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Sunday, June 22, 2025

Mike Chapman, Virginia’s Sheriff Keeping Streets Safe Through Enforcement of the Law

Traffic stops and searches of motorists in Loudoun County have increased dramatically the first three months of this year compared to the same period in 2024, sparking complaints from activists and some residents.

Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, ICE, & Keeping You Safe

LCSO, ICE, and Keeping You Safe – Fact versus Fiction  Loudoun County, VA (June 12, 2025): The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) is recognized as a national leader in keeping our residents safe. Serious crime was down an additional 29% in the first quarter of 2025, and Loudoun continues to be the safest locality in the Washington metropolitan region. Unfortunately, LCSO’s commitment to your safety has been mischaracterized by a small number of political activists with a record of opposing public safety. There is fiction, and there are the facts. First, our relationship with U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): FICTION: The LCSO signed a new agreement with ICE to target people based on their immigration status. FACT: The agreement we signed with ICE, not yet in force, applies only to persons already at the Adult Detention Center (ADC) on unrelated criminal charges. It gives ICE extra time (up to 48 hours) to pick up criminal aliens upon their release from custody at our local jail. FICTION: Holding a detainee an extra day or two creates a heavy financial burden on Loudoun’s taxpayers. FACT: Most costs are fixed at our ADC, regardless of the jail population, and the average cost of holding a detainee longer amounts to about $4.50 per day.  Our agreement also provides that ICE will pay for any medical costs associated with that hold. That’s a small price to pay for public safety. Second, traffic enforcement: FICTION: The Latino community is being targeted in motor vehicle stops and searches.  FACT: Increased traffic enforcement is the most frequent request from our Board of Supervisors and the residents we serve, and motor vehicle stops are only conducted by patrol deputies when violations are observed. We have increased those efforts countywide – especially in eastern Loudoun where traffic is the greatest – and the result has been greater public safety.FICTION: Vehicle stops, searches, and arrests should be proportional to demographic population groups. If not, this indicates profiling. FACT:  We deploy our deputies based on data-driven analysis – where calls for service and crime trends are the greatest.  Eastern Loudoun has high population density and diversity, as well as the most traffic, crashes, calls for service and crime, so we deploy more deputies there. This is not profiling, and serious crime in eastern Loudoun was down 30% in the first quarter of this year.FICTION: The LCSO is stopping and searching vehicles based on immigration status. FACT: Vehicles stops and searches are done for cause, and immigration status has nothing to do with it. Vehicles are searched for one of three reasons: when there is probable cause related to potential criminal activity; as part of an inventory following an arrest; or following a request and consent. Our deputies never ask for a person’s immigration status, nor is that information available to them when they make a vehicle stop or arrest. FICTION: Residents are complaining about traffic enforcement in eastern Loudoun. FACT:  The LCSO has received few complaints about traffic enforcement and crime prevention, most of which have been orchestrated by persons with political agendas in conflict with public safety.Third, transparency: FICTION: The LCSO is not transparent with the information it releases. FACT: The LCSO is highly transparent. We regularly report to the community we serve and provide all releasable information in accordance with the Code of Virginia and Freedom of Information Act, and in coordination with the Loudoun County Attorney.  Information about detainers and warrants from other law enforcement agencies for persons arrested in Loudoun on local charges may be requested from those agencies. https://sheriff.loudoun.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=9860LCSO, ICE y su Seguridad - Realidad versus FicciónCondado de Loudoun, Virginia (12 de junio de 2025): La Oficina del Sheriff del Condado de Loudoun (LCSO) es reconocida como líder nacional en la seguridad de nuestros residentes. Los delitos graves disminuyeron un 29 % en el primer trimestre de 2025, y Loudoun sigue siendo la localidad más segura del área metropolitana de Washington.Lamentablemente, el compromiso de la LCSO con su seguridad ha sido malinterpretado por un pequeño grupo de activistas políticos con un historial de oposición a la seguridad pública. Hay ficción y hay hechos.Primero, nuestra relación con el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas de EE. UU. (ICE):FICCIÓN: La LCSO firmó un nuevo acuerdo con ICE para identificar a las personas según su estatus migratorio.REALIDAD: El acuerdo que firmamos con ICE, aún no vigente, se aplica únicamente a las personas que ya se encuentran en el Centro de Detención para Adultos (ADC) por cargos penales no relacionados. Le otorga a ICE tiempo adicional (hasta 48 horas) para detener a extranjeros delincuentes tras su liberación en nuestra cárcel local.FICCIÓN: Detener a un detenido uno o dos días más representa una pesada carga financiera para los contribuyentes del Condado de Loudoun.REALIDAD: La mayoría de los costos son fijos en nuestro Centro de Detención para Adultos (ADC), independientemente de la población carcelaria, y el costo promedio de retener a un detenido por más tiempo asciende a aproximadamente $4.50 por día. Nuestro acuerdo también estipula que ICE pagará cualquier costo médico asociado con esa detención. Es un pequeño precio que pagar por la seguridad pública.Segundo, la aplicación de las leyes de tránsito:FICCIÓN: La comunidad latina está siendo blanco de detenciones y registros de vehículos motorizados.REALIDAD: El aumento de las leyes de tránsito es la solicitud más frecuente de nuestra Junta de Supervisores y de los residentes a los que servimos, y las detenciones de vehículos motorizados solo las realizan los agentes de patrulla cuando se observan infracciones. Hemos incrementado estas medidas en todo el condado, especialmente en el este de Loudoun, donde hay mayor tráfico, y el resultado ha sido una mayor seguridad pública. FICCIÓN: Las detenciones, registros y arrestos de vehículos deberían ser proporcionales a los grupos demográficos de la población. De no ser así, esto indica perfilación.REALIDAD: Desplegamos a nuestros agentes basándonos en análisis basados en datos, donde las llamadas de servicio y las tendencias delictivas son mayores. La zona este de Loudoun tiene una alta densidad y diversidad poblacional, así como la mayor cantidad de tráfico, accidentes, llamadas de servicio y delincuencia, por lo que desplegamos más agentes allí. Esto no es perfilación, y la delincuencia grave en la zona este de Loudoun disminuyó un 30 % en el primer trimestre de este año.FICCIÓN: La LCSO detiene y registra vehículos basándose en su estatus migratorio. REALIDAD: Las detenciones y registros de vehículos se realizan con justificación, y el estatus migratorio no tiene nada que ver. Los vehículos se registran por una de tres razones: cuando existe una causa probable relacionada con una posible actividad delictiva; como parte de un inventario posterior a un arresto; o tras una solicitud y consentimiento. Nuestros agentes nunca preguntan por el estatus migratorio de una persona, ni tienen acceso a esa información cuando detienen o arrestan a una persona un vehículo. FICCIÓN: Los residentes se quejan de la aplicación de las leyes de tránsito en el este de Loudoun. REALIDAD: La LCSO ha recibido pocas quejas sobre la aplicación de las leyes de tránsito y la prevención del delito, la mayoría de las cuales han sido orquestadas por personas con agendas políticas en conflicto con la seguridad pública. Tercero, transparencia: FICCIÓN: La LCSO no es transparente con la información que divulga. REALIDAD: La LCSO es altamente transparente. Informamos periódicamente a la comunidad a la que servimos y proporcionamos toda la información disponible de conformidad con el Código de Virginia y la Ley de Libertad de Información, en coordinación con el Fiscal del Condado de Loudoun. Información sobre órdenes de detención y órdenes de arresto emitidas por otras agencias del orden público referente a personas arrestadas en Loudoun por cargos locales, se puede solicitar a dichas agencias. https://sheriff.loudoun.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=9860 

Jimmy Carter stood for healing – then why do Loudoun activists seek to divide on school names?

Jimmy Carter, our 39th president, died Dec. 30 at age 100 and had a wonderful state funeral in D.C. Jan. 9.  

I turned 18 in 1976 and voted for him.  My first vote ever. I also voted for his re-election in 1980 over Ronald .  (I only started voting Republican regularly after the 2000 election).  

Carter was not one of our most successful presidents, but was among the best human beings in the Oval Office, and much of what we respect is what he did after leaving the White House – such as Habitat for Humanity. 

On Facebook,  Loudoun Board Chair wrote:  “President Carter’s life was one of service and sacrifice. Even those who didn’t agree with his political decisions readily admit that he was a good man, of high character, and a kind heart.”

In another Facebook Post, Pastor Michele Thomas called Carter a “healer.”  

I could not agree with them more, despite our political differences with both of them.

One such example of Carter being a “healer” came in 1978, when he signed a Senate resolution that restored U.S. citizenship posthumously for Confederacy President Jefferson Davis – yes, the same Jefferson Davis whose name has been removed from Route 1 in and Alexandria and a host of buildings in and other states.  

In signing that resolution, Carter said:   “Our Nation needs to clear away the guilts and enmities and recriminations of the past, to finally set at rest the divisions that threatened to destroy our Nation and to discredit the principles on which it was founded. Our people need to turn their attention to the important tasks that still lie before us in establishing those principles for all people.”  Read more here: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/…/restoration…

In later years, Carter spoke out against displaying the Confederate Flag, but on monuments and buildings named for confederates, he said in 2017: “ I can understand African-Americans’ aversion to them, and I sympathize with them. But I ‘t have any objection to them being labeled with explanatory labels or that sort of thing.” https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5007223/Jimmy-Carter-conflicted-Confederate-statues.html

It’s obvious this “Son of the old South,” who led Georgia out of the segregation/Jim Crow era as in the early 1970s, but probably benefited from “institutional racism”  that benefited whites like him, did not feel monuments should be torn down, nor buildings renamed.

But today, in Loudoun County and other communities, there has been a concerted campaign by aggressive activists to wipe away the memory of any person for whom a , building or road is named if they were associated with slavery, the Confederacy or racism.      

Case in point —  the Loudoun School Board is on a trajectory to rename  Frances Hazel Reid Elementary School in Leesburg, a former Times Mirror reporter, merely because she was an official with the Daughters of the Confederacy, and Mercer Middle School in Aldie, which a School Board consultant implies was named for Loudoun County congressmember and War of 1812 general Charles Fenton Mercer.  His “crime” was owning slaves and supporting their repatriation to Africa, but he led a remarkable life, according to the Dec. 10 letter from Tim Rush https://www.loudounnow.com/opinion/letter-tim-rush-leesburg/article_e8bc0ff6-b65c-11ef-975d-67cc738e3e69.html    

In reality, the Middle School is named for the old Mercer Magisterial District, which itself was named for Gen. Mercer.  Yet, a politically appointed citizens advisory group – of which Thomas is a member — just last month voted to rename the school to Gum Springs Middle School.

Forget the idea of naming something for someone Asian, Latino, LGBTQ or from one of our many religious faiths.

What’s lost in all this is that the renaming of roads and schools, or tearing down of monuments, really doesn’t move the ball one bit for African Americans living today, and just creates division and angst in the community.  

If President Carter could resurrect Jefferson Davis, a true traitor to his country, why is it that the Loudoun decision-makers who control the names of buildings, schools and roads cannot look at the TOTALITY of the lives of the people for whom they are currently named and  “turn their attention to the important tasks that still lie before us,” as our 39thpresident said.  God rest his soul.

Ken Reid has been a journalist and editor for more than 45 years and served on the (2006 to 2011, and again in 2017), and on the (2012-2015).

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