On November 25, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) announced the hiring of Peter Newsham as the new Prince William County (PWC) Police Chief.

Former PWC Police Chief, Barry Barnard, the fourth chief in the county who held the role for four years, retired in July of this year. Deputy Chief, Jarad Phelps began serving as Acting Police Chief following Barnard’s retirement. On July 17, PWC government released a community survey for residents to “assist with the recruitment of the next chief of Police for the county.” The survey remained open until July 31st and was available in seven languages other than English.

In the PWC government press release announcing Newsham’s hiring, County Executive, Christopher Martino was quoted saying, “We are happy to welcome Chief Newsham to Prince William County and the level of expertise he brings to the position.”

Many members of the community were not happy, as Martino was, in response to Newsham’s hiring. Immediately following the announcement, posts circulated on various social media platforms. One of the more interesting posts was an Instagram page with the handle ‘washingtonianprobs.’ It posted various screenshots of the announcement from twitter, several users shared their thoughts in the comments.

On a local level, Supervisor Margaret Franklin, D-Woodbridge, shared her choice to be the sole vote against Newsham on Facebook. PWC Mutual Aid, a local non-profit organization that focuses on justice reform within the Black and Brown communities, posted infographics on Twitter which criticized Newsham, calling for local residents to take action.

Several publications quickly began covering the matter. WTOP spoke with Chair-At-Large, Ann Wheeler and shared her comments in an article posted the day of the announcement. Wheeler also spoke with NPR, her comments were featured in an article also posted on the 25th. The Washington Post published a widely circulated op-ed against the hiring on Newsham on November 28th. DCist, the self-described “unofficial homepage of the District,” shared comments from residents at the December 1st BOCS meeting on their site.

During the BOCS meeting on December 1st, several residents expressed their issues with the selection of Newsham. 

Some residents focused on his actions as Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Chief. Esmeralda Flores of Gainesville said, “I have been coming here every meeting to emphasize the need to protect vulnerable communities, especially communities of color. The Board made a decision that did the complete opposite of that. You have voted to accept a new police chief with a history of abusing his power to attack protesters, which he did all summer long. He has allowed for the use of military style tactics and tear gassed members of DC who were practicing their first amendment rights. . . the man you have elected is known for attacking Black Lives Matter protesters, protesters who were out there for social and racial justice. Do you understand the huge mistake you have made?”

Lubna Azmi, from Brentsville, also discussed Newsham’s practices in D.C., “Peter Newsham charged an 11-year-old girl for filing a report for rape by older men and his department never brought any form of justice for her. He brutally arrested and detained around 200 protesters in 2017. Under his leadership his cops have worn white nationalist t-shirts while on official business to the courthouses. He has allegations of domestic violence against his former partner, including knocking out her teeth.“

She continued on about how his leadership has led to the murders of several young minorities. “Young Black boys of the ages of 9 and 10 have been targeted and chased by officers under his leadership. D.C. police who have murdered multiple Black men have been vigorously protected under his leadership. Some of those murdered including Terrence Sterling, Deon Kay, Koran Hylton – whose mother was tased by D.C. police while protesting his death. When D.C. council members called in emergency police reforms during the summer, he [Newsham] publicly clashed with them.”

Jess Edwards, from Neabsco, described Newsham’s previous behavior as a predictor of his future in PWC, stating, “Peter Newsham, as Chief of MPD, was manipulating the culture war to lobby for the continued reallocation of funds into the police department for the sake of quote ‘public safety’ which in reality just became a free influx of cash for the quote ‘non-lethal’ weapons to be used against peaceful protesters. This is an example of excessive force our county’s representatives willfully employed and a sign of things to come with Newsham’s incoming position as Chief of Police.”

Ivania Castillo, described her experiences while protesting in D.C, “This is the community talking, asking you, why did you make the decision to hire the Chief of Police of Washington D.C. I can tell you I was in a march over there [in D.C.] four weeks ago and I got beat up by the police officer, where he [Newsham] was working. Where he was the Chief of Police, in Washington D.C., they hit me, they pushed me, only because I wanted to tape somebody that they were taking and he was an African-American man, a young person, who deserved to be protected, who deserved his voice to be heard. But they grabbed him, push[ed] him, they were hitting him, and they took him in handcuffs and they put him in jail. You don’t want him [Newsham] here. You don’t want that Chief of Police. He doesn’t represent us. He doesn’t represent your values. He doesn’t represent the suffering, the weeping in this community.”

Castillo also questioned the selection process, asking, “What is wrong with this community? That we don’t wake up and smell the coffee! That we don’t want no more racist[s]. We want to live in a place where we live in peace, where our families’ are treated with respect. Where we have a new Chief of Police who represents our community, [the] African-American community, [the] Spanish community. Where is that Chief of Police? I wonder, do we have nobody here? In this county? We don’t have a police officer? We don’t have a sergeant? Somebody who can represent our community. You’re telling our police officers in this county that they are not good enough to represent our community. That’s the message that you want to send to the police here? No. We don’t want to send that message because we have people who can represent our community here.”

John Steinbach, from Coles, echoed those concerns about process in his comments, “So today I just want to talk briefly about this question of process. How did we decide on Peter Newsham as Chief of Police? Many of us participated in the survey. We told you what we wanted in a Chief of Police. And many of us said we want someone who is invested in community policing, who is a supporter of human rights and civil rights. Someone who is open to our tradition of community involvement of the police and community oversight, cooperation, working things out. What happened was a relatively closed process where there were four people that were chosen. Apparently a very limited amount of time for the Board to research who was chosen. No opportunity for community input into the decision.”

Alina Carter, from Gainesville outlined some of the accusations against Newsham and the practicality of the choice, “Let’s talk about how Wheeler, Boddye, Angry, and Bailey are all part of your agenda, Mr. Candland. Let’s talk about how they all voted in a certified domestic terrorist, Peter Newsham, Chief of the MPD [Metropolitan Police Department]. Let’s talk about how he beats his wife and how he is responsible for several murders of unarmed Black men. And let’s talk about how you decide to give him a salary of $215,000 dollars a year. Meanwhile he’s collecting his pension from D.C. which is 80% of his old salary which was something like $275,000 dollars a year. So you just want to throw like a quarter million dollars of our tax money every single year to this terrorist, this already rich man. And bring him into our county when he knows nothing of community, when he knows nothing about the people who live here, he knows nothing about any of our lives. And you want to bring him here to police us?”

Larry Bell, a Coles resident of 44 years, shared similar dark predictions of PWC’s future with Newsham as Chief of Police, “This gentleman [Newsham] has a history of Gestapo-like tactics. Do you really want to see stop and frisk in Prince William County? Can you see Garfield students and Stonewall students getting out of school in an environment of stop and frisk? That’s really who you want to hire? We need oversight, we need community oversight and community involvement. This gentleman does not want it.”

Bell believes “This county needs community policing. We need community involvement. And I read the articles in the Washington Post, where this gentleman has said that even moderate reforms, don’t miss that, even moderate reforms are emboldening criminals. Because I want to be involved, because I want the police doing the right thing, I am emboldening criminals? I don’t think so. He also mentioned that community policing tied the police hands. So he wants to have total control of everything that goes on in our community. I don’t think so.”

Yessica Bonilla, from Occoquan, described Newsham as the ‘bad apple’ those in support of police often invoke when discussing police brutality, “So often the police apologists like to say that a few bad apples shouldn’t be enough to consider defunding the police and reallocating their funding and all this stuff. . .seven of you voted to bring a so called ‘bad apple’ here. A man condemned by D.C. constituents [who were] victimized by his policies so much that he had to be removed from D.C.”

Requests for comment from the Board of County Supervisors were not returned at press time. How Newsham governs as Chief of Police in another majority-minority will be critical for a community that is looking to heal in the midst of civil unrest and trust those who are called to protect and serve.