Investigator Steve Crisman isn’t just an employee of Laurel Ridge Police Department, he’s a student several times over.
While Investigator Crisman is closing out his law-enforcement career at Laurel Ridge, it’s also where he has had a couple of career starts.
Prior to his first policing job, Investigator Crisman worked at Aileen Inc., in Edinburg, rising from a print shop apprentice to supervisor. During that time, he took a printing class taught by Bill Pence, who retired last year as operations and registration director for Laurel Ridge Community College Workforce Solutions.
“The class was really impressive and helped me do my job better,” Investigator Crisman said.
An Edinburg native, Investigator Crisman enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps at age 17 after finishing high school a year early. He served as a field radio operator based out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, spending nearly two years with an amphibious unit in the Mediterranean.
In 1987, he began working part time with the Edinburg Police Department and joined the auxiliary program at the Shenandoah County Sheriff’s Office. In 1990, he became a full-time officer with New Market Police Department, where he would stay for 16 years – 12 years as chief.
Investigator Crisman returned to Laurel Ridge, earning his career studies certificate in police science in 1994. He said the “instructors were excellent,” and he graduated summa cum laude.
In Page County, he served as an investigator with the Sheriff’s Office from 2006-13. Investigator Crisman has also spent some time with the Shenandoah County Sheriff’s Office in various roles.
He first came to work at the college in 2019, staying for several years. After retiring in 2022, Investigator Crisman, who has also been a volunteer emergency medical services technician, returned to the campus police department when Chief Jay Roy came back on in 2025.
His favorite part of his job is the people he works with and the students.
“I like the interaction with our diverse student population,” said Investigator Crisman. “There is enough work that it keeps me busy, but it’s not overwhelming like it often is when working in a public police department.”
He grew up wanting to be a police officer, noting he had a cousin who served as sheriff of Shenandoah County for many years.
“I’ve been very fortunate that all of the agencies I’ve worked for have really pushed training and education so I was able to do things a lot of people in smaller departments don’t get the chance to do,” said Investigator Crisman. “Most officers don’t get that opportunity to work firsthand with federal agencies and state agencies on cases.”
His specialized training opportunities have included fire origin and cause investigation training at the National Fire Academy and EMT-tactical training at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.
And, more recently, Investigator Crisman has taken another course at Laurel Ridge – accounting – as part of his role as a certified fraud investigator.
He’s a proud grandfather of six – one of whom is a firefighter, and another a police officer at James Madison University and Laurel Ridge alumna.
Laurel Ridge Community College was known as Lord Fairfax Community College until June 2022. For consistency purposes, the college will be referenced as Laurel Ridge going forward.