Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
In January, Danny Ceisler inherited a Bucks County<\/a> Sheriff\u2019s office that was a lightning rod for debate over deputies\u2019 role in federal immigration enforcement. Now, as he reflects on the changes he\u2019s made in his first six months in office, Ceisler says he is bringing the office back to standard procedure with a shift in staffing to prioritize addressing domestic violence.<\/p>\n That shift comes amid an increase in the number of warrants \u2014 called Protection From Abuse orders \u2014 served against alleged perpetrators of domestic violence.<\/p>\n Between February and May, Ceisler\u2019s office has served 441 PFAs \u2014 an increase from the 370 that were served during the same time period last year. <\/p>\n Ceisler, a Democrat who flipped the seat after four years of GOP control<\/a>, has dedicated more staffing and resources to ensure those warrants are served in a timely manner, which can often be a life-or-death situation. <\/p>\n \u201cI view it as one of our real life-saving duties,\u201d Ceisler said. \u201cI mean if we can get an abuser out of a house at 8 p.m. on a Friday instead of 9 a.m. on a Monday \u2014 which is kind of what used to happen if they came in on Fridays \u2014 you could save a person\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n Last November, Ceisler ousted former Sheriff Fred Harran, a Republican, who came under scrutiny for his embrace of President <\/a>Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s style of politics and his willingness to commit his office to a controversial agreement to assist U.S. Immigration<\/a> and Customs Enforcement in federal immigration enforcement in the county. <\/p>\n In addition, Ceisler has developed a so-called \u201carmory\u201d that holds confiscated weapons and added six people to a round-the-clock unit dedicated to evicting alleged abusers from their homes based on judicial orders. <\/p>\n In the United States, one in three women and one in four men will experience domestic violence in their lifetime, according to the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence<\/a>. <\/p>\n Jen Locker, executive director at A Woman\u2019s Place, a Bucks County-based shelter and community organization for survivors of domestic and intimate partner violence, said that throughout her 13 years working at the nonprofit, the sheriff\u2019s office has always been \u201creally phenomenal\u201d at being present during hearings for PFA warrants and ensuring survivors feel safe. The organization offers<\/a> court accompaniment services and assistance in filling out PFA petitions.<\/p>\n But the biggest shift came when A Woman\u2019s Place and the sheriff\u2019s office met early on in Ceisler\u2019s tenure and advocates expressed that one of the biggest challenges survivors face is the delay in serving PFAs.<\/p>\n Soon after the meeting, Locker said, Ceisler prioritized the eviction unit.<\/p>\n \u201cGetting the offenders out of the home and getting the weapons out of the home are really, really crucial in maintaining safety for the survivors who are just trying to find a path forward safely,\u201d Locker said.<\/p>\n Ceisler\u2019s counterparts in the other Philadelphia suburbs say the work he\u2019s doing is one of the core functions of any sheriff\u2019s office. <\/p>\n And Ceisler argues that he\u2019s bringing the office back to basics, noting that at one point he had to reassign deputies who were tasked with planning firearms training and that the office spent a lot of time on ICE training. <\/p>\n \u201cOne of my predecessor\u2019s issues was he was stepping on the toes of police departments and trying to do more police work or federal, you know, immigration work,\u201d Ceisler said. \u201cWe\u2019re just doing what we are statutorily empowered to do, and trying to do it to the very best of our ability.\u201d <\/p>\n According to data provided by the sheriff\u2019s office, there has been a 94.1% clearance rate for PFAs under Ceisler\u2019s tenure between February and March and a 90.4% rate during that same period last year under Harran. A \u201ccleared\u201d PFA means the warrant was successfully delivered, and any weapons were confiscated.<\/p>\n In an interview, Harran pushed back on the characterization that the office, under his leadership, was dedicated to anything but local law enforcement issues. And he was adamant that deputies working under him also served PFA warrants, with a dedicated, four-person unit doing that work exclusively.<\/p>\n \u201cDanny knows the truth: We were never doing the work of immigration. I\u2019ve said it a million times, I\u2019ve testified with my hand on a Bible to it,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what more I could\u2019ve done to tell people that\u2019s not what we were doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Ceisler\u2019s \u201carmory,\u201d he said, is also not a new concept. Harran said he was in the process of establishing one. <\/p>\n \u201cDomestic violence is not going away,\u201d he said. \u201cTo say he created a new unit, tomato, tomahto, call it whatever you want, we were doing same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n In most of the other suburban counties, the sheriffs \u2014 all Democrats<\/a> \u2014 say their offices have been serving the vast majority of PFA orders.<\/p>\n In Chester County<\/a>, Sheriff Kevin Dykes said his office has processed 247 PFA orders in the first quarter of 2026, as well as recovered eight firearms relinquished through that process. Dykes said his office rarely, if ever, has a backlog of PFA orders waiting to be filed, and works closely with local police departments to avoid that situation.<\/p>\n \u201cI think where the issue came in with Bucks is that Danny stepped into an office where the person running it had different priorities,\u201d Dykes said. \u201cIn this instance, it\u2019s just how the nature of this business is. One day we could have a high-profile trial in the courthouse, and the next we could have a threat on an official. It just changes day-to-day for us.\u201d<\/p>\n In Montgomery County<\/a>, Sheriff Sean Kilkenny said his deputies are responsible for serving three-quarters of the PFAs filed. Last year that amounted to about 1,600.<\/p>\n Kilkenny formerly headed the state\u2019s Sheriff\u2019s Association, and said having those departments take the lead in handling PFAs is the industry standard, one that he said has worked well for counties across Pennsylvania. He added that Ceisler \u201cgetting under the hood\u201d of the process is part of the job for a new official. <\/p>\n