UPDATE: After an outpouring of support for town’s police department the Purcellville Town Council voted against defunding the police on 5-3-1 vote. Full details here.
Purcellville residents pack their town hall, over 300 strong, ALL opposed to defunding the police.
The Purcellville town council is expected to vote this evening to abolish the town’s police department. It is expected the democrat majority on the board will vote to dissolve the their police department and rely on the Sheriff’s office for police coverage.
However, the town council never bothered to check with Sheriff Mike Chapman or anyone on his leadership team to see if this plan was even feasible. Sheriff Chapman has responded to the council in a letter, here.
From the sheriff’s letter:
“Loudoun Sheriff Mike Chapman has neither been consulted about nor agrees with the representations in the document published in the Purcellville Town Council meeting packet describing the dissolution of its Police Department and replacement with services provided by the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO)…
Unfortunately, nothing in the published document has been discussed with Sheriff Chapman or the LCSO’s Leadership Team. For example, the document states: (1) the Town will negotiate a “contract” to keep a dedicated team of LCSO deputies assigned to Purcellville, just like their current police department, to include extra deputies for large events; (2) the LCSO will assign a minimum of eight (8) deputies exclusively to the Town with 24/7 overlapping coverage; (3) the LCSO will maintain a physical presence (station) in the Town; and (4) a formal agreement will “spell out” LCSO response times, patrol frequency and community policing duties, to include performance metrics for periodic Council review.
While the LCSO is willing to provide law enforcement support and services to the Town of Purcellville, the Town Council has no jurisdiction to place conditions or requirements on the LCSO should its Police Department be dissolved. The LCSO’s coverage for the Town of Purcellville would be consistent with the coverage provided to the other incorporated towns in Loudoun County that do not have their own police departments, including the towns of Hamilton, Hillsboro, Lovettsville, and Round Hill. The LCSO works closely with all town governments in Loudoun County to provide excellent service but does not answer to or have formal agreements with any town without its own police department. Further, any transition in Purcellville would require a significant period of time to accomplish, to include considerations of personnel, personnel records, ongoing investigations, transfer of evidence, disposition of property, and other administrative and operational matters.
As previously stated, the LCSO is committed to a transparent conversation with the Mayor, Town Council and other town and county stakeholders, along with the residents of Purcellville, about their expectations, what the LCSO’s role might look like, and if the Purcellville Police Department is dissolved, how and when it would be accomplished and funded.”
Let’s face it this plan has so many holes in it, a large tractor from western Loudoun could drive through it. Who is going to fund all this police coverage for this one town in the county? Loudoun county taxpayers. No one outside of the democrats on the town council have been consulted about this plan, not even the three elected republicans. These democrats are not interested in anything close to transparency or input from those who will be effected by such a change.
At this point, Sheriff Chapman should simply refuse this absurd plan to eliminate the Purcellville police department. And the council should consider input from the community, the stakeholders, and the sheriff if they want to continue to advocate for abolishing the police department.
Other interesting news about Purcellville’s vice mayor here.
