How Bucks County’s sheriff redefined his office to zero in on domestic violence

In January, Danny Ceisler inherited a Bucks County Sheriff’s office that was a lightning rod for debate over deputies’ role in federal immigration enforcement. Now, as he reflects on the changes he’s 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.

That shift comes amid an increase in the number of warrants — called Protection From Abuse orders — served against alleged perpetrators of domestic violence.

Between February and May, Ceisler’s office has served 441 PFAs — an increase from the 370 that were served during the same time period last year.

Ceisler, a Democrat who flipped the seat after eight years of GOP control, 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.

“I view it as one of our real life-saving duties,” Ceisler said. “I mean if we can get an abuser out of a house at 8pm on a Friday instead of 9am on a Monday — which is kind of what used to happen if they came in on Fridays — you could save a person’s life.”

Last November, Ceisler ousted former Sheriff Fred Harran, a Republican, who came under scrutiny for his embrace of President Donald Trump’s style of politics and his willingness to commit his office to a controversial agreement to assist ICE in federal immigration enforcement in the county.

In addition, Ceisler has developed a so-called “armory” 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.

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.

Jen Locker, executive director at A Woman’s 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’s office has always been “really phenomenal” at being present during hearings for PFA warrants and ensuring survivors feel safe. The organization offers court accompaniment services and assistance in filling out PFA petitions.

But the biggest shift came when A Woman’s Place and the sheriff’s office met early on in Ceisler’s tenure and advocates expressed that one of the biggest challenges survivors face is the delay in serving PFAs.

Soon after the meeting, Locker said, Ceisler prioritized the eviction unit.

“Getting 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,” Locker said.

Ceisler’s counterparts in the other Philadelphia suburbs say the work he’s doing is one of the core functions of any sheriff’s office.

And Ceisler argues that he’s 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.

“One of my predecessor’s issues was he was stepping on the toes of police departments and trying to do more police work or federal, you know, immigration work,” Ceisler said. “We’re just doing what we are statutorily empowered to do, and trying to do it to the very best of our ability.”

According to data provided by the sheriff’s office, there has been a 94.1% clearance rate for PFAs under Ceisler’s tenure between February and March and a 90.4% rate during that same period last year under Harran. A “cleared” PFA means the warrant was successfully delivered, and any weapons were confiscated.

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.

“Danny knows the truth: We were never doing the work of immigration. I’ve said it a million times, I’ve testified with my hand on a Bible to it,” he said. “I don’t know what more I could’ve done to tell people that’s not what we were doing.”

Ceisler’s “armory,” he said, is also not a new concept. Harran said he was in the process of establishing one.

“Domestic violence is not going away,” he said. “To say he created a new unit, tomayto, tomahto, call it whatever you want, we were doing same thing.”

In most of the other suburban counties, the sheriffs — all Democrats — say their offices have been serving the vast majority of PFA orders.

In Chester County, 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.

“I think where the issue came in with Bucks is that Danny stepped into an office where the person running it had different priorities,” Dykes said. “In this instance, it’s 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.”

In Montgomery County, Sheriff Sean Kilkenny said his deputies are responsible for serving three-fourths of the PFAs filed. Last year that amounted to about 1,600.

Kilkenny formerly headed the state’s Sheriff’s 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 “getting under the hood” of the process is part of the job for a new official.

In Delaware County, where newly elected Sheriff Saddiq Kamara is wrestling with a staffing shortage, the sheriff’s office one day hopes to use Ceisler’s initiatives as a model.

Kamara, a former Yeadon Police officer and onetime member of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s security detail, said his office currently has 35 vacancies for deputies. He’s working to reverse that, and has recently hired seven new deputies, but said the shortage has forced him to leave the serving of PFAs to local police departments.

“It’s something that I really would like for us to do as well, but the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office is the third busiest in the state,” said Kamara, referring to the number of prisoners they transport daily, as well as applications they receive for gun permits and other filings.

“We just don’t have the capability of the resources and the man and woman power in our office,” he said. “What Danny is doing I think is a phenomenal idea, and we’re planning to do that in the near future as well.”