Roanoke Sheriff's Race Off To Lively Start

Roanoke Sheriff Antonio Hash, lauded for his community work, faces two challengers he knows well who say, popularity aside, there are issues in the sheriff’s office.

Republican James Creasy has already lodged a complaint against Hash, a Democrat, that’s anchored in politics. Hash said the complaint itself is nothing more than an election year campaign tactic. 

Hash, 45, is finishing his first four-year term. He was a sheriff’s office deputy, including time spent as a school resource officer, for 13 years before that. He said he is leading the department forward and is focused on strengthening the department’s relationship with the community. The office has about 250 employees and a budget of about $29 million.

Challengers Creasy, 42, and independent candidate Lee Hill, 54, say they offer skills that Hash doesn’t at a time they say the department sorely needs a new leader due to employee turnover and declining morale.

Creasy said he worked on Hash’s successful campaign in 2021. He said he decided to do so instead of running himself because he thought the two made a great team. 

Hill and Hash worked together for several decades. Hill said they were once neighbors. Hash and Hill sought the Democratic nomination to run for sheriff in 2021 and Hash won with 54 percent of the vote.

This year’s race, with the election Nov. 4, is set after a candidate deadline passed on Tuesday.

Creasy said his campaign submitted a formal complaint to the Roanoke city attorney and the Virginia Department of Elections alleging violations by Hash for using his department’s staff, resources, and public platforms to campaign for reelection on taxpayers’ dime.

A Department of Elections spokesperson wrote in an email Monday that the department had yet to receive a record of the complaint. The city attorney’s office did not respond to a request from The Rambler this week to confirm whether it has received the complaint.

The complaint is laid out on Creasy’s campaign Facebook page. He documents numerous incidents involving sheriff’s office staff that he says show Hash is using to promote himself politically. He says several, including a program using school resource officers to clean residents’ yards and houses over the summer, is conveniently happening during the time Hash is running for office. 

Creasy, an SRO sergeant, said he won’t be out in the community doing any such work. He’s been assigned a job approved by the department leadership transporting inmates this summer and will be spending most of his time out of public view in the courthouse basement. Creasy also said he had to formally agree not to campaign during work hours.

Hash said he stands behind his conduct and the ethics of the department. 

“It’s election time, so everyone is going to say xyz,” he said, adding that “I”m not going to play those games.”

Hash said it is department policy – predating his election as sheriff – that candidates who work in the office do not campaign during work hours. 

“This is not the only department that does that,” he said.

As the race enters the first turn, one issue on which all three agree: law enforcement is a career that’s not made for everyone. And that can cause employee turnover. They have differing opinions on how to handle that.

Antonio Hash

The incumbent sheriff, who grew up in an apartment building in Northwest Roanoke, talks with energy about his first term.

He says he is aware of the issues leading a law enforcement office in the largest urban area in the western part of the state. He said he’s always striving to find ways for better employee pay, better equipment, better mental health and better training.

“No agency is perfect,” he said.

Roanoke sheriff’s office employees do leave the city from time to time to work for higher pay in other neighboring jurisdictions, or to retire or for other reasons, Hash said.  

He said he faced a staffing issue from the start of his term. That’s one reason he’s working hard to create a network in the community is to generate a solid pool of strong job candidates. He said in a recent interview that there are currently only 13 open positions he’s trying to fill. He said there were more than 30 when he took office.

“People aren’t coming to you – you have to go to them,” he said.

Under Hash’s leadership, the sheriff’s office has increased its social media presence, and the department sponsors numerous community events, from gift card giveaways to a “Summer Transparency Tour” every Tuesday night that started June 10 and runs through September. Hash is a fixture and public events and was a key part of a city effort to curb gun violence over the past few years.

He also says it’s important to him that inmates are better people when they are released. He launched a reentry preparation program in 2022 for Roanoke City Adult Detention Center residents called (R)I.G.N.I.T.E. It includes a number of different programs, including GED and culinary studies. 

Using mostly grant money, the sheriff’s office is now planning to lease space across from its location on Campbell Avenue to expand the inmate program to curb recidivism. There will be more details on the site and the program if the deal is approved by the city, Hash said.

On his campaign website he says he instills the “embracing the five pillars of leadership: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Encourage the Heart, Enable Others to Act, and Build on the Process.”

Hash was awarded a key to the city in 2019 for his work in the community.

“I was out there before I was elected,” he said. 

James Creasy

The Republican nominee is in his 24th year with the sheriff’s office. He was born and raised in Southeast Roanoke.

He said he’s discouraged by what’s happened since helping Hash win the office. Creasy says that the two had discussed plans to do more about fighting crime in the city as well as helping to resolve its homelessness issue.

When asked about the 2021 campaign and aftermath, Creasy said he did expect to be promoted after his and Hash’s discussions. But that didn’t happen. Creasy says he believes Hash’s decision not to clean house and start fresh with a new leadership team “was his downfall.”

Creasy, on his campaign website, says he will end the “cycle of favoritism and pay to play.”

“I always try to make a negative situation into a positive one,” he said.

If elected, Creasy said he has numerous ideas that would improve the department. He said he would like to put more deputies on the streets, walking neighborhoods and knocking on doors to stay in touch with everyday issues, such as problems created by homeless people.

The department has a law enforcement division started by Hash, but it does not have enough employees to efficiently staff it, Creasy said he believes. He would plan to change that, he said.

On department staffing, he says he has contacts with exemplary law enforcement professionals — including his brother, an employee at the Western Virginia Regional Jail — who would be willing to bring their expertise to the city sheriff’s office if he’s elected.

Creasy is also owner of The French Farmhouse and Rendezvous Events, located downtown. He said that’s given him experience with budgets and managing employee hires and terminations.

“As a business owner, I do see problems with crime and drugs and the homeless,” he said. “It’s personal to me.”

Lee Hill

Retired from the sheriff’s office as assistant commander of the services division, the Roanoke native has 30 years of law enforcement experience. He grew up in the city’s Southern Hills neighborhood.

He says the department that he worked in is now understaffed and too much money is being spent.

“People leave when there is no vision,” he said.

He referred to the sheriff’s office overspending its budget based on a recent audit report. He also said he questions the need for a law enforcement division in the sheriff’s office when the city has a police department.

Hill, who worked with five different city sheriffs, said he offers a steady, wise form of leadership combining all the years of his service. On his campaign website, he says his assistant commander role allowed him “to work closely with both staff and citizens, ensuring public safety, building programs, and fostering relationships that strengthened our community from within.”

He said that includes his view that it’s important that inmates have consistency of staff in order to create the best environment.

He said he’s seen all kinds of issues in the jail over the years, including inmate suicides, the facility flooding and a laundry catching fire. No one was hurt in the fire more than a decade ago, he said.

“You learn the job,” he said.

Hill is a John C. Maxwell speaker, offering leadership development and training through that program. He said he volunteers his time in the community but “I don’t put it on Facebook.”

Hill said his wife asked him why he wants to run again and to potentially return to lead the office.

“People are hurting,” he said he replied.