Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Safety & Security Committee, Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2026
Place: Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 1h 28m (video)
Official meeting video (Fairfax County): https://video.fairfaxcounty.gov/player/clip/4077
Official Board of Supervisors page (Fairfax County): https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/boardofsupervisors/

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-28. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:01] Good afternoon everyone. We're going to start our safety and security meeting for today, March 10th. We have two items on the agenda, and the first item will be led by Chief Davis. It will be his 2025 crime data report, so looking forward to hearing that.

[00:00:20] And then following that discussion, we will then move into a discussion on our Fairfax County Police Department radio encryption, And that will also be led by Chief Davis and a couple of his other colleagues. So with that, let me turn to Chief Davis for his presentation on the crime data for 2025. Thank you.

[00:00:45] Good afternoon, Chairman McKay, Chairman Lusk, Vice Chair Smith and Board of Supervisors, County Executive Brian Hill and Deputy County Executive Tom Arnold. I'm Kevin Davis. I'm the Police Chief for the Fairfax County Police Department.

[00:01:02] I'm joined by Assistant Chief Brooke Wright. Chief Wright lords over all criminal investigations on the police department and does a fantastic job. So I'm going to do my best to make a presentation and pay attention to these slides.

[00:01:17] So this first slide speaks for itself. We had a good year. There's always more work to be done with the crime fight and reducing the number of victims in our community. But in terms of reductions for the crimes that hit our community and impact our community the most, we had 13 homicides in 2025.

[00:01:39] That number was a 7% reduction from the year before, but that number, 13, we haven't seen 13 or a number that low since 2018 and 2015. So pre-COVID years, of the 13 homicides that impacted our community in 2025, five were of the 13 were domestic related. Six were acquaintances. So these are folks who are known to each other. Five of the 13 were indoors. And we had, and we're always proud to say this, I know the Board of Supervisors is proud to repeat it, a 100% case closure rate with the

[00:02:17] homicide investigations, just like we did the year before. When you move to almost homicides, I call them the non-fatal contact shootings, and thank God for the trauma system in Fairfax County and the hospitals who treat these victims and these patients.

[00:02:36] We had a 37% reduction in non-fatal shootings throughout the county. Carjackings is something that we pay attention to always. We had 12 in 2025, and that's a 48% reduction from the year before.

[00:02:53] And as you know, that crime regionally exists in much greater volume, not too far away. So we're always paying attention to trends and patterns. Our aggravated assaults are really the only crime category that's up. So why were aggravated assaults up in 2025?

[00:03:12] There's a couple thoughts that we have based on data. strangulation crimes are more prevalent now thanks to statewide legislation that makes strangulation a felony. So I think our police officers, our detectives are paying attention to the elements of strangulation and classifying it as such, and that makes it an automatic aggravated assault. And that's probably a good thing that we're paying attention in that way.

[00:03:41] We also saw a trend in 2025 where our assaults against police officers throughout all of our district stations were up in 2025 as well. So that's something we're paying attention to. Sex offenses were down 11%.

[00:03:57] Robberies, and by robberies I mean robberies of persons, robberies of establishments, stores, etc. Those were down 19%. Stolen cars down 10%. A lot of these crime reductions are part of a regional national trend.

[00:04:14] But to have a reduction of 10% on top of reductions the last couple of years is something we're proud of. The Hyundai Elantra remains the number one stolen car, not only here but elsewhere. And the two most likely ways cars are stolen in Fairfax County and regionally are popped ignitions in Hyundais and other cars.

[00:04:39] and keys left inside the vehicle. Not necessarily in the ignition, but in the vehicle. So that's an education endeavor that's always ongoing. Burglaries of homes and burglaries of stores were down 27%. That's a big number. And this is a good trend. The next one, shoplifting's down 11% across the country, but more particularly at Tyson's, the footprint that is everything we think about Tyson's down 25% in 25 versus 2024. I'll go to the next slide. Traffic. It remains probably

[00:05:18] the number one conversation that I have with folks across the county. I'm sure that's consistent with your interactions with people. 53% reduction in motor vehicle deaths, 20% reduction in pedestrian and deaths. We've increased our DWI enforcement by 8%, and our citations and warnings jumped significantly from 34,000 to 49,000. And I always feel compelled when I talk about our Road Shark campaign to remind people that we are not the Road Shark. We're looking for people who engage in, because people will think that, people who engage in that type of driving behavior,

[00:05:56] following too closely, speeding, unsafe lane changes, and distracted driving. So that's something that Assistant Chief Bob Blakely is really proud of. It was on the shelf for a few years, and Chief Blakely dusted it off a few years ago, and I think we're seeing some positive results. More harm reduction, overdose, and threat prevention. The 27 percent decrease in opioid deaths, mainly fentanyl, is absolutely part of a national trend, part of a regional trend.

[00:06:30] But when we looked at the number of times we administered Narcan, in a calendar year where we had 27% fewer deaths, our Narcan deployments actually went up. So is that better training and education for our police officers? We seem to think so.

[00:06:46] For our school resource officers, we seem to think so. So it's good news that fatal opioid deaths are down. It's probably good news that we use Narcan a total of 65 times in 2025. And these are patrol officers administering Narcan, and that's up from 43 times the year before.

[00:07:06] The next category is something that we're proud of collectively. I know the board is as well. We continue to lead the Commonwealth with emergency substantial risk orders. And in fact, since 2021, we really went all in with emergency substantial risk orders, removing firearms from homes that are volatile, either due to violence, domestic violence, either due to mental behavioral health crises, temporarily removing those firearms from a home.

[00:07:35] We've done so since 2021 now 463 times. And I can't even tell you who's in second place. We really do lead the way and we're proud of it. And we've got a group of subject matter experts that exist. And these detectives assist our patrol officers because there's a lot of steps involved with an emergency substantial risk order. On 800 plus occasions, our threat assessment and management team, and that's under Chief Wright, they investigated cases. And you all are personally

[00:08:08] aware of some of those threats that come in because they not only impact our elected leadership community, local, state, and federal, but they impact our health community CEOs and officials, and they impact folks who are otherwise higher profile, or community leaders who, for whatever reason, draw the ire of folks who then make threats against them. A lot of those threats end up being First Amendment protected, but we think it's effective for us to knock on your door and ask you if everything's okay, just to take away your potential anonymity when you're making

[00:08:45] threats against folks in Fairfax County. Our civil disturbance deployments are up. So we had 42 total civil disturbance unit deployments in 2025. And here's the top matters that we responded to.

[00:09:03] Several no kings events in the county, several Tesla protests, several bridge brigade demonstrations, sometimes they go into the roadway, several pro-Palestinian protests, peaceful protests, lawful protests at Capital One and at Tyson's. So those make up the bulk of our 42 CDU deployments, and that endeavor is led by many people, but primarily the one who has established himself regionally as a subject matter expert is Deputy Chief Wilson Lee. He does a really good job with

[00:09:40] that. On 3,500-plus occasions, our Financial Crimes Unit investigated cases, identity theft, fraud, et cetera. A lot of these cases emanate from overseas, but we still do our best and have, on many occasions, recovered money for families and folks who are being taken advantage of.

[00:10:01] Our Real-Time Crime Center, I know they were here a couple weeks ago, so I'm not going to go over what they do, but thanks to a concerted effort led by Major Hudson Bull, Our tips have increased to 114%. Our 2,600% increase in rewards paid amounts to about $16,000.

[00:10:20] And that money raised comes primarily from a Crime Solvers golf tournament. But we were really anemic with our Crime Solvers program for several years. Now it's back on track, and it's making a difference. I think one thing that on the right-hand side you'll see connect Fairfax County.

[00:10:38] We want to get that $500,000 up to $10,000, and we think we can do that in 2026. Those are business communities, residential communities, who register and or connect their ring cameras or other cameras associated with their homes and their businesses with the real-time crime center that gives us visibility, and we think that's one of the strongest crime prevention programs that we have in our tool bag.

[00:11:04] Next slide is staffing and recruiting. Our applications, as you can see, are up 22%, attrition is down 24%. This five-year effort to get to this moment is something we're proud of, but we're not resting on our laurels. We hired 140 police officers in 2025, and of those hired, they speak 26 different languages.

[00:11:28] And a tip of the hat for our body-worn camera, the manufacturer is Axon. We are piloting the latest version of our Axon body-worn camera in the Mason District Station. And the latest version of the body-worn camera has a button on it where you can push and it can identify 22 languages that are spoken and translated into English and vice versa.

[00:11:55] And the police officers at Mason, sometimes it's hard to make police officers happy. They're happy about this, Supervisor Jimenez. They know it helps them do their job. So we believe that pilot will, it's going to spread county-wide, but we're piloting it in the Mason District.

[00:12:12] So we're proud of that. You'll see in the lower left how our applications have gone up, particularly since the COVID days. And then you'll see, and I'll turn it over for a second to Chief Wright, the percentage of women in each of our last four academy classes.

[00:12:29] The highest percentage we've had since we started this 30 by 30 campaign four or five years ago was 37%. So we are still moving the needle. In 2021, the women on our department sworn were 15%.

[00:12:44] Now we're just under 21%. So that needle is moving. And because Chief Ray was involved in the creation of this 30 by 30 hiring event, hiring symposium. I'll allow her to fill in a blank and talk about our very next one.

[00:13:03] Yeah, thanks, Chief. This Saturday, as a matter of fact, it being, you know, Women's Month, we're hosting a 30 by 30 hiring expo at the academy. So for female potential recruits who have applied to the department and they're starting the background process, they can come in on Saturday. They're scheduled. We have academy staff. We have current recruits that are in the academy. We have new officers who have recently completed training, and they'll get the opportunity to have those one-on-one conversations about what's this experience really like, what are the roles and responsibilities. They'll get the opportunity to practice the physical abilities test and to talk

[00:13:41] about what the entire background process will consist of. So we've done these for a few years now since I was running the academy, and we've seen a huge impact with respect to those who attend hiring expos and then go on to be hired and complete the academy thanks chief right and our our final slide is an update on our foot pursuit data you'll see an 11 reduction in foot pursuits from 2024 to 2025 so um on the left and then you'll see and just to differentiate between these

[00:14:15] two and upper right those are persons pursued so sometimes more than one person at a time will run from the police, so we capture both those numbers, the number of foot pursuits and the number of persons we pursued. As you look in the lower right corner, the majority, 57% of these foot pursuits, start as a result of our response to a community call for police service, and then 43% are officer-initiated, and that's consistent with what we've seen since we literally just started measuring foot pursuits a couple years ago when we all remember that time.

[00:14:51] We think that the drone, and that is, in fact, a drone, it's already played a role in shortening foot pursuits, in preventing foot pursuits. And we think as the drone, as first responder program continues to grow, that the drone will continue to do just that, shorten them and prevent them.

[00:15:13] So we're proud of that. And, Chairman, that concludes my presentation. Thank you very much, Chief Davis. I'll just start by saying this is incredibly good news. I appreciate seeing all those reductions as it relates to robberies, homicides, and you think about in our community, there's so many who will articulate that they feel that crime is rampant in this community.

[00:15:43] This data shows we do not have a crime problem here in Fairfax County. It also shows that the policies, the programs, and the decisions that we are making here in Fairfax County are also making a difference as it relates to the public safety for our community.

[00:16:02] I also want to acknowledge that this good news is really kind of predicated from what we saw from over five years ago back to when we were looking at COVID and trying to figure out kind of what were the things that we're going to emerge from there.

[00:16:18] And I want to acknowledge your hard work, Chief. You have led this effort. You have helped us get the county to the place it is in today. And that is we appreciate the work that you're doing. Thank you, sir. I just wanted to make that point.

[00:16:35] I wanted to maybe go back to one point, which I really, really am excited about. And the 30 by 30 campaign, 30% women by 2030. Every single class that we've gone to for the recruit classes and their graduations, we can see more and more women.

[00:16:54] So that is phenomenal. What I also notice is that you have women who are officers, and they are being elected to represent the entire class. And I've seen that consistently, session after session after session. So this is extraordinary, and I just appreciate what's being done to make our community safer by including more women in our police department.

[00:17:19] So let me ask this question. I know you've talked about how we've increased the percent of women in Fairfax County. How does it compare to, say, a national average for women in the police department? So, Chairman Luss, that's always a question I ask people because they're surprised by the answer.

[00:17:40] Yes. Nationally, the percentage of women in policing is 12%. And then I normally follow up that question with, what do you think the percentage was when I became a police officer 34 years ago? And it's a trick question because the answer is 12%. The needle hasn't moved.

[00:17:55] Wow. It hasn't moved. What has moved in departments like ours, we've made disproportionate progress. But we've also increased the percentage of women in command and supervisory ranks. I think if you want to look for the the secret ingredient in 30 by 30 it's not just hiring women and i'll turn it over to chief right she can add to it it's not just enough to get them in the door but keeping them here particularly in that five to seven year you know demarcation and then and then promoting into leadership roles yes yeah where i'd say that a lot of police departments

[00:18:32] are challenged and i feel like we've been challenged in the past is when women move been to that point in their lives where they do become parents. We do a good job hiring them. We've done historically a poor job keeping them. But being able to put people in positions where they can be successful and continue to grow in their careers and continue to contribute and look forward to coming back and being better than they were when they left. I mean, gone are the days where if someone is pregnant, we just have them answer the phone at the front desk, right? Now they're helping investigations. They're getting into the work and they're developing their skills more so than they would have in the past.

[00:19:08] And so they're excited to come back, and they're excited to see where their career can go next. And I think that's really an important piece. So that's just one way that we've really moved the needle and made people recognize that this is a career, and, you know, you can do it still being a parent and still having a strong family.

[00:19:27] Well, again, it's impressive work, and we can see the results of it. So, again, thank you so much for that. And then if I could switch on the sworn vacancy rate, just acknowledging that we were at a place many years ago where our sworn vacancy numbers were certainly higher, significantly higher.

[00:19:45] So you've been able to reduce that dramatically over the last five years, very similar to what you've been able to do with women in the police department. Can you give me the same sort of comparison? How do we compare nationally on our sworn vacancy versus where we are here in Fairfax County?

[00:20:03] So the chairman, the Police Executive Research Forum, when we were coming out of COVID, published a report. And the report measured big, small, and in between police departments across the country. And the reduction in police applications during that two-plus-year COVID period of time was 63% reduction in police applicants across the country.

[00:20:27] So that puts you in a hole. You've got three balls and no strikes. So one of the secret ingredients that I think we stumbled upon was putting the right commanders in place who were competitive, creative, innovative, not afraid to do things differently.

[00:20:49] And with the support of this administration and the board, we're now able to hire police officers earlier in the application process. So that kind of takes them out of play for other agencies that they're thinking about.

[00:21:04] Because today's applicant will put in for three to five different local agencies. And we know who our competitors are. We hire them first, but we don't just hire them and put them at a desk. We hire them and put them into a program.

[00:21:20] And it's not just a physical fitness program, but that's part of it. But they go on excursions throughout Fairfax County and the region. And they team build. They get to know each other. And we've seen a reduction in washout rates once they're in the academy because of that.

[00:21:37] So our ability to hire people early has been helpful. We do signing days now. We treat these police applicants like they're college, like high school athletes signing for a college team. And we make a big deal out of it. And they respond well to it.

[00:21:53] It's a generational thing, but they like the attention. And then I'll ask one last question. And I think you started to touch on it, on the aggravated assaults. Again, looking at that, that's the only measure that we kind of saw a bit of an uptick on versus all the other measures.

[00:22:10] Can you maybe drill down a little bit more there and talk about, I know you mentioned assaults against police, but can we talk about assault crimes in general? Like, what is your opinion on what's driving that? And then how is that defined in terms of definition for those types of assaults?

[00:22:31] Chairman, we had thousands of simple assaults in Fairfax County in 2025, but the aggravated assaults, the serious assaults, those crimes that we report to the Major Cities Chiefs Association that rank us against our peers, we're still number one.

[00:22:48] Even though we had an 11% increase in aggravated assaults, we're still in the top position in terms of serious crimes, but the code now that makes it a felony to strangle someone has been introduced to policing, introduced to our prosecutors and our courts, and it's getting more attention now than it ever has been. Not too long ago, and Chief Wright can speak with greater specificity than I can, unless there was physical signs of a strangulation on a victim's neck and it's normally a woman on her neck or petechia in her eyes. It was really tough to

[00:23:28] charge someone with the crime of strangulation. Now we don't need all those things to necessarily exist. We can conduct an interview now with the victim who can corroborate that for us and allows us to charge an offender. And last thing I'll say before I turn it over to Chief Wright, data shows across the country that if a man strangles a woman, he is seven times more likely to kill her at some point in time.

[00:23:53] So it's a serious, serious crime. - Yeah, Chief, thank you for that. I would also add that we do have a great partnership with Inova Fairfax Hospital. They have nurses that conduct these fact exams because there can be injuries that are invisible to the eye, but medically they can show that, you know, the woman has been strangled and may have damage that can cause really significant long-term injuries.

[00:24:19] I would also add that we see an increase, And I would submit that's probably a good thing because that means people are calling and making the report. And in this day and age, I know that we fear an element of underreporting and people going without asking for help. But the fact that they're making those calls and we're able to come in and help, that's a statistic we kind of welcome because at least we know that they're calling us for help.

[00:24:43] And we can get victim services and domestic violence detectives engaged with that family sooner and hopefully prevent any of those type homicides. Perfect. Thank you for that explanation. Let me now move to my colleagues. I'll start with Chairman McKay, and then I'll pick up my colleagues after that.

[00:25:01] Thank you. First, this is amazing. I mean, honestly, let's just take a minute to soak this in, because to hear these statistics and what our police department is doing, I wish this is what the press was covering, you know, instead of some of the other noise that's going on, because this is a reflection of every single hardworking man and woman who works for our department, every single one of them. This is, you know, most certainly a reflection on you, Chief, and the leadership team that you've assembled, the people who are in this room

[00:25:39] and not in this room who have played a role in every statistic that we've seen here without a doubt. I think it's a reflection of our community's cooperation and support of the work that you're doing. I think it's a reflection of our use of technology and leaning in and thinking about new ways to provide for safety in our community. It's a reflection of a team pulling in the same direction statistically in about every category, and it is remarkable. Communities across this country would dream of having this kind of presentation, and so kudos to you and the

[00:26:13] entire team behind it. I did want to ask a couple questions and just make a couple quick comments. One, the number's not here, but you mentioned the ESROs, and I know it's huge, but I know at the end of calendar year 2025, and I just want you to verify this, because I think this is also a factor, at least in some of the violent crime reductions, is that at the end of 2025, since the red flag law had been put in place, we had removed 917 firearms from people who had been determined to be a threat to themselves and others.

[00:26:49] is that accurate? Chairman, the number I have here since 2021, and I believe that was our first full calendar year, was 463 cases. Now, of those 463 cases, that 900 number I'll verify, but that absolutely does sound accurate. Typically, we'll take more than one gun. Exactly. And I think that's really important for us to reflect on for a moment because this is an effort to try to protect people and also protect our larger community here. And I do want to give thanks

[00:27:28] to our Office of Public Affairs and yours and Tony and others because we're getting ready to mount another campaign in our buses and other places to advertise this program because I think it's really important for people who are fearful of maybe a loved one or fearful of an incident or have been a victim of domestic violence to know that this is one of the things that could happen now in Virginia. And it's something that we're aggressively pursuing in the county because there's no doubt those 900 plus or minus firearms in the hands of the wrong people can be a driver

[00:28:05] in what the statistics are here. There's just no way around that. And so I appreciate, again, that's a full team effort. I am concerned the piece on the assaults on police officers that you mentioned a little bit. I'm just curious if that still is a national number that's going up.

[00:28:22] And the reason why I ask it is, you know, I can remember you had mentioned the body-worn cameras in a different capacity, but I can remember when we were debating that program and put it in place that there was some consternation, you know, among our police officers, some of them, about that program and by and large now the ones I have talked to have said it's a godsend in so many ways and we've seen examples of where that an incident occurred and the body-worn camera evidence supported the police officers version of it and helped us deal with with some internal issues a lot more quickly I'm just curious if the fact that we have police-worn body cameras and other

[00:29:01] technology working in tandem with our officers to protect them as much as to protect the community if that's playing a role at all hopefully in seeing a day where those those number of assaults are going down and then maybe if you've seen any common elements of where those assaults are occurring are they occurring with some types of calls and not others are they occurring when officers are responding alone versus with with multiple I mean is there any characteristic about those that you have seen? So Chairman, mental and behavioral health crisis certainly lends itself

[00:29:37] to a person behaving in a way where they're not even considering the fact that there's a body camera attached to that police officer. I think a normal interaction, let's say a traffic infraction, I think people generally behave and say things differently when they know a camera is present.

[00:29:55] But I think with the folks who are interacting with our police officers and they're in crisis, and we have to take them into our custody, typically to get them help and take them to a hospital, those enhanced use of force slash assault on police officer interactions are there, and the numbers support that.

[00:30:17] Now, we've got eight full-time co-responder teams that are out there as well, and those co-responder teams have also been on the receiving end of assaults against police officers because they're typically taking someone into custody who doesn't want to be taken into custody. but we're taking it very seriously and paying attention. Yeah, I think that's important. I mean, obviously any assault is a problem, but it's different if it's assault by people who are not thinking in their own mind, can't even focus at that moment versus a calculated attempt to harm a police officer. And in neither case, it's acceptable. But I think for us, in terms of

[00:30:53] reducing the numbers of those in the future, it gives us some operational things to think about. Two last quick things. One, the recruitment stuff is amazing that's in here. The statistics that are in here, I mean, the fact that we are, you know, increasingly seeing a police department that looks more like our community is huge, and you can see it everywhere.

[00:31:13] And, Brooke, the work that you're doing on the program to, you know, attract and retain women in our department is huge. Is our partners in Fairfax County Public Schools, you know, who obviously I have heard anecdotally that their academies that focus on law enforcement are among the most popular with long waiting lists for kids to get in, especially girls.

[00:31:35] And I'm just wondering, is our partnership with schools as strong as it could be in terms of support for our Explorer Program, support for interesting, a lot of candidates at a very young age in this career?

[00:31:50] Because we see in so many places where if you can get kids engaged early enough and thinking about this as a career, whether it's, you know, robotics, sciences, law enforcement, that those efforts really pay dividends downstream. What is your sense of that?

[00:32:06] Yeah, I would say we definitely see a lot of interest in young people, right? The movies, the TV shows, they're made about our job. So we definitely have those academy classes and we participate and share in those efforts. I believe we're starting another Explorer program this year in the Reston District.

[00:32:26] Major Viva Wallace is working on that initiative. So we hope to create more of that. Where we feel like we miss out is from 18 to 21, we have only a few cadet or apprentice positions where we can hire young people.

[00:32:44] Otherwise, we may lose them to the fire service or, you know, other type of agencies where we may or may not get them back. But either way, creating that educational basis, we think, you know, obviously benefits the entire community. But we definitely look forward to some more efforts like that.

[00:33:01] And I know we've had some folks graduate in last dispatch class right out of high school. And one of them in particular said, I'm going to switch like you did because I started out as a dispatcher. And I said, well, call me when you're 21. So I think having our public safety family really working together in those efforts is key.

[00:33:17] Yeah, and anything we can do to help with that, I think that's big. I mean, we've been to the graduations. We've commented that some of the recruits look like they're really young, and that's a really good thing. Maybe, depending on your perspective, but we're doing really good work. And I'm going to close real quick.

[00:33:33] The traffic data numbers, obviously the Road Shark program, the numbers here are clear. We have seen the numbers also, and some people don't like this, but the photo cameras that we have up, particularly in the school zones and other locations, have some pretty astronomical numbers.

[00:33:52] And we're hoping that the point of those is to change people's behavior, not just to rack up citations. Do you feel like that program is playing a role in the traffic data that's here? And what would your advice be to us about making sure that we continue to support that program if you think it's working?

[00:34:12] Chairman, absolutely. Just like a body camera attached to a police officer, a traffic camera, speed camera attached at a location where data informs us, it should be because of the crashes and the lives that are impacted.

[00:34:28] And I can't say enough. I'm a true believer in automated traffic enforcement because it changes behaviors. Now, the key is changing it for the long term, and I think it's something just like seatbelts.

[00:34:44] I'm of that age, and I remember it wasn't cool to wear a seatbelt when I was 16, and now I don't think 16-year-olds hopefully don't even have that conversation. No, they don't think about it. So we as a police department are fully supportive of it because it's fewer crash scenes for us.

[00:35:00] It's fewer fatality scenes, fewer pedestrians who are struck. It changes behaviors. And it's important for us to be talking about that now because, of course, we've been in the same room talking, as you know, at the Legislative Committee about some of the things the state is looking at with that program. And it is, in my mind, without a doubt, saving lives and changing behavior.

[00:35:20] So I appreciate that. Well done. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So for my colleagues, first, Supervisor Palachuk followed by Supervisor Jimenez. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And let me go ahead and start with the congratulations to both you and Assistant Chief Wright.

[00:35:36] Really, really exciting news. And I know from the moment I first met Chief Wright at Mason District to where she went to lead the academy and brought, I think, also changes there that helped with both recruitment and retaining our recruits and making excellent officers.

[00:35:53] So thank you for that. It's possible we won't have you much longer, but like a good brownie, you have left this community and this service much better than you do. Thank you, ma'am. I appreciate that. I also am very excited.

[00:36:11] I think that we have other women that have been brought up. So I know you mentioned Major Viva Wallace since we're in Women's History Month. Major Culkin and McLean is exceptional. Major Meeks and Mason District, also excellent work.

[00:36:27] And Deputy Chief Levy is, you know. So we have excellent women, and I want to thank you, Chief Davis, for tapping some of those women into leadership, building that bench because we need to make sure that we have excellent leadership for generations to come. I have two questions for you following this. Love also the news about Tyson's. I think you said it's not just Tyson's Corner Mall, but the entire Tyson's area. Yes. Can you speak to some of the things that have led to that decrease in the shoplifting? Well, one of the conversations Supervisor Palachuk, police chiefs are having following a year where crime reductions have

[00:37:06] been prevalent regionally and even nationally is why. And I think there's a number of different factors when crime increases or crime decreases. And I seem to subscribe to the data-informed theory that if we can impact young people, particularly young men in their late teens through their mid to late 20s and get that group not to engage in criminal activity and if that then becomes a generational pattern that they're less likely to commit crimes than the generation

[00:37:40] just before them i think that's how societies achieve crime reductions that that aren't just a one-off but stand the test of time so programs uh that that exist in abundance in places like Fairfax County, whether it's our own police department programs and explorers and apprentices and cadets, but even programs in schools and programs to occupy young people with activities so they're not inclined to be distracted by the crime.

[00:38:13] So I hope that's not a cop-out answer, but I think if we can continue to focus as a government on that population, late teens to mid-20s, and give them opportunities, I think we as a public safety team enjoy results like these. It feels that way. Right. Well, I mean, I think I appreciate that we shared the opportunities because clearly a big part of having such a low crime is public safety. It's also our full safety net, right? We have, and we invest as a board in our human services safety net whether it's um responders but also in the community with so many of our

[00:38:52] practitioners i don't know if we can quantify that right but i think that whole universe and that local support especially hopefully more state support will uh follow in the future but i think that local support of both the public safety and i know how well you all work together um i guess my other question is um going back to the the strangulation data and the increase in aggravated assaults, and I don't know if this is for you or more for Tom Arnold, I believe you said we have an increase in charges due to this new code. Do we have data on how convictions have followed,

[00:39:27] how the ability to bring services to victims has followed? Do we have that, or is that something we could get as well? Tom Arnold, Deputy County Executive, that's all tracked through the judicial systems. I mean, we stop at the county level when the charges are made. I think that we'd have to go to the general district court to see if we could get some data on that okay let's get back to you that would be great no thank you very much appreciate that i know it can be a challenge and so it looks like this new code and the ability to bring those charges and then i think be under helpful to understand the way uh that then gets back to both the victims and and help when the

[00:40:04] council and domestic violence were tracking how to help um early and often both to the victims but also those who may be moving in the direction of being aggravators? Well, I will say, despite whatever happens in the court system, you should know for domestic violence cases, our domestic violence detectives and victim services advocates are on call 24-7.

[00:40:25] So when we have those really serious cases, they respond, the victim service advocates respond out with the detectives. They go to have those fact exams done at the hospital. They're along with the victims and extending them whatever their needs are from that night or that moment of the incident.

[00:40:44] They don't have to wait for six weeks until a court process happens or until the prosecutor's office is involved in the case in any way. The police department handles the investigation and the assistance to the victim immediately. Supervisor Poutier, I'll just add briefly, Sally Fez, who is the director of our victim services division, has put on at least two symposiums where she invites prosecutors and judges to speak specifically about strangulation.

[00:41:14] Because the entire criminal justice system has to view it similarly to enjoy reductions. So that's something that Sally does better than anybody. I very much appreciate that. Thank you. Supervisor Jimenez followed by Supervisor Stewart. Well, thank you so much. Mr. Chairman and thank you chief Davidson to your team on An amazing PowerPoint as mentioned lots of good news here I'll try to be quick one great seeing you in Mason district Hopefully you'll come by more often is great to see you last week The pilot program which you mentioned is something that we're all excited about Mason district and we love pilot program So, you know keep us in mind moving forward

[00:41:55] One of the things that I found to be really good news was not just the hiring, but more importantly, the retention. And I think that that's obviously something you've been working on with your team for many years, and it's good to see that moving up. When it comes to the hiring expos, please use our office and I'm sure many different offices as a way to kind of reach more folks.

[00:42:18] And I think that if we can be helpful when it comes to navigating with the schools and sharing this information, Please let us know. And I do have one quick question. What did we see as far as growth or decline regarding financial crimes targeting our older adults?

[00:42:38] It's up, Supervisor. And that case that I spoke of, I think 3,500-plus cases investigated by our financial crimes unit, we pay particular attention to our vulnerable communities. And it's, I guess, in the old days, it was a knock on your door, roof repair, driveway repair, but it's so far different nowadays where, especially during tax season, people are representing themselves as the IRS, and there are more sophisticated phone schemes with text messages and phone calls.

[00:43:09] And, you know, I hope my own parents aren't watching this, but I've had to talk to them a couple times about don't answer that call because it sounds real. And the authenticity that's now associated with these schemes is better than ever. So I'll provide you some more detailed information from that, but it's a heartbreaking crime.

[00:43:29] And it just seems like every year it's something, it's like one new scheme, right? Like I think all of us or some of us saw the text recently that came from the courts and it was even like on official paper. So, you know, it's very easy for someone to open that up and think that that's real because these scams are looking more and more real each and every year.

[00:43:48] I'm glad that everyone is paying attention to that. Thank you. Supervisor Stork followed by Supervisor Alcorn. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you very much. First and foremost, I remember a time not too many years ago where we would be waiting in May, June, September before we saw this kind of data, and that's a huge difference, and I want to thank you all because I know it took the team to make this a reality.

[00:44:15] And for me, the data, as I know for you, because you all are – I see it in the Mount Vernon District constantly where you see incidents happening and you put a lot more resources. Obviously, the Real-Time Crime Center is another way of achieving that, but having the data to go after that is crucial.

[00:44:34] But also for us, having the data go back to our community and say, you know, crime reduction is real. It's not – you know, your perception is it's gone up. The reality is it's going down. It's never going to go down enough. We all recognize that. That's part of our job is to hopefully always have it continue to go in the right direction.

[00:44:53] But it will go up and down at times. But that perception is what we're all facing, and I still hear it fairly routinely. But having this data makes a huge difference in how I communicate and hopefully can then kind of get down to what is it that you're really concerned about.

[00:45:08] If you perceive that something is happening and I'm not safe, then help me understand it, And then let's see what we can do to have you at least look at that or understand it better, even if you still emotionally are still uncomfortable with it. The 100% closure rate on murders is clearly one of the best numbers that I share with people constantly.

[00:45:31] I know it doesn't address all the issues that people might fear, but it's a critical part of, I think, helping us and helping our community understand that we can make a difference. Crime solvers, 100-plus percent increase in crime solvers' callings.

[00:45:46] I think that's part of that engagement, part of what I know we all trust policy, part of what I know we all are focused on because, in the end, we are far more successful as a community, not only because we have an incredibly valuable and useful and capable police force, but also we have a community that's equally engaged and committed to that.

[00:46:06] So my thanks all the way around for that. I want to continue to focus on that because I see that there are some individuals who are more frequently involved with police and more frequently arrested or create issues for us.

[00:46:22] We had one recently with that that was horrific and horrendous, and I want to understand or know what and how we can support your efforts to ensure that folks who are, frankly, consistently creating issues, whether it's robberies or larcenies or assaults or murders or whatever it might be, how we can be more engaged and more supportive of ensuring that those individuals frankly are addressed and not, you know, by having them out in the community, but by having them either in jail

[00:47:00] or otherwise supervised to minimize those opportunities. Supervisor, I'm going to pick the question out of that. I think the criminal justice system works best when all the pieces are working together. So that's a daily effort. Our detectives every day send bond alert emails to the prosecutors about people that may have a minor charge pending against them, and they may have a bond review hearing the next day, but we want to make sure that the prosecutors have full visibility on that defendant's criminal history. So that's something

[00:47:38] that we do daily. And it's something that is occasionally frustrating. And, you know, we have open lines of communication from me on down to the detectives with the prosecutors. And it's just a constant effort to make sure our focus remains on keeping those who again and again and again harm our community in a place where they can't do that. I support that. And as you know, I'm I'm particularly appreciative of Major Morrow and his efforts to do that.

[00:48:09] And I know it's not one individual. It's a team and the team that you all have assembled. And it's also prosecutor and judges as well as our probation supervision system. I mean, there's lots of pieces to that. And I know that we all have to be vigilant and look for ways to improve that because the difference is public safety.

[00:48:30] And particularly in the Mount Vernon community, I've seen it when it doesn't work as well. So I appreciate that very much. And then last question is we've made great strides in the number of officers that we've hired in that are active duty.

[00:48:47] Any sense of when the police force might go back to a three shift versus the current two shift? So, Supervisor, 21CP, it's 21st Century Policing, is an organization run by retired chief, retired commissioner Chuck Ramsey.

[00:49:05] He was here in D.C. and originally from Chicago and then Philadelphia. So he has a team that is about to land in Fairfax County to do an assessment on our patrol shift. And we're going to involve the collective bargaining organization, the PAB, in this effort.

[00:49:26] It kind of depends on who you are in patrol because we've been in this schedule that we've been in now for a few years. So a large percentage of our patrol officers have never known anything but that. And if you ask them, like I do, if they're happy with it, and sometimes they tell me what I want to hear, I think.

[00:49:44] So I realize that, too. They seem to be but we know that that we're going to work with Commissioner Ramsey's group to lay some options And then we're going to work with the police benevolent Association I think it's a PAB the PBA We're going to work with the police benevolent Association and have a conversation and make a decision together because I don't want to Unilaterally change schedules. There's a lot of unpopular things that I can do and that's at the top of the list so So we're treading gently into the...

[00:50:18] That sounds very wise to me. Yes, sir. Thank you. We're treading gently. Supervisor Storkin, as Chief Davis said, anything we do, we collectively work with our unions to ensure that that's where they want to go and that's where we want to go collectively together. When we have an opportunity to come back, we will.

[00:50:35] But at this juncture, it's a little bit premature, but I hear exactly what you're saying. Thank you. Supervisor Elkhorn followed by Supervisor Bierman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, first of all, thank you, Supervisor Minets, for bringing up the scams.

[00:50:51] We, at the Older Adults Committee that's scheduled in two or three months, that is going to be on the agenda and update. I know this board had a pretty robust discussion about the issue, and there's some cross-departmental efforts underway to try to help and head off those.

[00:51:07] So, thank you for bringing that up and for your feedback as well. I do have a question about the Connect Fairfax program, and I guess it's slide five. Camera registration, you addressed that. Tell us a little bit how camera integration is going, and I know there's a cost associated with that, and also if there's anything, any way to bring the cost, make it easier for people and businesses to integrate their camera as well.

[00:51:36] So thank you, Supervisor Alcorn. Of the 500-plus people we have registered, only a couple dozen are integrated into our real-time crime center, and they're all business community and faith community organizations. So the integration of cameras means that you can share your camera system with the real-time crime center, and it would give us the ability to observe your camera footage for whatever reason.

[00:52:03] A call for service goes out, an alarm goes off, et cetera. But most of the people registered with Connect Fairfax County tell us they have a camera and they say, hey, police department, if there's a crime in my community, please contact me and tell me to go to my camera. And I will do that on your behalf and give you back the footage.

[00:52:21] That's about 90 percent of the folks registered. But in terms of cost saving opportunities, particularly for the business and the faith communities, that's something we can provide some data to see if there's some assistance that can be given.

[00:52:37] Yeah, well, thank you. I mean, I know on the website, there are different levels of integration that could happen, depending upon what kind of hurdle. It's all voluntary. All voluntary, but there is a little bit of a financial hurdle, I think, to get into it.

[00:52:52] And anyway, hopefully the technology also improves and maybe the costs come down in the vendor community as well. So thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Bierman, followed by Supervisor Herod. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I want to address a question that I'm sure is bandying about with some chuckleheads out there.

[00:53:14] But I want to address the question in a way that doesn't make you think I'm a chucklehead. So know that I know the answer to this. But this is at least the second or third time we've talked in glowing terms. And I think we should talk in glowing terms about our 30 by 30 initiative, where we haven't actually also made a very, very important underlying predicate.

[00:53:38] So could you explain to those chuckleheads out there who don't get it some of the benefits of having more women in our police force? I look to my immediate right, and I agree with everything she's about to say. This is your opportunity to shine.

[00:53:55] The studies have been done, and they've shown that women make outstanding police officers. 90% of this career is talking to people, is solving problems, it's being creative. Having women on your police department lowers the number of use of force incidents you have. It actually has shown even just their mere presence on a scene tends to de-escalate a situation before they've even done anything.

[00:54:17] So just the fact that people are seeing people in uniform that look just like them and where we look like the community, that calms people. So women make outstanding police officers because I don't know that there's any reason why they wouldn't.

[00:54:35] You can say that I'm not a 250-pound SWAT guy that's ever kicked open a door, but I've written a lot of search warrants that allow them to do so. So there's a place for everybody on the police department, and I think we've done a great job at showing people what roles and responsibilities are out there and how it takes a little bit of everybody to make a great police department for the community.

[00:54:58] I'm glad I asked that question. Me too. Thank you. Thanks. That's all. Supervisor Herity followed by Supervisor Sizemore Heiser. Yeah, incredible job is reflected by the numbers, and it's really great to see it's more than pandemic recovery and national trends.

[00:55:16] And to see, you know, Fairfax County become the leader again in everything from community policing to traffic enforcement to the real-time crime center to drone as a first responder and crime solvers. Just an absolutely incredible job.

[00:55:32] And to go back to the seniors, you know, you mentioned it's a team effort. Chris, Clerk of Court, Chris Falcons, got a great new incentive on mortgage protection that I hope is part of the older adults presentation that we'll give because I think he's doing some great things there.

[00:55:53] I do want to take a minute, unfortunately, to go back to Chairman Lusk and Supervisor Stork's comments that people feel crime's ramping, and I think it's time and time again there are reports of repeat violent offenders being released on our streets, and I think that has an impact on people.

[00:56:14] Public safety is a multi-legged stool, and it's clear that your leg is working overtime just fine. 100% murder-solve rate should be shouted from the hills. Nobody should ever even think about committing a murder in Fairfax County. But unfortunately, there's at least one leg that's not.

[00:56:33] And the recent murder of Stephanie Minner, you know, kudos to you, Major Wright and Major Morrow, I'm sorry, Deputy Chief Wright and Major Morrow, for pleading with our Commonwealth attorney to get the guy locked up.

[00:56:53] But 100 interactions with police, 40, the numbers are out. Five malicious woundings, one rape, an assault and battery in January, and he's on our streets. And then to learn the victims aren't even being notified. He blames it that there's no victims, but they're not notified and they're not subpoenaed.

[00:57:13] I mean, I think it's been reprimanded by judges 12 times. I think we need to have him here to talk about his leg of public safety because it is important to our residents. And I think it will go a long way to making people feel safe.

[00:57:31] So that would be my recommendation and thought that we go back to the positive. And kudos to you on a great job you all are doing across the board in recruiting and everything. Thanks. Thank you. Okay, Supervisor Rochner-Size-Morheiser.

[00:57:49] Mr. Chairman, before we turn to – look, I don't want to take what is a really good statistical story here and turn it into what is getting national attention. But I do want to point out that it's not just, and I'm not one to defend the Commonwealth's attorney.

[00:58:07] I think there's many things the Commonwealth's attorney should be doing. But there's many more legs to our system than that. I think it's important for our public to understand what the difference is between what our police department's job is and where that then becomes judicial and goes into a different branch of government entirely from ours.

[00:58:26] And I think we're confusing people on, you know, where the accountability is. And I think that that's a shame. You know, I would just point out also that, you know, this person that we're talking about in this particular case was picked up by ICE and released back into the community.

[00:58:44] So there's a lot of different law enforcement agencies that have been involved in this. There's a judicial system that's involved in it. And I appreciate the comment that was made that our folks are doing an outstanding job, men and women in the police department. And when you look at the history that's here, they have absolutely been doing their job.

[00:59:01] But they have been let down in multiple other places, not just one. And we, as a Board of Supervisors, do not control another elected official who was elected by the voters for better or worse. And I think we just need to make sure we can voice our opinions about it for sure.

[00:59:17] But we need to make sure our community understands that we have direct oversight over the police department. And they're presenting us something today that affects our entire community in a really positive way. And I know you don't want to lose sight of that. I don't want to lose sight of that. But it's really important for us on the board, too, to fully explain to people what's happening and to get the entire rap sheet of what's been occurring and the failures that have happened along the way, none of which are a result of the men and women who are here today, all of which are the result of other entities involved in this,

[00:59:51] from the judicial system to ICE, who had this person in their hands and let them go in our community. And that is a part of the record as well that I think we as a community need to understand. But I would certainly hope that this would not affect anyone's ability to come forward and talk to our police when they need help. We didn't talk about this here, but I think one of the reasons these statistics have gone down the way they have is we have built a trust relationship between law enforcement and our community that helps us solve crimes, that helps victims come forward and report crimes.

[01:00:26] We cannot control what happens when it gets to the court system, but we can control the type of community we want to have here and promote the type of constant communication between everyone in our community and the police department. And I think that's a part of these numbers as well, and it's statistically hard to measure, but it's just I think everybody knows that.

[01:00:46] So I appreciate that, but this is a sensitive topic, and some of what Supervisor Herity said I agree with, but I think the full context of this is really important, too. Okay, and our last speaker on this item will be Supervisor Sizemore Heiser.

[01:01:03] Thank you, and I won't repeat what my colleague said, so I just want to echo the thanks that they give, and also echo the remarks to the Chairman just now, and even as we know, while we're not responsible for the judicial system, it's a complicated system, and so I just think Anytime we talk about something, giving full information so we have full understanding and facts and analysis is always important.

[01:01:21] So I appreciate the transparency you all have given here in what you've reported. And I really appreciate the conversation about women in policing. And I would love to get some of what you talked about or some research so I can share it with my community, my newsletter of this is why, not just that we have this initiative because it's important to have representation, but this is why representation is important and why the skill sets, you know, are anyway.

[01:01:43] So I just would love to have that information. I did have a couple questions I wanted to ask about. With the drone program you talked about in the Real-Time Crime Center and the need to recruit 18- to 21-year-olds, it feels to me there's, and I'm sure you've explored this, but a real possibility of partnering with this new high school that FCPS is doing, which is focusing on some of this drone technology and some of the other academies that are doing drone technology, to say, look, this is a way that you all who are interested in AI and drones and robotics, here's a great career path for you that doesn't require $150,000 of debt potentially even.

[01:02:23] So just something to think about, especially with a new high school that's focusing on some of these things might be a good partnership there. Dr. Reed actually reached out to me about this very topic and finding a way to introduce it, particularly in the high schools. And we're looking forward to finding that way. But we would love to plant a seed that way.

[01:02:40] Yeah, I just think as – and we're getting an understanding of the importance of trades and other career paths that don't require college, I think lifting this one up would be really, as I heard you say, 18 to 20. So I'm glad you're having those conversations. A couple questions. You talked about the opioid-related deaths are down, which is fantastic.

[01:02:56] It's been such an issue that we've been dealing with. Then you mentioned Narcan. Do you think or do you have data on whether the deaths are down because of an increased use and awareness of Narcan or because our opioid prevention plans and the education have been working right like it's always good to know which is it is it the narcan usage or is it the education or is it a little bit of both and how do we tease out which it is i i think it's always uh d all of the above but the supply chain has definitely been interrupted at a at a federal law enforcement level okay uh better than it has been in the past and and it's always and is always

[01:03:32] important and local communities like ours and we're the exception uh finds ways to collaborate together to to reduce harm so so i i do think it it it is both but i think it's a fragile reduction and we can't take our eye as a county off the ball well i'm not looking to take my i just when we have when resources allocation trying to figure out where do we really want to put our resources towards that and that's a question you have to answer i was just kind of curious from that aspect but this is fantastic and having come off the school board we were dealing with this on the school side of things so just seeing the reduction is amazing um and then the only other

[01:04:08] question I had was around the assault increase in strangulation that you said is a big part of it and it seems like there's a tie to strangulation potential domestic violence when you mentioned you know if a man strangulates a woman he's I think you said seven times more likely to then um killer is there I know we have some great domestic violence prevention programs in our county but are you seeing an increase or decrease or flat of the domestic violence rates as part of that assault, or is it strangulation and simple assault?

[01:04:37] I'll let Chief Wright take that, and she corrected me. As it gets back to Supervisor Beerman, she's not afraid to say it out loud. It's not seven times more likely that that man will kill a woman if he strangles her. It's 700 times more likely. 700 times, wow.

[01:04:52] So I stand corrected. Wow, that's a huge thing. So I'll say this and turn it over to Chief Wright. Anytime a new law is introduced, the very first entity of the criminal justice system that tends to wrap its arms around it is normally the police. Because it's our cops who are writing the reports, making the arrests.

[01:05:10] So I think, like Chief Wright said, it's not necessarily a bad thing this year. If we look at this year as a statistical anomaly, perhaps because we're paying attention to it more than we have in the past. And that should find a way of evening out in the years ahead. I mean, I agree with you.

[01:05:26] I was just more thinking if we're seeing that now and it potentially is related to domestic violence, are we seeing a trend that we need to maybe start practically planning for addressing even more than we have been around combating domestic violence, especially from a cultural competency sensitivity way? So that was kind of where my question was leading towards.

[01:05:42] Yeah, I think statistically our domestic violence rates have hovered around the same. Okay, that's good. So we haven't seen a dramatic increase or decrease. And these are the numbers, Supervisors. Domestic disturbance calls for service were flat, 25 versus 24, but it was 8,100 domestic disturbance calls for service.

[01:06:02] And domestic violence calls for service were down 8%, but it was still 3,700 times we responded in calendar year 2025 to a domestic violence call for service. So that's several a day that our patrol officers have responded to.

[01:06:18] Well, thank you. That's kind of where my brain went, is are we seeing also a correlated increase in domestic Violence it sounds like no, but this is a good way to plenty preventing that if it's 700 times more likely so I appreciate that Was those my question. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Okay. Thank you as well We'll move to our last item on the agenda, which will be the police department's racial encryption Discussion which will be led by chief Kevin Davis Thank you. Thank you. Chairman Luss, Chairman McKay, Board of Supervisors I'm joined by major Brendan Hook

[01:07:01] Dana Ferreira, I can never pronounce his last name. I'm going to let them take it from here. And this is a conversation we've been wanting to have with the board for some time now. And we'll do our best to explain what we think our position is. Afternoon board, Chairman Lusk.

[01:07:18] I'm Major Brendan Hook, formerly of the IT division, currently with Cyber and Forensics. For the first time in Fairfax County Police history, we're looking to encrypt our radios. I'm here today to explain our plan and our reason. there's a confluence of factors that have come together that mandate that we act now to protect our community. Right now, we are behind the region. Most of our regional partners have already made this move to full encryption for all their radios. Virginia State Police did it in the fall. Prince William County just did it about a month and a half ago. There are other agencies in the region

[01:07:58] having this same conversation with their elected officials right now. It's not for me to announce set for them. But certainly, if anything, we're a little bit behind on this trend, but we're following best practices. As an example, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department has also encrypted and we work with them quite a bit. Historically, there is a barrier to entry to scan police radio equipment. The community that could actually listen was rather small. You needed sophisticated

[01:08:31] knowledge and equipment. And really, it was just you listening. That's changed. Anybody can listen to our broadcast anywhere in the world, it is recorded and broadcast 24-7.

[01:08:49] I also need to point this out. The information available to police officers is so much more than even when I started my career, certainly when Chief Davis started his career. That was him. But the information is so much more significant.

[01:09:09] So, to save my colleague here. We're looking, and what he's alluding to, and it's very true, and if you look on the screen, this is a quick recording I made just a couple weeks ago in the iTunes app, or I'm sorry, the App Store on an Apple iPhone, but free police scanning, radio scanning applications are ubiquitous.

[01:09:32] They're everywhere. And again, there's no barrier to entry. Anyone in the globe can download one of these applications and begin monitoring law enforcement activities in this county in probably less than five minutes, as long as they have a good internet connection. And that allows them to have that live access. But also, as the major said, these are being stored in a manner that we have no control over. There's no accountability for it. We found social media accounts that are harvesting these broadcasts and using them for content generation, right? So turning these into

[01:10:06] entertainment. We've also found, and we have documented cases in the county that following an arrest, a suspect has been found to have been either accessing or in the process of downloading one of those applications before, during, or after their crime so that they can get away with it, so they can hear the law enforcement response to what's going on. So what is broadcast? I encourage you to go download one of these apps if you'd like and listen in your time off. But names, home addresses, dates of birth, health information, phone numbers, social security numbers. These are all broadcast routinely. This information is what I was alluding to that's available to police

[01:10:46] officers. Criminal justice information, mental health information, medical status information. In any other format, and if you've tried to email a social security number across DIT network, you'll see that you run into the firewall. It's unacceptable to send this information in any other format in unencrypted means. If I were a criminal and I wanted to target individuals in Fairfax County for identity theft, fraud or scams, harassment, bullying, I could just listen to the radio and harvest that information all day, every day. We are

[01:11:22] potentially contributing to new victims, people that call us. And that's the other point. We don't want people to hesitate to call us because they're afraid of that information being broadcast out to a global audience permanently? Yeah, and it comes down to that level of choice, right?

[01:11:39] When a community member is calling for help, they're not making a decision to have their information shared. They're calling the people that are responsible for coming to them in their moment of need. We don't want to be a part of re-victimizing that person and exposing their information, again, to that global audience.

[01:11:55] And then also, as all of you are aware, and members yourselves, there's a large number of, I guess you would call them high visibility, high public profile individuals that reside within this county. We do have a slightly higher bar to also protect those individuals as they participate in government service and what have you and ensure that their privacy and safety is paramount as well.

[01:12:19] So what we're really talking about doing here and the way this works, an encryption, it's a handshake between two technological devices where we establish a digital key and only someone that possesses that digital key has the ability to listen to that radio or, frankly, unencrypt it as it reaches the endpoint. And we do that not only so that we can ensure all of our internal partners have that information, but also our regional partners. You know, as the major showed earlier, all of those local area departments that have encrypted, we can still monitor their radio traffic. Because of our partnerships through the COG and also just on one-to-one basis, we ensure that those connections are made and never broken.

[01:13:00] And I'm going to show you here, I mentioned the harvesting for social media. This is a capture from a TikTok account that uses radio broadcasts in the county. And I'll give you a moment to kind of see and hear what is being shared around and, frankly, now out there forever without this person's consent.

[01:13:18] In area 730, there's going to be 7625 Court Glenway. Female scream at hysterically sound as she said someone broke in her door, saying someone got shot. Possibly at 7627, this information has come from Rapid SOS.

[01:13:36] Card 70, Bravo, you the right? That's right, 701. I got one gunshot wound victim shot in the head. Scene is still very high, multiple people on scene. So this is a moment, right? Someone's darkest hour, and now it's out there for clicks.

[01:13:52] And I'm going to point out, the major and I were going to use a different example. I really thought pointed this out. It was a Fairfax County public school student, a high school student who was in crisis. She absconded from school in that state and was communicating that she was about to harm herself.

[01:14:09] Law enforcement officers sprang into action. Our real-time crime center sprang into action, started getting her information out there immediately. But while that's being done with that goal to protect her, we've now put out this young lady's name, her date of birth, her home address, her cell phone carrier, the clothes that she's wearing and the vehicle that she is driving. Now it worked, right? We were able to find her. We brought a positive resolution to this situation and got her help. But I want you to think, especially those that have worked with the schools before, Major talked about bullying, right? Now

[01:14:44] that traffic can be used and shared around that school. Oh, did you hear about so-and-so? And frankly, we chose not to use that radio traffic today because even though it is out there in the public sphere, we are not going to be the ones to re-victimize that individual and put her information out there. But I do want to point out that with this and on that real-time crime center, the volume and velocity of information that comes out during the early stages of an investigation is like never before. And that is because of the significant investments we have made in the staff and in the technology to get actionable information out to our officers and detectives that are

[01:15:21] working to bring these situations to a close. But at the same time, that means, you know, back, pardon the old days, you know, that we were sharing this information, there was a little bit less of it. It was coming at a slower rate. And now the tap has been turned and it's out there. In any other environment, this data would fall under a number of regulations, including HIPAA, FERPA, potentially CGIS, which is the FBI mandate. So in a way, at some point, our hand would be forced potentially. We'd rather be proactive and follow what the rest of the region is doing. Right now, we have eight main channels that are monitored by a dispatcher.

[01:15:58] That's where our calls for service come in. You call 911, the dispatcher dispatches it over those eight main channels. Those are unencrypted. That's where most of our radio traffic occurs. That's where the things that you routinely will care about in a community occur. This is where we're going to need to encrypt. We do have secondary communication channels that are not monitored by a dispatcher. So calls for service typically aren't routinely broadcast over this.

[01:16:25] These are for specialized units, elevated events, and informal coordination. It's only done when we request a dispatcher on those encrypted channels. And I need to emphasize, it places a burden on DPSC to staff those, and it's only done for a short amount of time for special situations.

[01:16:43] So that's where we're at now, and we're looking to move towards fully encrypting. Right. So the way this works, we're going to apply that encryption level across the eight dispatch channels. But this is not done by flipping a switch, right? This is a very slow, very deliberate process. And we do that, again, for community safety. It's to ensure that we have taken the time to properly program the thousands of radios that are in use both by our agency and our partner agencies in the county, but also ensure that we have properly communicated and planned with all of our partner agencies in the region. What we have committed to and the guidance we've gotten from the chief is there will never be a moment where a police

[01:17:22] officer is trying to reach DPSC or trying to call for help that the radio is not going to work. So this takes time. It takes planning. It's going to take several months to do this, but that's why we're laying the groundwork now so that we can do this over that phased approach.

[01:17:46] So as Major Ferrer pointed out, our primary concern is interoperability. There will be no loss of interoperability with our regional partners and even internally in the county with the towns and villages. Some of our stakeholders like FCPS, Office of Safety and Security, we've talked to all of them. They're all on board and it's not going to cost us a dime. This is an existing capability that's built into our radio system. DIT and DPSC support this and they're ready to act in concert with us. I mentioned the other agencies that are looking to do this as well

[01:18:18] And there's a protocol that the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments has, and we're going to do it together as a region so that we can make sure to maintain that interoperability and really use our resources efficiently regionally.

[01:18:35] And on top of all of this, and I always think it's important to note this, there is a question about transparency, right? That is what people are going to say is, well, you're trying to hide the work that your officers do. I think it's very clear from the chief's presentation we couldn't be prouder of the work that our officers do.

[01:18:51] We will renew and continue that demonstrated commitment to transparency. We do that through our public affairs posts. We do that through briefings at critical incidents. We do that through our own self-imposed policy of releasing body-worn camera footage after a critical incident involving a police officer in Fairfax County.

[01:19:10] The Fairfax County public open data portal remains accessible. In fact, we're working on improving it to make it better than it ever has been before. And the community does still have the ability to submit FOIA requests for radio traffic to the DPSC.

[01:19:25] As the manager said, we have worked with our partners at DPSC. They are aware they may see an increase in this and have put certain things in place so that they're ready. But they do support this. But I just want to make sure we hit that. Transparency matters to this agency.

[01:19:41] We are doing this because of our obligation to protect the community. That's all I have, sir. Thank you. Chairman, that concludes our presentation with a heavy focus on protecting personally identifiable information. And that's just kind of where we are in 2026, and we think it's important to bring it to the board.

[01:20:02] Well, I'll first start by saying thank you very much for bringing this important issue to the attention of this board. I would also make the point that I'm a bit troubled by some of the information that's being publicly broadcast, that is potentially permanently being recorded and can be accessed by those inside or outside the community, definitely something that we need to address and something that we've got to make a decision on.

[01:20:34] So can I start with a quick question on can you explain to me, just thinking about the issue around the Social Security number, that one kind of blares at me more than any of the other points. When would that be something that would be shared over the radio?

[01:20:51] Can you help me understand, like, when would you share a social security number over a dispatch radio? So, sir, it's fairly routine when we're trying to identify someone or obtain a driving record or a criminal history. So just on a routine traffic stop, and we don't like that term, but as part of that routine on a traffic stop, sometimes we have a driver's license number, but some people, maybe they forgot their driver's license that day.

[01:21:15] Oh, well, here's my social, and we can run you. And then we see what your driving record is, which is then all being broadcast back and forth. Criminal history information, which is very heavily regulated. We have to take a class every year on how we have to, like, shred the paper for criminal history information, yet we're broadcasting it over the radio.

[01:21:32] So it's fairly routine. It can be victims, witnesses, or suspects. Really, when we're trying to ascertain an identity in someone's background, a social security number, unfortunately for us because cyber criminals need it, is something that your record is tied to.

[01:21:50] Okay, and that sort of leads to the next question I wanted to ask is, do we have any cases or examples where information that was obtained from an unencrypted channel was used to commit, say, a further crime or used in identity theft or used to retaliate against?

[01:22:11] someone in another case. So I don't know that we necessarily have that because we're not necessarily going to know from where a bad actor obtained that information. But anecdotally, I can share a case that I worked when I was with our digital forensics section where an offender had been stealing vehicles in the county. And about 15 minutes after stealing the vehicle, he was Googling Fairfax County stolen car and then downloaded a police scanner app. And this was several years ago. And imagine it's only simpler now. So cases where it's being used during the Commission of Crimes, absolutely. I don't know that we can speak to when someone's PII has been

[01:22:50] compromised. I can't speak to Fairfax County specifically on this, but in general, the gaming community at times can get rather heated. And if you're familiar with swatting, right? So swatting elicits a police response. Unfortunately, the gaming and online community finds this entertaining.

[01:23:07] There have been cases where then that radio traffic is then saved and broadcast amongst the people encouraging that. So it creates this dynamic of I successfully SWATed in here. You can hear the SWAT team en route and then kind of the follow-up on that. So that has happened nationally.

[01:23:25] I can't speak to Fairfax County specifically on that. Okay, so I'll just say I appreciate the comments that you've made here and the case that you've made for why we should be protecting this information. So with that, let me hand it over to Chairman McKay. Yeah, just briefly, because I know we're about out of time here.

[01:23:40] I do want to thank you for the presentation, especially the page on commitment to transparency, because I know this can be falsely used as an effort to not be transparent. And I know you're doing everything you can to be transparent. In a lot of ways, it's a shame that we even have to have this conversation if you really think about it, Because there are some good actors who listen to radio information and relay factual good information to the community who's, you know, curious about what's going on but is concerned and gets some reassurance.

[01:24:14] But I've also read on social media and some other places a pretty false interpretation of what's happening which drives further anxiety. And so, you know, I think this is about making sure that the information gets out there, being transparent about it, but also making sure that our community is getting the factual information about what is occurring.

[01:24:36] This is one of those cases where the quality of the information, I think, is as important as the speed of it. And I think some of the misinterpretations about crime in the community that we just talked about in the last presentation sometimes are because of how quickly things get out there.

[01:24:53] Somebody told me the other day they didn't know how much crime was happening in their community, and it was occurring. The reason they know it now is because they've gone and looked and seen some things happening, and people are reporting things. It doesn't necessarily mean there's crime occurring in the community.

[01:25:08] There's been calls for service and concerns, and so sometimes transparency also gives you a false impression of what's happening. And so I would just say this, I think, as I said before, it's a shame because there are good actors that put good information out that are trying to help our department and help our community.

[01:25:25] I would just say as we move forward with this, and I think it is important that we do this, that we protect people. I mean, police department's in the business of protecting people. And if we feel like we're not protecting them by oversharing information that could cause them further harm, then, you know, you have to look at that and take that seriously.

[01:25:43] I would just say in terms of the data portal and the tools that you have, just really trying to ramp those up, as you mentioned, in the transparency category to make sure that the communities getting the information that they need in a timely manner can see what's happening without necessarily listening to the play-by-play and all the information that you just mentioned on the radio.

[01:26:05] I still think it's a shame that we have to do this, but there's a lot of things that are a shame that we have to do that are a reality of the situation we're in now with cyber crimes and some of the things that are taking place that we've talked about here that really put a lot of our residents at risk.

[01:26:22] And protecting people's personal information, especially things like Social Security numbers, are our best practice of organizations, and I think we need to seriously think about that. Lastly, I appreciate the fact that you've seen no interoperability challenges because we have a lot of law enforcement agencies in the DMV region.

[01:26:43] We're unique in a lot of ways. And I would just say that continuing to look at those jurisdictions that have done full encryption, you know, what have they learned from those experiences? What are the concerns that have come in from the community and how they're addressing those as we move towards this, I think, is going to be important.

[01:27:04] We don't want to repeat any mistakes that others have made, but let's learn from their experience and let's also learn from any of the concerns the community has brought forward about this, ways we can mitigate those with our other tools. So, thank you. Okay. One listed speaker, Supervisor Herity.

[01:27:21] Yep. So, I 100% agree. I think I know a lot of enthusiasts that just listen to them and they're not going to be happy with this at all. But I think to go to the chairman's point, the more we can give them a way to get at least the information they need to know about what's gone in their neighborhood it's it's important we focus on that as well the two quick questions one uh assume there's no decrease in performance in video it can make it through the encryption and everything's so this is just for radio transmissions just for radio yes sir so there's already no ability to monitor our body-worn cameras uh to the public all right that answered that question and then

[01:27:58] the second is do we have the same issue on on the fire side and do we need to be addressing that Tom Arnold, Deputy County Executive. No, not to the same degree. The fire department utilizes the CAD system for the primary radio transmissions, and they're not transferring the personal identifiable information.

[01:28:14] We had this conversation at a committee meeting to discuss with both police, fire, and sheriff to talk about if this is something we want to do collectively to bring it all to you. And at this point, the police department's where it's really most affected. The others are okay right now. So with that, I'm going to have to go ahead and close out the meeting for today.

[01:28:34] I want to thank Chief Davis and the team for two very exceptional presentations, very informative. And we'll see you here next year. Thank you. For next year's report, Smeen's adjourned.

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