Dear Stanley and Page County Community Members,
As the Chief of Police for the Town of Stanley, I wanted to take a moment to respond to some negative rumors from some in the public and accusations made in a recent statement from Sheriff Chad Cubbage regarding my agency.
First, my department has been accused of failing to properly investigate a vehicle crash into a residence. These accusations are not true. The vehicle operator was charged with reckless driving, and the victim and offender are now working with their insurance companies to ensure the matter is resolved.
Second, my department has been accused of failing to assist a dog in a hot vehicle. These accusations are not true. I personally checked on the dog in question, and it was not injured in any way. I contacted the owner, who took the dog from the vehicle and into their office.
Third, Sheriff Cubbage has told the public the Stanley Police Department has not participated in active shooter training without putting the matter into context.
The first training we were invited to attend was at Luray High School. I was given six days notice. During the same week, I had two officers in training at our academy, and our department was already committed to three special events during that time as well.
I emailed a member Sheriff Cubbage’s command staff and asked if the training could be moved to Christmas break while teachers and staff were out of the building.
I also offered our two certified active shooter instructors to assist with the training. I received no response. The second training was at Stanley Elementary, where I have a school resource officer. We were not invited to this training. I did not know about the training until the day of the training when I saw the sheriff’s office vehicles at our school.
I want to reiterate Sheriff Cubbage never informed me of training at the one school within my jurisdiction.
Fourth, on three occasions, my staff and I have only been notified regarding search warrants in the town of Stanley by Sheriff Cubbage since 2020. We have only been invited to participate in one search warrant in the past year, and it was the only search warrant in Stanley where Sheriff Cubbage did not produce a press release or a public Facebook video.
I have made approximately ten complaints to Sheriff Cubbage regarding this issue. He assured me the problem would not happen again each time, but the problem continues. Recently, my department has passed narcotic case intel to the Page County Sheriff’s Office approximately 30 times to help with drug investigations. I have received no intel from Sheriff Cubbage in return.
Fifth, the drug arrest totals within our departmental system do not match the Virginia State Police reports. This problem may be on our end, but I am diligently working to correct the issue. I have researched other police departments in our area that are similar in size, personnel, and resources.
All our averages are consistent with one another. Statistics need to be placed into context. I have one captain who assists with administrative duties, one full-time school resource officer, and two officers who were on separate evening shifts. We have no overlapping evening shifts, no narcotics K-9, and we do not have coverage beyond midnight, as our police department has never had 24 coverage since the inception of the department.
We do not have these extra resources because our tax base cannot afford them. We work with what we have, and I stay under budget yearly. I want to respectfully remind Sheriff Cubbage that during his last four years with the Shenandoah Police Department, he had three narcotics arrests over four years. During this time, he had access to resources my officers do not have, such as a K-9, overlapping shifts for backup and searching purposes, and a larger population with more square mileage to patrol.
I share these numbers not as a slight to Sheriff Cubbage but merely as a reminder of where he and many of us from small agencies come from. There was a time when he did not have an agency with 20 times more people, a multi-million-dollar budget, a narcotics unit with task force assets, two narcotics K-9s, and a full-time drug interdiction team with 314 square miles to roam while serving over 24,000 people.
The Stanley Police Department is not in competition with the Page County Sheriff’s Office or any other law enforcement agency in Virginia, and we are ready to work with everyone. Also, the Stanley Police Department is not running for sheriff. We all look forward to continuing to serve you.
Police Chief Ryan Dean ~ Stanley, Va.
This letter was originally published on the Stanley PD Facebook page.
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Kudos to Police Cheif Ryan Dean for speaking out against malicious slander. I am a law abiding citizen who believes it takes community cooperation to protect and serve. Dirty politics do not serve “we the people” well.
We need an investigative report from the media on these issues, but don’t hold your breath.
OK Accusations, Accusations?? The driver was not charged for approx 20 days, only after Ms. Boothby the Homeowner got an attorney herself & WHSV covered the story. Accusations? I did not say the dog was harmed, I was at the playground with my grandchild playing, I heard the dog in distress, I actually thought he was in a drainpipe, or tangled in a leash on one if the apartment balconies in town. It took me a good 40 minutes to find him in a car with the windows up. I went into the town office & reported the distressed dog to Leon Stout an employee for the town office at which point right in front of me he called the Stanley PD about the dog, he dropped the phone to his shoulder & replied, ” they said they are eating lunch & they will check on the dog after their lunch”. Thats the problem I have with it, this story is true, you all are who chose your words that day. You are who chose whether the welfare of a dog boar any importance or not. I didn’t say the dog was harmed only in distress, I reported it to those that are paid to ” Protect & Serve”. Please clear up for me who checked on the dog, when I came to the PD office to confront Aaron Cubbage for telling people my story was untrue, he said that you all called back to the Town Office & had Leon Stout check on the dog, so which is it? It has nothing to do with an election, I had no intent to post the story but Aaron & others in this Department continually told people “it did not go down the way I said”, it went down exactly the way I said it did. You all are trying to damage control after screw-ups. Don’t refer to the TRUTH as accusations. Accusatory Comments are not fact based, These stories are FACT. Their are witnesses, photos, reports, news coverage, insurance claims, etc. I guess we are going to need to request those FOIAs.
We have dog catchers in the county maybe they were the answer Mrs Baker….this is all political so get over it