The Fairfax County Police Department is on track to meet staffing goals by the end of the decade, if it can maintain recent hiring momentum.
“We feel really comfortable about where we are,” Police Chief Kevin Davis said in a briefing for the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors’ Safety and Security Committee on Tuesday (May 20).
With the caveat “if current trends hold,” Davis said police leaders are projecting reaching 95% of full staffing by 2028 and 100% by 2030.
One reason: A streamlined hiring process.
In the past, it could take 11 months to take a potential recruit from first contact to completion of basic training. For many prospects, that was simply too long.
“We’ve become more efficient,” Davis said. Instead of taking every step in the hiring process sequentially, many tasks are now being done simultaneously, he told supervisors.
In 2024, the FCPD recorded 140 hires, including 110 recruits, 21 officers making lateral moves from other agencies and nine being rehired, police officials reported. The department has also seen an uptick in applications since 2021, and only 15 sworn officers left in the first quarter of this year, compared to 30 over the same time period in 2024.
To meet expected demand, the police department plans to increase the number of academy classes each year beginning in 2026.
“We think that will give us a big boost,” Davis said.
Franconia District Supervisor Rodney Lusk, who chairs the safety committee, said the presentation represented “very positive news.”
Fairfax County’s police department is among those across the region making a pitch for displaced federal employees to consider options at the local level. It also participates in regional job fairs.
The FCPD has been grappling with staffing shortfalls since the pandemic. It increased its national advertising in 2022 to bolster recruitment efforts, among other strategies.
Recruits receive a $15,000 signing bonus, a figure that is in the middle of the pack across Northern Virginia, where stipends can range from $5,000 to $25,000, depending on department.
That up-front money helps incoming police officers move to the local area and get settled, Davis said.
He doesn’t expect bonuses to go away across the region, as no public safety agency wants to be the first to eliminate theirs for fear of losing a competitive edge.
Springfield District Supervisor Patrick Herrity reacted positively to the shorter time frame required for hiring. Having nearly a year-long process meant Fairfax lost out on strong candidates to other jurisdictions, he suggested.
“The quality candidates will get picked up” by agencies moving the fastest, Herrity said.
While praising improvements, Herrity voiced concern about the public’s perception of Fairfax’s quality of life from a public-safety standpoint.
“Our residents, some of them, don’t feel as safe as they used to,” he said.
Whether a correct view or not, that wasn’t the result of problems with policing, Lusk said.
“We are blessed to have such a competent and capable force,” he said.
Established in 1940, the Fairfax County Police Department has a budget of $254 million for this fiscal year and about 1,860 authorized sworn-officer and civilian positions.
The department faced some cuts, including reduced overtime funding and the loss of 47 mostly vacant positions, as part of the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget, which will take effect on July 1. However, the Board of Supervisors adopted a final budget on May 6 that restored a portion of the funding, including $840,000 to keep crossing guards at high schools.
To ease staffing challenges, county leaders have discussed potentially reorganizing the school crossing-guard program — either by privatizing it or introducing community safety officers who would provide support to sworn police but have more limited authority.
