It’s been a long first year for Alexandria Police Chief Tarrick McGuire.
While the city has seen a double-digit reduction in reported crime to-date this year, the Alexandria Police Department is struggling with staffing and compensation. Ongoing staffing issues have prompted McGuire to transfer some officers from specialized units to staff patrol operations on the street.
Part I crimes, or crimes against people, include homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft. There were 2,819 total Part I incidents from Jan. 1 to October this year, a decrease of 29.8% compared to the same ten-month time period in 2024, according to trend by month data from the Alexandria Police Department Crime Dashboard.
In a November interview with ALXnow, McGuire attributed the reduction to partnerships with city agencies, civic associations and retail establishments. Last month, the department launched a holiday safety plan, conducting high-visibility patrols throughout the city and focusing enforcement on hot spots.
“All chiefs, all captains, lieutenants and other non-sworn staff members, along with our Crime Analysis Unit, sit in a meeting weekly,” McGuire told ALXnow. “We look at calls for service, we look at density and crime offenses. We look at repeat offenders, persons that continuously commit crimes.”
McGuire took the reins from Assistant Police Chief Raul Pedroso, who was named interim chief after former Chief Don Hayes retired in Feb. 2024. Before being sworn in on Dec. 10, 2024 in Alexandria, McGuire was an assistant chief of police in Arlington, Texas. He joined that department in 2003. McGuire has a doctorate in public administration from California Baptist University, a master’s degree in organizational leadership from Criswell College and a bachelor’s degree from Oklahoma State University.
Soon after he was sworn in, McGuire implemented a 100-day action plan to reduce crime and assess the department’s strengths and deficiencies. He also announced that the department was working with George Mason University to create a five-year crime reduction strategy — an effort he says is ongoing and should wrap up next year.
“We’re actually working on that right now as we speak,” McGuire said. “My goal in the first quarter of next year is to have a half-day public safety summit that will share their plan with key stakeholders here in Alexandria. My goal is that it will not just be presented solely by the police department, but it will be presented in partnership with several of our community stakeholders.”
Staffing issues within APD
McGuire confirmed that staffing issues within the department have resulted in officers from specialized units being moved to patrol operations.
“We are rotating detectives through patrol as it relates to the increased number of staff and vacancies that we have experienced here probably over the last four months,” McGuire said. “With that understanding and looking at and evaluating our attrition rates, this is not the first time that the department has experienced this.”
McGuire continued, “Nor are we the only department in the region that is having to rotate personnel through patrol that are not patrol officers, and it’s nothing new in policing. I went through it and experienced it years ago, probably 18 years ago when I was a detective. That happens at times when you’re seeking to stabilize staffing.”
Investigating other crimes, aside from homicides and murders, is a matter of prioritizing cases and time management, he added.
“I expect for our leadership team to make sure that we keep a pulse on that and as they rotate in certain patrol vacancies,” McGuire said.
McGuire said he has transitioned officers from 12-hour shifts to 10-hour shifts, and that APD is redistricting patrol beats.
“When you look at shift work, you have to be able to focus on deployment strategies,” he said. “There are some things that are analytical that we are working through right now, to not only redistrict the city, but to better evaluate calls for service and where our officers are responding to, and what types of calls that they are responding to.”
The Alexandria Police Department’s union is also calling for increased salaries as the department’s pay has fallen behind other Northern Virginia localities. The current starting pay for an APD officer is $64,000, and the department offers no hiring bonuses.
McGuire is looking into bringing back the department’s $10,000 hiring bonus, he said.
“We are discussing our hiring bonus right now, and to me it’s a part of just overall compensation,” McGuire said. “I think the hiring bonus for young officers is a tool to not just recruit them, but we also have to really focus on what sustainability means for our entire workforce.”
McGuire is representing the city in its collective bargaining negotiations with the department’s union. The current agreement expires June 30, 2026, and the city and the police union are aiming for a new collective bargaining agreement, which would be in effect from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2029.
The city and the union are currently at an impasse over pay compensation in the collective bargaining conversation. City Council will hold a public hearing on the matter tonight (Tuesday).
The city’s most recent offer increases starting pay for police officers 17.21% from $63,988 a year to an annual salary of $75,000; a 21% increase for sergeants from $72,300 to $87,500 and police lieutenants 15% from $89,800 to $106,900.
McGuire is also looking to revamp his senior leadership team. Currently, the department has one assistant chief of police, Tina Laguna, and an interim Chief Dennis Andreas and an open assistant chief position. Both Laguna and Andreas have divvied up responsibilities for three chief positions, overseeing the Field Operations Bureau, the Criminal Investigations Bureau, the Administrative & Technology Bureau and Community Support Bureau.
“My goal is probably in the first half of next year to fill our vacancies at the executive level and ensure that we have bureau chiefs that are running those bureaus,” McGuire said.
APD has not responded to several ALXnow requests to provide staffing figures.
Amid the collective bargaining discussion, City Manager Jim Parajon has asked all city departments to submit their annual budgets to his office with 1% cuts.
“As a police chief, I’m going to do what city manager asked me to do,” McGuire said. “I think the city manager is fully aware of what is going on within the region, and again, as it relates to the collective bargaining agreement. We’re trying to work through that now collaboratively, as relates to wages and benefits for the organization.”
