Antonio Passaro Jr.
Antonio Passaro Jr. (Democratic Party) ran for election for Virginia Beach Sheriff. He lost in the general election on November 2, 2021.
Passaro completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Antonio Passaro Jr. was born in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Passaro's professional experience includes working as a criminal justice department chair at Tidewater Community College. He earned a bachelor's degree from Virginia Wesleyan University in 2004, a graduate degree from Norfolk State University in 2007, and a Ph.D. from Old Dominion University in 2020.
Elections
2021
See also: City elections in Virginia Beach, Virginia (2021)
General election
General election for Virginia Beach Sheriff
Incumbent Ken Stolle defeated Antonio Passaro Jr. in the general election for Virginia Beach Sheriff on November 2, 2021.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Ken Stolle (R) | 63.0 | 96,730 |
 | Antonio Passaro Jr. (D)  | 36.7 | 56,410 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.3 | 510 | ||
| Total votes: 153,650 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
The Democratic primary election was canceled. Antonio Passaro Jr. advanced from the Democratic primary for Virginia Beach Sheriff.
Republican primary election
The Republican primary election was canceled. Incumbent Ken Stolle advanced from the Republican primary for Virginia Beach Sheriff.
Campaign themes
2021
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Antonio Passaro Jr. completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Passaro's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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- Eliminating political influence in the Sheriff's Office. Politics and political influence have no place in law enforcement and public safety. The Sheriff’s office needs to enact reforms that will eliminate politics in the decision-making process and allow us to make decisions based on evidence and community input.
- Improving community transparency and engagement. So many in our community feel isolated from law enforcement officers and that’s a problem. If citizens don’t trust law enforcement and feel like they can’t reach out for help, that is a public safety issue that impacts our ability to keep residents and visitors safe. We need to build relationships and better engage the community, particularly with neighborhoods that are underserved and underrepresented.
- Rethinking how we train and educate our law enforcement officers. The way our law enforcement officers are currently being trained is outdated and updates are needed in order to better serve our community. It is important that we incorporate the lived experiences of our citizens into public safety and reprioritize community policing, an art that has been lost in law enforcement. Training and educating our law enforcement officers to proactively address public safety issues by engaging with the community and creating relationships is going to be key for our community moving forward.
Our country and community is dealing with a mental health crisis, which is an often overlooked detail in law enforcement and criminal justice. We need to increase access to mental health resources in our jail system to provide those who need mental health care the support they need. This combined with increasing programs designed to rehabilitate inmates will lower the recidivism rate and make sure that once someone has served their time, they return to our community and stay out of jail. Additionally, we need to make sure that our officers have the resources they need so they can take care of their own mental health needs. It must be made clear to our officers that it is not only okay to seek help but important that they do.
I was a Virginia State Trooper, Special Agent cross-designated for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.), and a federal police officer for NASA for over fifteen years. I am currently the department chair of Criminal Justice for all four Tidewater Community College campuses across Hampton Roads.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2021 Elections
External links
Footnotes
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