County Executive Marc Elrich has narrowed his search for a new police chief to two candidates, including Takoma Park’s chief, Antonio Devaul.
As reported by the Washington Post, the two candidates under consideration are DeVaul, and Tonya Chapman, who served as the police chief for the Portsmouth, Virginia police department for three years, until she resigned in March.
County officials would not confirm that DeVaul and Chapman were the two finalists.
“At this point I am only confirming that there has not been a decision on who the candidate will be,” Elrich’s spokesman Barry Hudson wrote in an email Friday morning.
DeVaul has served as Takoma Park’s police chief since December 2017 according to his Linkedin profile and previously had served for 25 years as part of the Maryland-National Capital Park Police.
Chapman has had a career in law enforcement that spans 30 years according to her Linkedin profile, which includes stints with the Arlington and Richmond, Virginia police departments.
Acting Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones was not chosen among the finalists, according to the Post, although he had been among 20 who were under consideration by Elrich. When asked at a news conference Friday about not being a finalist, Jones said, “I’ve made it known that I’m disappointed and I’ll leave it at that.”
Elrich is expected to name the new chief in August.
Dan Schere can be reached at Daniel.schere@moco360.media
