Announcement

New Pines Police Chief Ehrisman to be promoted from within

Thursday, July 23, 2020

Longtime officer started in 1986 and moved through ranks

(July 24 2020) Ocean Pines Police Lt. Leo Ehrisman is about to become Chief Ehrisman.

The veteran officer, on Aug. 1, will officially succeed retiring Police Chief David Massey.

At that point, Ehrisman will become the first homegrown officer to climb the ranks all the way to the top.

Ehrisman was born in the Pittsville area in neighboring Wicomico County. He began his policing career as a patrol officer in 1986 but, first, he was a professional musician who toured all over the U.S.

“I was actually on the road when my daughter was born,” he said. “When she was born, we knew something was wrong, but we didn’t know what. And it turned out to be cerebral palsy. So, my traveling days were done. I got on a plane and came home, left everything I owned on a bus, and I had to find a job.”

Starting out small, and moving up

Ehrisman started as a part-time dispatcher, filling in while another worker was on maternity leave. He never left.

“I was hired here by Chief [Rod] Murray in 1986 and he sent me to forensic school and to CSI school. I became a forensics investigator and a crime scene investigator,” he said. “Through the years I was promoted from patrolman to PFC [private first class], to corporal to sergeant to lieutenant, to running the criminal investigation side” of the Ocean Pines Police Department.

Ehrisman, more recently, also took over operations of the department as Massey’s expected successor.

His extensive police training also includes the “FBI-LEEDA Trilogy,” which refers to completion of the FBI-LEEDA's Supervisor Leadership Institute, Command Leadership Institute, and Executive Leadership Institute – a first for an Ocean Pines officer.

Ehrisman said the transition from drummer to police officer wasn’t too awkward, largely because of his prior experience as a firefighter.

“Some cops can say, ‘My uncle was a police officer, my grandfather was a police officer, my dad was an officer’ – I didn’t have any of that,” Ehrisman said. “All my family were fire and EMS. I’ve been in fire service since I was a cadet at 13 and went in to be a medic, and then went directly into the department at 18.”

He put in 30 years as a volunteer in Pittsville, before moving to Ocean Pines about nine years ago. He now volunteers for the Ocean Pines Volunteer Fire Department.

“Nowadays, there’s a lot of cross training. A lot of cops are firefighters and there are a lot of firefighters that leave and go into law enforcement,” Ehrisman said. “You get used to working on an accident scene.”

Policework in Ocean Pines, according to Ehrisman, often includes residential crimes against people and property.

“It’s very unique being in Ocean Pines, because it’s 99% residential – we don’t have businesses, we don’t have bars, we don’t have hotels. So, most of our crimes are against residential properties or the common domestic disturbance,” he said.

Because of the resort nature of the community, police also deal with a healthy population of tourists.

“Criminals like to go on vacation too,” Ehrisman said. “It’s nothing for us to pull someone over on a traffic stop because they have a headlight out, to find they’re wanted in Montgomery County or Pennsylvania or New Jersey. We get a lot of that,” he said.

Cooperation and collaboration

In his current role, Ehrisman also serves as a coordinator with multi-jurisdictional task forces from county, state and even federal law enforcement agencies. Those partnerships benefit Ocean Pines by helping to fill in gaps missing from the Association police force.

“This county is really developed on multiple-agency task forces,” he said. “The county has a drug task force, for example, that is made up of detectives from all over the county. Ocean Pines doesn’t have the type of resources to have its own SWAT team, or to have a strictly narcotics division or a robbery division or computer crimes division, so it’s easier for us to join that multi-jurisdictional task force.

“To be able to have a relationship with outside agencies is really beneficial,” he continued. “We have a great relationship with the state police, with the sheriff’s office, with Ocean City – with all the neighboring agencies. We’re very much a part of that multi-jurisdictional partnership.”

Ocean Pines Police will help if, for example, there’s a bad accident on Route 589 or Route 90. But the partnerships also go both ways.

“If I only have one officer working and he’s tied up on a call and we get a second call – guess who we’re going to for help? We’re calling the county and we’re calling the state,” Ehrisman said. “We have to stay tight with that relationship, and that starts at the top with the commander of the Berlin barracks, the sheriff’s office, the administration from the Ocean City Police Department, all of those things.”

Ehrisman said the frequent “safest city” honors given to Ocean Pines – although technically not a city – are both because of favorable demographics and because of the vigilance of Ocean Pines Police. It’s no accident, he said, that people pulling into the south gate often notice a police presence.

“People say all the time, ‘Boy, if you come into Ocean Pines, you’re going to see a police car’ – that's on purpose,” he said. “If you see that car when you come into the south gate, you’re not going to hang a left and go 60 miles an hour.

“I think a lot of it is the fact of trying to retain officers here for longevity, because then they become familiar with the citizens and you get that personal relationship with your community. And our community, as a whole, really supports our police department,” Ehrisman added.

As a leader, Ehrisman said he stresses the importance of community policing.

“I don’t let my guys go out there and be G.I. Joe – I don’t want them out there with combat gear and Kevlar and night vision goggles. When Mr. Jones calls and he wants a police officer, he expects to see a uniformed police officer come and assist him – he doesn’t want a soldier coming to his front door,” he said. “I think that means a lot.”

To new officers, Ehrisman says, “Don’t come in here and tell me how many tickets you’ve written – don’t come in here and tell me what you’ve done, unless you can tell me you helped Mrs. Smith when she was locked out of her car.”

Helping someone with a ride, or moving their trash can when they’re not able, is what community policing is all about, Ehrisman said.

“That’s what the residents remember and that’s what is so important here,” he said.

Big swings for community service

Along with policing and service with the fire department, Ehrisman also has been involved with the community in other ways, including through Little League Baseball. He is currently both the District 8 Administrator and the Maryland State Director for Little League International Baseball/Softball in the Eastern Region.

“This is what happens when you don’t go to a meeting that your wife goes to,” he said with a laugh. “I got volun-told!”

Ehrisman volunteered as a coach when his children were younger, and later served on the local Little League board and became president of the league. That led to work with the district and state divisions.

His involvement has been especially rewarding during the last several years, Ehrisman said, as Berlin Little League all-star teams have often advanced to regional tournaments, and even the Little League World Series finals in 2014.

Two years ago, it literally took a perfect game from a 12-year-old Staten Island pitcher to prevent a return to the Little League World Series by a Berlin squad. Still, the small town fielded two state championship teams, both in baseball and softball. Many local people watched those games play out on national television, but Ehrisman has been there in person for nearly all of the games. In fact, he’s there for most Maryland state championship teams.

“It’s really hard to sit home and watch them because, nine times out of ten, I'm there with them. When they’re on television playing for that championship in Bristol [Connecticut], I’m in that press booth,” he said. “Last year, at one time, I had 11/12-year-olds in Bristol, I had 9/10-year-olds in Cranston, Rhode Island, and I had 13/14-year-olds in Freehold, New Jersey. I spent a week going from a 9 a.m. game in Bristol to a 4 p.m. in Rhode Island to a 10 o’clock game the next morning in New Jersey.

“I know a lot of those kids – I’ve seen them since they were 9. And now they’ve graduated high school and gone to college, and some of them are still playing ball. That is so rewarding. That is the best of the best, right there,” he added.

Becoming the Chief

Ehrisman said he and Massey first spoke about the possibility of a further promotion about four years ago, when Massey asked what his intentions were.

“I’ve got over 30 years here and, I'll be honest, I wasn’t pulling any punches. I really wasn’t ready to work for another new chief and to spend two or three years teaching another person about the area,” he said. “When Massey came here, I was not prepared to be a chief, but he has made it his mission to prepare me for his chair before he left.”

Ehrisman also did plenty of his own legwork, including becoming a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. He is the only person in Ocean Pines other than Massey to ever achieve that title.

“You have to be sponsored in, so that’s huge,” he said. “But Massey made it his goal to prepare me for it, and by him being a teacher and a professor at the college, that’s what he does – he’s a teacher. He set out that goal that he would prepare me for the position, but it was my job to strive to get it. So, I think he put the goal out there to give me the opportunity and I took advantage of him teaching and of learning from him.”

Because of all that work – decades of preparation, studying, coursework, fieldwork and collaboration – Ehrisman will soon get the rare distinction of being a brand-new chief with a brand-new building. It’s been a long time coming.

“I told my wife when I went home, ‘I’ve got good news and bad news: The good is, I got the job … and the bad news is, I got the job!’” he said with a laugh.

Ehrisman said Massey made his mark as a teacher and educator. Where he hopes to make his mark is by further modernizing the Ocean Pines Police Department.

In the old days, he said, police would obtain a search warrant for a suspect’s house. Today, if they are pursuing a suspected child predator, police would need separate search warrants for the home, the computer, various emails, online and cellphone accounts, and more.

“That all has to be applied for through judges,” Ehrisman said. “I think to be able to carry that out will be important, and I was here when our systems were installed and I know how to teach the new guys, and I’ve been preparing for this.”

Ehrisman also plans to promote a potential successor right away, naming Sgt. Shakhan Toppin to lieutenant in his old slot.

“My dad always told me to prepare for the next job above me, but to also prepare somebody to do my job so, when I move out of it, I don’t wind up doing two jobs,” he said. “It does you no good to move up if you don’t have somebody to come up to fill your shoes.

“My game plan is for Sgt. Toppin to be promoted to lieutenant and become part of my staff. And my goal for him is to do exactly what I’ve done,” Ehrisman continued. “I think it’s an advantage for the whole department and for the future of what’s to come, in bringing these new guys up.”

Ehrisman said the balance of training, promotion, and staying up to date on technology is what ultimately will lead Ocean Pines Police into a successful future.

##

Photos:

• Top: Ehrisman is interviewed by 47 ABC News Anchor Julian Sadur in 2017, for a story titled "Ocean Pines Police Dept. giving away free bike helmets to kids." Photo used by permission.

• Center: Ehrisman, circa the late 1980s, is pictured with his daughter, Amanda.

• Bottom: Ehrisman, in March, is honored by American Legion Synepuxent Post 166 as Police Officer of the Year, for 2019.