As Fairfax County officials work to fill an estimated $292.7 million budget shortfall in the next fiscal year, public safety services will bear a substantial brunt of potential cuts.
Of the $59.8 million in reductions proposed in the advertised budget, which was unveiled by County Executive Bryan Hill earlier this month, approximately $26.2 million will come from the police department, fire and rescue department, and sheriff’s office.
Another $426,333 could be eliminated from the Fairfax County Department of Emergency Management and Security, primarily by pulling back on the use of contracted private security for the county’s courthouse campus, the Original Mount Vernon High School that’s currently under construction, and several South County facilities.
The proposed cuts to public safety services account for roughly 44% of the total reductions proposed in the draft fiscal year 2026 budget, which will be subject to public hearings and scrutiny by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors before being finalized.
“I don’t think anybody is happy with this budget, but this is where we are,” Hill told the Board of Supervisors when presenting his proposed budget on Feb. 18. “We have been working diligently to figure out how to make this mildly palatable, to find the right balance.”
The public safety cuts will include the elimination of nearly 70 vacant positions across the police and fire departments and sheriff’s office, which have all been hampered by staffing struggles in recent years.
A total of 47 uniformed positions in the Fairfax County Police Department (FCPD) are currently on the chopping block, most of them associated with the Lorton District Police Station that opened in 2023 but still isn’t fully occupied.
The FCPD budget also proposes eliminating 16 civilian crossing guards assigned to high schools. With the department already reducing coverage, the county has begun exploring potentially privatizing the crossing guard program or introducing community safety officers that could fill in staffing gaps.
The Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office has 20 positions up for elimination, including 10 of the 80 deputy sheriff’s positions that are currently unoccupied.
“The Sheriff’s Office is currently operating at a 30% vacancy rate in sworn positions,” a spokesperson told FFXnow. “Therefore, the immediate loss of these 10 positions will not result in the loss of any current employees.”
The sheriff’s office sees the cuts as a temporary speed bump, according to the spokesperson.
“In the larger scheme of things, the FCSO is confident that as we continue to work with the county government to achieve more equitable pay for the deputies who work tirelessly for their community, that the agency’s vacancy rate will decrease and we will return to full staffing,” she said.
For the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department (FCFRD), the budget proposes cutting just one full-time position — an engineering technician who provides records support for the front desk. The position’s current occupant is retiring.
However, the fire department would cut the most funding of any county agency or department at $12.1 million, narrowly edging out the $11.5 million in possible reductions from the police department.
Among the proposed fire cuts is an initiative to reduce overtime spending, which would amount to $5.61 million and account for nearly half of the department’s cost savings.
“These proposals were carefully considered with the safety of the community as the top priority, ensuring that essential emergency response capabilities are not impacted,” an FCFRD spokesperson said.
While positions won’t be cut, the reorganization will include the elimination of ambulances housed at the Clifton, Crosspointe and Gunston fire stations, staffing for rescue units in Lorton and Fair Oaks, and a medic unit at the North Point station near Great Falls, according to county budget documents.
In addition, a rescue unit at the Scotts Run fire station in Tysons and a tower ladder truck at the Franconia station will both be converted to “peak staffing units,” meaning they would have dedicated staff during peak demand instead of around-the-clock.
The FCFRD didn’t comment on how it determined which units to eliminate or reduce staffing for, but the four stations in line to lose emergency medical transport units are more remote and less densely populated, according to Robert Young, president of International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 2068, the union that represents the county’s firefighters and paramedics.
“In our opinion, that reduces the capacity for us to provide those critical services to the community,” Young told FFXnow in a March 19 interview. “So, you’d have four less EMS transport units, which are the only type of unit that we have in our system to take a person from the place in which they fall ill or injured to the hospital to get the definitive care that they need.”
According to the union, the cuts would come at a time of increased demand for services. Fire and medical calls have climbed by 26% since 2017, fueled in part by people resuming everyday activities after the COVID-19 pandemic and the county’s population growing, Young says.
“What that does to our employees, to the members, is it puts a increased demand on them,” Young said. “… That’s why we are not in support of things to reduce the number of units. We should not be considering reducing Fire and Rescue Department services at the same time where the fire department’s own data indicates that our call volume is increasing.”
The budget also proposes reducing overtime spending by $2.2 million for the FCPD, which didn’t respond to a request for comment. The reduction includes $500,000 for the Animal Protection Police, which is expected to see “minimal impact” as its services get moved to the Department of Animal Sheltering.
However, the budget draft warns that some overtime funding may need to be added back if officers’ ability to respond to incidents is hampered.
“The Police Department is working to minimize the use of overtime while still performing its core mission to prevent and fight crime,” the budget says. “If the PD is not able to achieve this reduction without negatively impacting services, then funding may need to be added back.”
Other proposed changes to public safety services include:
Police Department
- Reduce travel and training budget
- Eliminate public survey tool introduced in 2023
- End a Differently Abled Driving Program for licensed teen drivers with intellectual disabilities
- Eliminate child seat safety inspections and installations
Sheriff’s Office
- End the use of a consultant to support a canine therapy program started in 2022 that’s now managed by the office’s peer support team
- Reclassify several vacant deputy sheriff positions as civilians, including background investigators, dispatchers and a firearms instructor
Fire Department
- Eliminate $100,000 typically provided annually to support retention of volunteer firefighters
- Shift fire hose testing in-house instead of outsourcing it to a contractor
- Reduce stipends to help volunteer fire departments acquire apparatuses from $35,000 to $25,000
- Eliminate the Community Emergency Response Team program
- End the use of county recreation centers for workers and volunteers to maintain fitness
- Discontinue the Community Fire and Rescue Academy
While developing his FY 2026 budget plan, Hill had directed all county agencies to identify 10% of their general fund budget for potential elimination. The advertised budget reduces funding for each agency by 3.4% on average.
The proposed budget is currently under review by the Board of Supervisors. The board will hold public hearings on April 22-24 before adopting a final budget on May 13 that will take effect on July 1.
This story was updated with more details on the proposed fire department cuts and comments from IAFF Local 2068.
