Sheriff Chris Blair was from Baltimore Maryland where his father was a police officer. The family moved to Marion County when his father retired, and Chris graduated from North Marion High School. He was hired by Sheriff Moreland under a federal grant program. He progressed through the ranks and retired as a Major. He had worked most of his career in investigations. Sheriff Blair earned an undergrad degree from the University of Central Florida and was a graduate of the Southern Police Institute.
Sheriff Blair was sworn into office by Judge Hale Stancil on January 3, 2013.
Sheriff Blair brought Fred Latorre in as his Chief Deputy. He also brought back Tommy Bibb as Major in charge of the detectives, and he hired one of his political operatives as a Major - retired FDLE agent Don Maines.
Sheriff Blair put a new emphasis on training by expanding the Training Unit and enhancing the training for all sworn officers and deputies throughout all areas within the agency.
As a part of the new training doctrine, and for the first time in agency history, a physical fitness standard was initiated. A new physical fitness course was built, and all sworn personnel were required to run it in under 8 minutes 30 seconds.
In 2013 the corrections officers voted to join the Patrol Deputies and form a bargaining unit with the FOP. However, a vote by the sergeants and lieutenants to unionize failed by a wide margin.
Sheriff Blair was the first Marion County Sheriff to aggressively tap into, and utilize, social media. He hired a Social Media Specialist who started a daily update on Facebook which became extremely popular throughout the community.During his time in office, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office Facebook grew a following from approximately 1,200 followers to more than 50,000.He also brought back the popular citizens academy, and doubled the staff dealing with volunteers.
Sheriff Blair initiated specialized units to attack certain crime trends. He reinstituted a street crimes unit and a warrants unit.He also instituted a digital kiosk program, the first of its kind in Florida. The kiosks were placed in various business and public locations throughout the county and provided up-to-the-minute information on wanted persons, safety messages and missing persons.
The 2016 election began in January 2015 when Ocala Police Lieutenant Billy Woods filed to run for Sheriff.Woods was followed shortly by Blair’s announcement in February 2015 that he would seek reelection and retired Major Kerry Crawford also entered the Republican primary. In 2016 retired Captain Dennis McFatten filed to run in the Democratic primary. About a month before the filing deadline retired Sheriff Ed Dean also filed to run as a Democrat.
On May 20, 2016, the State Attorney’s Office notified Sheriff’s Office Bureau Chief and General Counsel Gregg Jerald that the Grand Jury had indicted Sheriff Blair for two counts of perjury and Official Misconduct relating to an excessive force case that was under investigation.Major David Pistarelli served the Capias on Chris Blair who was arrested and booked into the Marion County Jail. Governor Rick Scott immediately suspended Chris Blair from office.
Chris Blair would eventually agree to withdraw from the election and resigned from the Office of Sheriff in return for the State not prosecuting him on the charges in the indictment. The agreement also mandated that Blair could never run for the office of Sheriff in any county in the 5thJudicial Circuit.In mid-2017 the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission revoked Blair’s law enforcement certificate due to the misconduct alleged in the Grand Jury Indictment.
