On Tuesday December 15th, Prince William County’s Board of Supervisors (BOCS) convened for their final meeting of the year. The agenda included an update from Prince William Health District Doctor, Alison Ansher and Resolution 5-D brought by Acting Chief of Police, Jared Phelps.

Resolution 5-D was created to establish a Northern Virginia Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) which includes Prince William County and other local law enforcement agencies.

According to the resolution, the reason for establishing the CIRT is to “promote public confidence that an objective investigation will occur when an officer discharges a firearm at a subject or detainee, or when the discharge, use of force, or other action by an officer results in death or serious bodily injury to any person.”

Acting Chief Phelps clarified that the CIRT will be utilized in “criminal investigation for incidents involving law enforcement, such a shooting or where a death occurs.” Or in the case of a law enforcement officer death by suicide.

The resolution states that the agreement will establish “uniform procedures and mutually agreed-upon investigative guidelines that allow for an objective investigation of a critical incident that has resulted in a serious bodily injury or death to an individual during an encounter with law enforcement.”

Phelps described the current process for such criminal investigations. Either the local jurisdiction or state police conduct an investigation. Then the reports or findings of the investigation are turned over to Commonwealth Attorney, Amy Ashworth, after which she provides her legal opinion regarding the actions. CIRT will provide a third option for criminal investigation. One goal of this agreement, as stated in the resolution, is to mitigate “concerns regarding potential conflicts of interest should the affected agency investigate the incident itself.”

Phelps explained that the work to create the CIRT has been in progress for well over a year, in conjunction with other northern Virginia Chiefs of Police. He also said “We’re allowing for more flexibility and I think it’s a step in the right direction for us to do so. This does not pertain to administrative investigations. Those are still maintained by the jurisdiction because those are about training policies and everything else. This is only going towards the criminal investigation that is required to happen by state, by statute.”

As stated in the resolution, “the CIRT will bring together a highly-trained team of detectives who do not work for the agency which has had the use of force to investigate an agency’s critical incident by conducting a thorough, professional, and complete criminal investigation of all the facts and actions involved in the incident.”

The CIRT will include commander, supervisor, and detective level local jurisdiction law enforcement. Those on the team will not be employed full-time but will be brought on as needed.

Eleven jurisdictions within the northern Virginia region are supportive of this agreement and “have the backing of their political bodies to sign on” according to Phelps. Two jurisdictions, Loudoun County and Fairfax County have not currently joined the agreement.

Police departments within the northern Virginia area that have primary investigative responsibility have agreed to sign onto this. Towns are not signatories to this within Prince William County because they do not have a primary investigatory responsibility. Prince William County police does, or the state police. 

Supervisor Jeanine Lawson, R-Brentsville, mentioned that she reached out to upcoming Prince William County Chief of Police, Peter Newsham, to ask for his input. “He is fully supportive of it as well,” said Lawson.

Phelps, who will return to the status of Deputy Police Chief in February when Newsham’s contract takes effect added, “Yeah I had that conversation with him as well and we agreed that this is a very good direction to go to provide that flexibility to make sure that we’re doing the right thing.”

Supervisor Pete Candland, R-Gainesville, brought up his concerns about citizen input. He said “I think this is a good example of a potential issue that citizens would have wanted to provide feedback on before we vote.” Repeating a concern he has expressed numerous times and offering potential solutions.

Before the supervisors voted, Phelps added “This has nothing to do with each jurisdiction’s capability of handling these types of investigations. Each jurisdiction has extremely qualified and capable officers to handle these incidents in a neutral fashion. This is really just about providing a neutral option. I have the full confidence of every person [in] the police department to be able to provide a neutral investigation, so it has nothing to do with that. It is strictly about having that option of flexibility, bringing in another look.”

Supervisor Andrea Bailey, D-Potomac, asked Acting Chief Phelps to partner with her to speak about this agreement with the community from an educational perspective.

The supervisors voted unanimously to pass Resolution 5-D.