Fairfax County Police Department News

Fairfax, VA – Fairfax County Police Department (FCPD) regularly evaluates and enhances all trainings, policies and practices of the department to ensure the safety and well-being of our community. Crime needs to be addressed and confronted at every corner of the county, and FCPD strives to create and establish these crime-prevention efforts with the highest regard for human life. These strategies have shaped the way FCPD keeps our community safe and have propelled the department into being recognized as a premier law enforcement agency.

Cutting-Edge and Best Practice Trainings

Training is more complex and involved than ever before in our profession’s history. FCPD is leading the way in the types of in-depth, relevant and timely trainings provided to our officers. There are several classes FCPD officers are required to take outside of their required, in-service obligations that enhance their education and ultimately make them better police officers for our county.

• ABLE Training: FCPD partnered with the Georgetown University Law Center to train all FCPD members in Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE). This program educates and empowers officers to intervene during situations that may be unlawful or unsafe. All FCPD officers completed mandatory ABLE training in Fall 2022.
• ICAT Training: The ICAT training (Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics) is an effective use-of-force guide that our FCPD officers utilize to assist in their response to dangerous situations when a suspect is acting dangerously but do not possess a firearm. We have seen our officers apply this training appropriately and effectively since its inception within the department. To date, 804 officers have completed ICAT training with the remainder of the Department to finish by the beginning of October.
• Procedural Justice and Implicit Bias Training: Through an outside vendor brought in by the Fairfax County Criminal Justice Academy, all FCPD employees took procedural justice and implicit bias training in 2022. The training emphasized the foundational premise that community members are generally more likely to comply with legal norms and expectations if they perceive the judicial system, at all steps, to be treating them respectfully and fairly. This is now a required training that members must take on an annual basis.

• Paramilitary Attack Counter-Offensive Plan (PACOP) Program: The PACOP Program is a training and response protocol that trains officers to rapidly respond to active violence incidents and ultimately save lives. This training begins in the police academy to ensure our members are prepared immediately to respond to these dynamic and potentially dangerous events.

• Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Program and Co-Responder Unit: The Crisis Intervention Team brings together experts from police officers, Sheriff’s deputies, emergency dispatchers, rescue personnel, magistrates, judges, mental health treatment providers, mental health consumers and others to assist in better responses to members of the community who may be suffering during a mental health crisis. CIT officers from FCPD receive hours of training to learn how to appropriately manage interactions with individuals experiencing a mental health crisis.

• Reaction Team Training: Our Special Operations Division hosted trainings with all patrol and several specialty squads on both hands-on scenarios and classroom instruction to educate officers on how and when to respond to life-threatening situations. These classes are based on the priorities of life and stress that as police officers we agree to put the lives of others ahead of our own. These scenarios emphasize ICAT training and communication.

Fairfax County Police Department educates and trains all FCPD sworn members to ensure they possess the skills necessary to keep our community safe. Additional trainings include Command College Training, Supervisory Training, Master Patrol Officer Training, and Private First Class Training.

Innovative Technology Advancements

Equipping FCPD officers with the tools they need to safely and securely de-escalate a situation is one of our top priorities. The members of our department put their lives on the line every day, and they need to be prepared for whatever challenges they may face. Our community also deserves to have a police department that serves them with the utmost respect, to include their utilization of safer de-escalation tools.

• Less-Lethal Shotgun Transition: In the Spring of 2023, FCPD’s Law Enforcement Training unit transitioned and equipped all the department’s patrol officers with less-lethal shotguns. FCPD reviewed the data, discussed use-case issues, surveyed patrol districts, and determined that shotguns could be better utilized in a less-lethal capacity. This new solution provides officers with an additional option they can use when faced with less-lethal use situations.

• BolaWrap Restraint Device Launch: In November 2022, FCPD piloted the BolaWrap restraint device in an innovative effort to provide our officers with necessary advancements of policing technology to prepare them for any situation they may encounter. The BolaWrap device, a hand-held remote restraint device that discharges an eight-foot-wide bola-style Kevlar tether to entangle an individual, provides another potential tool for officers to safely take someone into custody.

Progressive Policies

With a community of over 1.1 million residents, it is critical that FCPD continues to evolve with the laws and legal updates that continuously change over time. The Department’s progressive policies and responses to these legal changes are the driving factors to FCPD’s success in the policing profession.

• Annual Legal Updates: Throughout the year, FCPD disseminates real-time legislative updates to ensure officers are informed in a timely manner of all changes. Supplemental training videos are provided to officers for certain updates. These videos avoid delay in training. By disseminating this information to officers, they have the ability to watch the updates from their station.

• Emergency Substantial Risk Orders (ESRO) Statute: The ESRO statute, or “Red Flag Law,” is a tool that police and community members can use to address individuals who pose a serious and immediate threat to themselves or others and keep the community safe while services are rendered. Over 170 ESROs have been obtained by FCPD, all of which were implemented to help protect and serve our community’s most vulnerable parties to protect those who may be in a dangerous situation.

For ongoing updates, please read our blog and follow us on Twitter, Facebook , and Instagram at @FairfaxCountyPD