region and Chapman should be at every Board meeting seeking an increase. Two of the towns and the airport police in Loudoun County receive higher entry level pay than the county. The county should set the bar, not follow well behind it.
The “Master Deputy Program” Which did need updating, but the changes which ended up short changing a majority of deputies. Deputies now receive a 5% salary increase at 3 years of service, bringing the Sheriff’s Office somewhat inline with other area agencies but still well behind. The issue is compounded by the fact that deputies who perform specialty functions like FTO, Instructor, Evidence Tech, and Special Investigations lost the 5% incentive pay for these functions in lieu of the 5% 3-Year increase. The deputies no longer receive further compensation for the extra time, effort, and training required for those specialty positions. Chapman argues this change for across the board raises at 3 Years is competitive with other agencies – which it generally is and most deputies would agree with. The only problem is the other agencies Chapman speaks of still provide incentive pay for special function deputies and officers. Most special unit deputies directly blame Chapman for presiding over a 5% decrease in their pay, and ensuring no real incentive exists to participate in specialty units until the next potential pay raise at 12 YEARS, which isn’t even guaranteed because it is competitive.
Wonder if Chapman will soon be fulfilling any of the promises he made directly to the deputies prior to his election last time to try and get some quick last minute support. Remember when he said in-county Deputies could use their cruisers? Well that fell off the desk quick. Remember when he said out of county deputies would be allowed to take their TAKE HOME CRUISERS home if gas prices came down? Well they are down, he probably just forgot. Remember when he said he would work directly with the VA PBA to ensure a healthy flow of ideas from the largest organization of deputies in the county? When was the last productive meeting where he actually accepted new ideas and that didn’t end with him yelling about the ungrateful deputies in his command?
I was surprised to read about this challenge…I am a member of the LCRC, but no longer go to meetings because there is only a small, bitter, highly ideological bunch there who like to talk, but often do little to help at election time (I know, because when we had our Ashburn District breakouts I would ask for help and just be met with blank stares). Anyway, my mantra now is that I support with time,money and energy those candidates that I think are electable and solid Republicans. This challenge to Chapman is all about insider baseball…of the 320,000 people in Loudoun County I bet almost no one is dis-satisfied with Chapman and the sheriffs department. Anyway, my time and money goes to Chapman and he will beat this ridiculous challenge and win the election.
This was posted in LTM, thought it should be here as well. Copied and pasted from “in the know”.
Well he’s already got a whole lot of people on his side:
-Many of the Board of Supervisors members
-Virtually the entire County government staff
-The Commonwealth Attorney (that speaks volumes)
-99.9 percent of the 700+ LCSO employees both sworn and civilian
-the Republican Party (also speaks volumes)
Chapman has been his own undoing. He has even gone so far as to threaten discipline for those who “fraternize” with retired Major Noble. How silly is that? Noble’s retirement party was last week and Chapman did not only neglect to attend to recognize him for his many years of service to the County, but also prohibited the LCSO commanders, many of whom were lifelong friends, from attending under threat of discipline.
To describe the situation at the LCSO under Sheriff Chapman as miserable is putting it mildly.
The morale at the agency is extremely poor and this has been affecting the quality of law enforcement service that is delivered to the citizens of the County.
The next shoe to drop is going to be the results of the FBI investigation into Chapman for the few hundred grand in missing money which occurred right under his nose, and then there is the chatter of the State Police investigation for him trying to cover up the use of his handgun in a domestic violence incident at his home. Also hearing the Feds are still investigating him for travel voucher fraud which may have resulted in his forced departure from the DEA.
Just makes you wonder what’s next. Hopefully this candidate can be successful in his endeavor and restore the LCSO back to where it was prior to Chapman’s term (if he makes it through the term).
W
If everything is even give me someone who lives within the budget allowed.
I was also at the meeting last night. What nobody in this column has mentioned is the what the citizens think about Sheriff Chapman and the LCSO since the county rid itself of the former lazy dysfunctional sheriff. The citizens of LC have been very impressed with the tireless efforts of Mr Chapman to make the LCSO a model department
I cannot believe that this blowhard Noble actually said he wanted to take the department back to the times of the previous sheiff. Really!!!! I guess Noble plans on playing a lot of golf and selling springs from his car if he wins -which will never happen
Model department??? Please do tell us which other agency in the area or the country would like to model itself off LCSO? Is it the failed staffing model, the budgetary mess or is it the constant political spin that is put on everything that other agencies would like to model off? And please save us all by repeating the same rhetoric Chapman has been spewing for the past 3 years about his accomplishments
Secondly I think your reading comprehension needs to be evaluated. Where in the article does it reference him wanting to bring the department back to the times of the previous Sheriff? Nope, it doesn’t.
Please read what you write before hitting submit as you have only made yourself look silly.
Johnfs, Sir you are sadly mistaken and 100% wrong about Chapman. He is deceitful, manipulative, narcissistic and in way over his head. He twists statistics and literally makes things up. This is only the beginning. The flood gates will open with the entire agency strongly behind Noble. The memos will be released, the emails will go public, deputies will tell all. LCSO waits with open arms the return of Noble.
Noble is the real deal, he can run circles around Chapman, mark my words – Chapman will never do a back and forth debate with Noble; Chapman would look like a fool. The tension inside LCSO is unreal right now, everyone wants Chapman gone. I do agree that Loudoun is long overdue for its own Police Department, let the BOS run it and conduct nation wide searches for the most qualified police chief. LCSO is bigger then Prince William PD, Arlington County, and many counties in Central and Southern VA that all got county PDs decades ago. Come on BOS, make a change, take control.
“With an arousing response”??!!?? Clearly the author Ms. Martin wasn’t present at last night’s committee meeting. Eric Noble received an expected (staged) quick shout out and couple of hand claps from what I considered to be a very marginal support group in attendance. There were absolutely no interruptions by applause from anyone in the audience to anything Mr. Noble had to say. His “road map” as he termed it, seemed vague to me and without substance. Mr. Noble came across rigid and somewhat bitter–probably due to the “less than normal” circumstances related to his “no other choice” decision to retire.
No one of any reasonable conscious can disagree with one of the priorities Eric Noble cites. Of course the entire agency [and all public servants] should be held to the highest standards of legal, moral and ethical conduct. But with no exceptions Mr. Noble, no exceptions-including yourself!
Obviously I support Sheriff Chapman. I do so based on the results he’s achieved since taking office. At the committee hearing, and I might add to occasional interrupted applause, the sheriff outlined these accomplishments as well as his comprehensive strategy moving forward.
A fair-minded, objective assessment of the sheriff’s policies by Loudoun County residents will result in an “arousing” re-election of Mike Chapman.
A sheriff’s election should be non-partisan.
In Virginia it isn’t.
in Loudoun county, nothing is
In Virginia, the Commonwealth’s Constitution provides for Constitutional Officers …and they do identify by party….or independent status in the case of HATCH Act participants. It is the Virginia way, and we’re fine with it. If you liked it better where you came from, you can always move back there.
How presumptuous of you. I think I will move back to SouthsideVA where I was born. Hey look, I’m already here.
Anyway, what I meant is that partisanship should stay out of a law enforcement election. The best law enforcer should win, not the candidate who sticks to party lines.
You should have been well versed in the Commonwealth’s Constitution then. I made an assumption based on your ignorance, which most new people illustrate. I had a recent NY’er call 911 because I open-carried a pistol into a store that I’ve frequented (with the pistol on my hip) for YEARS. She looked perplexed when the operator told her that as long as it was in the holster, I was within the laws of the Commonwealth.
Glad to see that you ARE a Virginian, as there just aren’t a lot of us Virginia Families in the mix, anymore. My family roots in Virginia date to 1640 in what was Rappahannock County when it surrounded Richmond. My particular line showed up in Paris Va. as mercantile owner and postmaster for the village in 1834.
You must love listening to yourself pontificate. You could have easily clicked on the link to check out my information. I also wasn’t ignorant at all, because my reply went to getting partisanship and politics out of law enforcement.
I have lived in both the north and the south, urban and rural and have never seen a situation where a sheriff, if in existence, was NOT an “elected” officer of either the County Court, local Board of Supervisors, County Manager, etc. In most places they run the county jail, serve papers and foreclosures for the court system and their law enforcement role in the event of felony level criminal events is in support of the State Police. In rural areas in the absence of a municipal policing agency their law enforcement role may be larger but not generally. This has been the situation since colonial times and uniquely American.
This is amazing….. Pride, cohesion, enthusiasm will all return to LCSO under Noble.. Welcome home sir..
WE SUPPORT YOU. WE WILL STAND WITH YOU.