Due to budget cuts, the Fairfax County Police Department is no longer offering free child car seat installations and inspections.
The department officially terminated its child safety seat program this past Tuesday (July 1), which marked the first day of fiscal year 2026.
“We regret to inform you that effective immediately, the Fairfax County Police Department will no longer be offering Child Safety Seat installation services,” the FCPD says on its website. “Unfortunately, this program was discontinued due to recent budget cuts and is no longer available through our department.”
The car seat inspection services, which were provided monthly by the FCPD, were among a myriad of programs on the chopping block in County Executive Bryan Hill’s proposed FY 2026, which identified nearly $60 million in funding cuts to help address a projected $292.7 million shortfall.
According to budget documents, the car seat program’s elimination saves $45,495 by cutting overtime funding. The officers who participated in the program were specially “trained to identify and rectify common mistakes in car seat usage.”
“Since this is not a core function of the Police Department, it is not expected to impact the department’s ability to prevent and fight crime,” county officials wrote in the advertised FY2026 budget.
Roughly 70% of child car seats are improperly installed or used in the U.S., according to the National Digital Car Seat Check Form database. As of today (Wednesday), there have been 4,395 crashes tallied in Fairfax County so far this year, according to state data.
The budget noted that community members will need to find “alternative organizations” for assistance. The Virginia Department of Health has a map of safety seat check stations, but the only option shown in Fairfax County is the sheriff’s office, which holds free events each month at the county’s Judicial Center complex.
Specially trained and certified sheriff’s deputies inspect more than 1,000 seats every year and find that as many as 90% of them were installed incorrectly, the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office says on its website.
Virginia law requires drivers to ensure that all children up to 8 years old are secured in a “child restraint device,” such as a booster seat.
The final FY 2026 budget approved 9-1 in May by the Board of Supervisors restored funding for some of Hill’s proposed cuts, including $840,000 to keep crossing guards at high schools for another year.
However, the FCPD was still subject to a number of cuts, including a loss of 47 vacant uniformed positions, reduced overtime funding to the tune of roughly $2.5 million and the eliminations of its child safety seat and Differently Abled Driving programs.
Public safety agencies accounted for nearly half of the funding reductions proposed by Hill. Though the Board of Supervisors ultimately staved off cuts that would’ve affected ambulance services, the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department still trimmed nearly $9.8 million from its budget, and the Sheriff’s Office saw a $2.58 million decrease.
