MADERA COUNTY – Greg Noll, Oakhurst resident and 19-year veteran of the Fresno Police Department, is hoping to put his experience to work as the next Madera County Sheriff.
Noll, 49, is a 1981 graduate of Yosemite High School, and moved his family back to the area seven years ago so his kids could enjoy living in the mountains where he grew up, and where his family has deep roots in the community.
Noll attended Fresno City College where he earned an Associate of Arts degree in Police Administration, then went on to graduate from California State University Fresno with a Bachelor of Science in Criminology.
His first job in law enforcement was at the Santa Cruz Police Department where he started in 1985, working in investigations, as a Field Training Officer and a motorcycle cop.
Noll started at the Fresno Police Department in 1993, where he is a Detective Sergeant and has been a supervisor for the last 13 years.
“I’ve worked in administrative assignments, as executive director of the Police Activities League, run the property room which is one of the largest in the state, worked with crime suppression teams, supervised the service of search warrants, dealt with narcotics related offenses, handled in-progress calls and dealt with most of the violent calls in Fresno,” says Noll. “I’ve gain a lot of tactical experience day in and day out.”
About four years ago, Noll started considering a run for Madera County Sheriff.
“It’s not something I just thought of within the the last year, I’ve been thinking about it for some time,” he said. “I really feel the experience I have working in the busiest department in the state would be beneficial to Madera County.”
Noll’s work at Fresno PD has focused recently on Problem Oriented Policing.
“You try to come up with long term solutions rather than immediate ones,” says Noll, who was recently honored for his work with Bringing Broken Neighborhoods Back To Life.
“You can only arrest so many people,” he says. “You have to touch people from the inside out. If you really want to impact crime you have to get faith-based people willing to come out and work in the community.”
Noll says this is one part his solution for the Oakhurst Community Park, along with getting the District Attorney and the Board of Supervisors on board to implement policies and enforce ordinances already in place.
“The people causing problems in the park are going to keep coming back if they’re not being filed on criminally,” says Noll. “The DA needs to take action, otherwise you’re just doing all this work for nothing. The public/private issue also needs to be addressed, and people need to get back into the park. That’s critical.”
As to what his approach to the job would be, Noll says transparency in the department is paramount in building trust with the community.
“We’ll be talking about crime each and every day that I’m Sheriff,” says Noll. “I believe in leading by example. You’re going to see me in uniform, you’re going to see me out there, you’ll see me arriving on a call. I approach a call like it’s a relative or a best friend, and we’re going to do everything in our power to solve that crime.”
Noll says he brings skills to the job that other candidates don’t have, including experience and contacts working on tech crimes, grant writing, and the ability to implement social media in involving the community in crime solving.
“We have a Facebook page. In this day and age it’s important to be transparent, and to communicate with the public. If somebody is going round breaking into homes, that information needs to be communicated through social media up front, not after people have been victimized. We need to prevent it from happening.”
Of all the things Noll has accomplished during his career, the one he is most proud of is his marriage to wife Leslie.
“We’ve been happily married for 27 years,” he says. “That’s pretty unusual in police work.”
With the support of his wife and his two grown children, Noll has been putting every spare minute into attending community meetings, focusing on the issues of Madera County law enforcement and taking his campaign to the people.
“The most important part of the job is solving crime and allowing people to feel safe,” he says. If somebody calls, they need to get professional service, and know that the responding deputies did everything they could to solve that crime.
“I promise that if I’m fortunate enough to get elected, we’ll be talking about crime each and every day, and make sure the agency is in communication from the top down and the bottom up.”
For more information on Greg Noll, his background and campaign, visit http://nollforsheriff.com
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