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.
An Edison High School student was arrested this morning (Thursday) for allegedly bringing a gun to the Rose Hill school.
According to the Fairfax County Police Department, a student alerted the school resource officer (SRO) assigned to Edison “about a possible firearm on school property.”
Fairfax County will look at creating a corps of “community safety officers,” who would have fewer powers than sworn law-enforcement personnel but could support the police department’s mission in an era of recruiting challenges.
“Based on experiences in other jurisdictions around the country and in our region, it could have some merit,” Braddock District Supervisor James Walkinshaw said when proposing on Tuesday (Feb. 18) that staff study the issue.
Pending final agreement with a key bargaining unit, Fairfax County government officials are ready to move forward with a consolidation of animal care and protection services.
The change, which was approved last year as part of the county’s fiscal year 2025 budget, will move operations currently handled by the Animal Protection Police (APP) within the Fairfax County Police Department to the county’s Department of Animal Services (formerly the Department of Animal Sheltering, or DAS).
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors reacted tepidly this week to a staff proposal that would shift wildlife management responsibilities from the county’s police department to the Fairfax County Park Authority.
“We need a little more time to discuss this [and] make sure we think this through, very carefully,” Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn said at a meeting of the board’s safety and security committee on Tuesday (Feb. 11).
A recent online operation conducted by child exploitation detectives resulted in seven arrests, including that of a Falls Church High School teacher, the Fairfax County Police Department announced this morning (Tuesday).
Richard Berkowitz, a health and physical education teacher at the school in West Falls Church, was arrested on Jan. 29, two days into the operation, but Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid was asked to hold off on notifying the community so the operation could continue, Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said at a press conference.
A new program launched by the Fairfax County Police Department hopes to take advantage of the increasing popularity of Ring doorbells and other at-home security systems.
Connect Fairfax County, announced by the department at the end of January, will allow law enforcement to leverage surveillance cameras to hopefully speed up investigations.
A local elementary school teacher is facing criminal charges for allegedly sexually assaulting two students.
Fairfax County’s Child Protective Services received a tip on Jan. 17 reporting that a student at Fairview Elementary School (5815 Ox Road) in Fairfax Station had been sexually assaulted by a teacher, according to the Fairfax County Police Department.
A man has been charged with an alleged armed carjacking in Annandale yesterday (Wednesday) that led to an arrest in Tysons.
Fairfax County police officers were dispatched to the 7000 block of Columbia Pike around 7:32 p.m. after a caller reported being carjacked “at gunpoint,” according to scanner traffic.
A man who tried to sexually assault a woman near the Springfield Crossing apartments late last month has been arrested, Fairfax County police announced yesterday (Tuesday).
According to the Fairfax County Police Department, officers were called to the 6700 block of Metropolitan Center Drive shortly after 2:30 a.m. on Jan. 27 for a report of an abduction and an attempted sexual assault.
