Yesterday afternoon, Alexandria Police Chief Don Hayes and his staff walked through an Old Town neighborhood that was a crime scene on Monday.

“I’m here to reassure people that this will happen, but that this is still a safe neighborhood,” Hayes told ALXnow. “I just walk around in the neighborhoods knock on doors, talk to people. Sometimes it can last three or four hours.”

Alexandria’s gun-related crime surged 100% in 2022. Police recently unveiled a plan to install gunshot detection systems throughout the city, although the action needs City Council approval and is planned for next year’s budget. For now, the Alexandria Police Department’s short-term answer to rising crime is to increase police patrols and getting officers in neighborhoods with community cookouts.

There were multiple incidents of gunfire over the weekend, with three incidents on Monday alone. In the area Hayes visited on Monday, three juveniles were arrested after an estimated 40 shots were fired. The shots were fired in an alleyway in the 1200 block of Madison Street, a block away from the Braddock Road Metro station, and no one was injured. Earlier Monday, at 2 a.m., a 7-Eleven clerk was shot in the leg in a robbery. Later in the day, shots were fired at the Bradlee Shopping Center.

“I don’t walk around here at night anymore,” said a resident who lives near to where the shots were fired Monday. “I find myself on my guard all the time, and I’m on high-alert all the time. I read the news and I keep aware of my surroundings.”

City Manager Jim Parajon stopped by to hear what Hayes had to say.

“It’s tough,” Parajon said. “I mean, we’re seeing a rise in gun violence across the country.”

Hayes also plans to keep walking through communities affected by crime every week to talk with residents.

APD will also host 10 upcoming community cookouts, which are sponsored by a number of nonprofits and city agencies. The following cookouts will be held from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m:

• Tuesday, April 25, at Ruby Tucker Family Center
• Thursday, April 27, at Princess Square in Old Town
• Tuesday, May 2, at the Shoppes at Foxchase
• Friday May 5, at Casa Chirilagua
• Tuesday, May 9, at Brent Place Apartments
• Thursday, May 11, at Southern Towers apartments
• Tuesday, May 16, at Hillwood Condominiums
• Thursday, May 18, at the South Port Apartments
• Tuesday May 23, at Andrew Adkins Housing
• Thursday, May 25, at the Mount Vernon Recreation Center field

(Updated at 11:45 a.m.) The Alexandria Police Department will be rolling out new technology and putting more officers on the streets to combat rising gun-related crimes.

Assistant Police Chief Easton McDonald presented this plan, unofficially named “Operation Cease Fire,” to the City Council on Tuesday.

After working from home and limiting their exposure to the public during the pandemic, APD says its officers will be going back out into communities now that the public health crisis in the rearview mirror and in response to rising crimes involving guns.

“Robberies are up 30%,” McDonald told Council. “Robberies are up because guns are used in those robberies. Today’s law enforcement and executives need precision policing tools to maximize efficiency and promote more positive community engagement.”

One hurdle for the department, however, is minimal staffing. There are more than 300 officers within APD and the department is currently short nine positions, with officers on medical leave and a number in the field training offices.

Police Chief Don Hayes says this situation will improve after the current class of 20 trainees finishes the police academy.

Another tactic for stepping up a police presence, without that staffing, could be the use of gun detection technology. “Operation Cease Fire” will use acoustic sensors to pinpoint the location of gunfire and differentiate between similar sounds, like a car backfiring. No timeline was presented for the program.

“This will tell law enforcement where the shots are coming from with an accuracy of approximately 25 meters,” McDonald said. “We can get a published time within 60 seconds, which means a confirmation on whether it was a gun, a car backfire or something else. This will strategically reduce gun violence in the City of Alexandria and prevent further loss of life.”

There were six homicides last year, up from two in 2021. Robberies rose 30% (108 incidents in 2022), larcenies increased 7% (2,593 incidents) and Auto thefts jumped 18% (315 incidents). Aggravated assaults are the only Part I crime statistic that fell, going down 29% (172 incidents).

Additionally, destruction of property/vandalism incidents climbed 13% in 2022, with 1,320 incidents reported. Drugs and narcotics offenses also climbed 53% (295 incidents), drunkenness increased 17% (344 incidents) and driving under the influence incidents rose 10% (344 incidents).

McDonald said that officers will be spending less time in their cruisers, which will allow them to talk to residents and business owners in communities.

“There are a lot of new officers that need to introduce themselves to the community and people,” he said. “What you’ll begin to see are officers that will… get out of the car, talk to people, meet people, go into the businesses, talk to the businesses, look at crime prevention issues, like the bushes are too tall.”

The Alexandria Police Department will start rolling out its body worn camera program next month but it won’t be until next January that all the department’s officers are wearing them.

Thirty cameras will be deployed to officers on April 17, according to a staff presentation to City Council on Tuesday night.

“On April 17, we will begin our first deployments and will continue until every commander, supervisor and officer in this department is wearing a body worn camera,” APD lieutenant Jason North told Council. “We decided to be very strategic and intentional with the deployments. We will start on April 17 with 30 users. Of those 30 users, we will make that representative of our police department, which is 60% field operations, 30% investigations and 10% administration.”

Every month, 30 more cameras will be given to officers. Training takes eight hours and afterward, officers will then “go live” with them, North said. With more than 300 officers in the department, full deployment won’t be finished until January.

City Manager Jim Parajon said that the rollout of the cameras allows for the city to adapt to their use.

“Every time we add body worn cameras, we will have the appropriate support personnel to put a video and be able to go all the way through a process that’s been intentionally designed that way,” Parajon said.

City Council approved $2 million for the program in the current budget, including five new attorneys with the Commonwealth Attorney’s office to handle the footage. Parajon’s FY 2024 budget proposal includes three more positions totaling $258,000, as well as three “contingency” positions for $288,000 depending on the outcome of a workload analysis. Additionally, Parajon is asking for a one-time payment of $97,000 to upgrade the Alexandria Circuit Court’s information technology services.

The Alexandria Police Department (APD) announced today that it will start rolling out its body worn camera program in April.

In a release, APD said the deployment will be on a rolling basis, with the goal of every sworn personnel being issued a camera within the next year.

According to the release:

In April 2023, APD will begin deployment of Body Worn Cameras (BWC) throughout the Department. This in turn will create greater transparency and accountability in its interactions with the public.

Deployment of the cameras will be on a rolling basis, with a goal of ensuring every sworn personnel is issued a camera as a part of their required gear within a year.

APD also released an FAQ outlining what the cameras do. The FAQ also notes that many policies, including the one that says who will be allowed to watch body camera footage and public requests for video, are still in draft form and have not been completed.

The department also said it will soon release a draft policy regarding the cameras, including how they will handle media requests.

APD has been struggling to get a body worn camera program off the ground since 2016. Funding for body worn cameras was approved last year with the goal of officers wearing cameras starting that summer.

Additional funds for the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney to handle the added workload from body worn cameras was included in City Manager Jim Parajon’s proposed budget, released earlier this week.

The Alexandria Police Department will soon be adding Body Worn Cameras to their uniform.

This will result in greater transparency and accountability in our interactions with the public.

If you are interested in learning more, please visit: https://t.co/cFbLK1db2Q pic.twitter.com/ZOvevR85PW

— Alexandria Police (@AlexandriaVAPD) March 2, 2023

The Alexandria Police Department is beset by morale issues, according to a report obtained by ALXnow.

In the 2021 APD Organizational Assessment — an annual anonymous survey conducted by the department — 173 department staffers (out of 421 total staff) self-reported their wellbeing as employees.

“The department is in a rapid decline,” wrote an APD employee. “Many are leaving for higher paying careers. Once proud employees are being beaten down emotionally by the constant lack of support.”

“We are ‘thanked’ for what we do but lack the necessary resources to do the job. New employees cannot be hired and trained to replace the ones who are leaving,” the employee continued. “Understaffing all across the board is a huge issue. City Council had their foot on the throat of the department slowly, taking the life out of the once proud organization.”

The City report was compiled last year, and has comments redacted by the City Attorney to eliminate any identifying information. Its release follows the announcement by Police Chief Don Hayes that, due to short-staffing, the department is reducing its services to the public.

“Our goals include ensuring a sustainable work/life balance for officers, while focusing our investigative response efforts on more serious criminal incidents and concerns across the community,” Hayes said in a video released on social media.

Police will no longer respond to calls for service that fall under another agency’s responsibility or respond to old crime scenes that show no danger to the public.

More from the APD survey:

• 45% feel that their immediate coworkers are committed to APDs overall goals
• 26% of respondents said that it would take a lot to get them to leave Alexandria
• 27.1% feel that the department is committed to responding to the survey
• 26.6% feel that their opinions seems to count at work
• 24.3% believe that employees in Alexandria live by APD core values
• 24% believe they will be recognized if they contribute to the department’s success
• 22.5% believe that APD culture supports the health and wellbeing of employees
• 18.9% know how they fit into the City of Alexandria’s future plans
• 16% trust leaders and managers to lead the city to future success
• 12% said that they are being paid fairly

There were some relatively positive statistics in the survey:

• 76% of respondents find their jobs interesting and challenging
• 75% of staff feel that their immediate managers care about them as people, and that they create a trusting environment
• 73.5% responded that they feel accepted by their immediate coworkers
• 72% feel that their immediate managers care about their development
• 68.2% find their work engaging

Hayes, who was officially sworn into office in April, is taking one staff recommendation to heart. He plans on adding another assistant chief position, shifting the department closer to what it looked like before it was restructured under his predecessor, former Chief Michael Brown, who abruptly resigned last year.

The resignation elevated Hayes to the role of acting chief, and now with the “training wheels” off, he says he has a challenging task of managing a short-staffed department with employees who want more money than what’s been approved in the city manager’s Fiscal Year 2023 budget.

One respondent was against the Council’s 2021 approval of a Community Policing Review Board — a body designed to evaluate community concerns on policing in the city. The Board, which is made up of APD personnel and community stakeholders, started meeting earlier this year. As of last month, the city has not yet an independent auditor to investigate incidents and complaints against the police.

“Do not let City Council have the citizen review board for police,” wrote one officer. “This department is different then the current media likes to portray police and lumping this department in with the media hysteria will just hurt the department and make good officers unhappy and leave.”

We announced that we would be making modifications to the services we provide the Alexandria community, here is a video from our Chief Don Hayes further explaining the modifications.

Check it out: https://t.co/yYkZzipNo3

— Alexandria Police (@AlexandriaVAPD) June 3, 2022

More APD staff comments are below.

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Updated at 7:45 p.m. — A short-staffed Alexandria Police Department is reducing its services to the community, the department announced on Wednesday (June 2).

Police will no longer respond to calls for service that fall under another agency’s responsibility or respond to old crime scenes that show no danger to the public.

“The Alexandria Police Department like most law enforcement agencies across the nation has experienced a significant reduction in their workforce due to resignations and retirements,” APD said in a release. “While APD remains dedicated to providing excellent public safety services, this reduction in officers has affected the way APD will deliver services to the community.”

Police said that the changes will “prioritize the workload to better serve the Alexandria Community.”

The department is budgeted for 311 sworn officer positions, but currently has 291 sworn officers on payroll, which includes 13 that are still in the academy that have yet to fully graduate their police training, according to APD.

Police Chief Don Hayes said that officers will continue to actively police neighborhoods.

“Just like everybody else, the pool is smaller, and everybody’s in the same pool,” Hayes told ALXnow in a recent interview. “When you have Arlington County whose down 60 (officers), Fairfax is down 100, Prince William is down 40, and we’re down about 23 and you’re looking for qualified candidates, but everybody is not qualified to do this job. They just don’t meet the qualifications. And you can’t lower your standards because you’ll have more problems bringing them in than you will without them.”

Mayor Justin Wilson says that he prefers to have APD officers working at the highest level of service, and that the City is working to increase staffing.

“My preference is always going to be that we provide the highest level of service to our residents, all of the time,” Wilson said. “As we work to return to our authorized staffing levels in the Police Department, I understand the Chief’s decision to prioritize response to calls where the physical presence of our officers is most critical. The dedicated men and women of APD have done excellent work, with lower staffing levels, in recent years to keep our community safe. These changes will focus their efforts on the incidents where they can make a real difference in the safety of our City.”

Vice Mayor Amy Jackson says that the move is unfortunate, and that the answer is about budgeting and collective bargaining. She also said she was not surprised by the announcement.

“We as a community need to lift up our police department,” Jackson told ALXnow. “And I think when our city does that, the region will also do that and we will be able to attract and retain talent with the skill set needed to work here in Alexandria. And right now, we aren’t attracting or retaining the talent that we want here for our department. It’s a sad state of affairs. I believe we have the leadership that will get us to that expectation.”

Police officers got a 6% raise in City Manager Jim Parajon’s Fiscal Year 2023 budget, which goes into effect next month.

The Department will also providing more support for online and phone reporting, and is working on an outreach campaign on the changes.

The Alexandria Police Department honored its fallen officers in an annual wreath laying ceremony on Monday, May 10.

“These individuals who we just recognized did make the ultimate sacrifice,” Alexandria Police Chief Michael Brown said at the city’s Fallen Officers Memorial outside APD headquarters. “In tough times they were there.”

Brown continued, “I will tell you that the men and women of this police department are incredibly dedicated to what they do as a profession that they’ve chosen. And I pray that none of them have their name added to this roll. They are here for this city. They are here for the residents, just like their predecessors.”

Mayor Justin Wilson, Vice Mayor Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, City Manager Mark Jinks witnessed the annual event, which occurs at the beginning of National Police Week.

“We have to remember those who have given that ultimate sacrifice,” Wilson said. “That’s something that’s a special commitment that we have to recognize.”

Alexandria Police recognized these fallen officers:

• Constable Elijah Chenault
• Watchman Gerrard Arnold
• Officer Julian F. Arnold
• Officer George W. Crump
• Officer Walker W. Campbell
• Sergeant Elton B. Hummer
• Sergeant Charles R. McClary
• Private Whitfield Lipscombe
• Private August Perault Pierce
• Corporal Clarence J. McClary
• Private Robert B. Harris
• Private Bobby G. Padgett
• Deputy Inspector James Baber 
• Private Eugene Yoakum
• Detective Conrad L. Birney
• Corporal Charles W. Hill
• Officer Andrew Chelchowski
• Sergeant Morton M. Ford

The Alexandria Police Department held the Fallen Officers Memorial Wreath Laying Ceremony to honor the members of our police family who lost their lives in the line of duty.

Thank you to all who joined us. We want to extend our thanks to our special partner, the @AlexandriaVAPF pic.twitter.com/nqAtnZu4Mc

— Alexandria Police (@AlexandriaVAPD) May 10, 2021

Chief Brown, Asst. Chief Hayes and Alexandria Sheriff Lawhorne joined Jeremy Lenzer, President of the Alexandria Retired Police, Fire and Sheriff Assoc., to place a wreath at the law enforcement memorial to honor the fallen during National Police Week. pic.twitter.com/qW4QrOroF7

— Alexandria Police (@AlexandriaVAPD) May 10, 2021

The Alexandria School Board is set to vote on Thursday (October 29) on a revised memorandum of understanding with the Alexandria Police Department to provide school resource officers in the city’s public schools.

Among the changes are definitions of student “contact” with a police officer, since any contact with a student must be reported to ACPS. That includes:

1) questioning for law enforcement purposes; 2) detainment of a student(s); and 3) apprehension or arrest of a student(s). All contacts shall be considered reportable offenses, in addition to the reporting required by School Board Policy or by statutory requirement

The document also creates “measurable objectives” for SROs, meaning that the officers would have to complete statistical reports, data collection for quarterly performance reports, and after-action reports after incidents with students. ACPS employees would also receive training on the duties of an SRO. Additionally, an SRO would have access to a student’s education records only after receiving the written consent of the student’s parent/guardian or if the student is 18 or older. An ACPS administrator would also have to be present when an SRO questions a student.

School resource officers were reassigned to the APD patrol division when the pandemic shut down in-person school in mid-March for the remainder of the last school year. The MOU would continue the agreement to provide officers at T.C. Williams High School and other ACPS schools when buildings eventually reopen.

Earlier this month, parents, students and community advocacy representatives railed against SROs, and said they foster an inappropriate culture of prejudice against non-white students. LaDonna Sanders, president of the Alexandria NAACP, filed a Freedom Of Information Act and found that in 2018 there were 140 out-of-school suspensions, and that a “significant enough proportion of the suspensions involve referrals to law enforcement.”

“We want the contract to end,” Sanders said. “Moreover, the racial disparities in law enforcement referrals were stark. Black students are nearly four times more likely to be referred to law enforcement than whites. Latinx students are twice as likely to be referred as white (students).”

The draft MOU states that if students are suspected of a crime and are not compliant, SROs and law enforcement officers “should obtain a search warrant in all cases where initial consent was not obtained and probable cause exists that a crime has been committed.”

According to the draft MOU:

SROs have the authority to question students who may have information about criminal activity (on or off school property). As sworn law enforcement officers, SROs have authority to stop, question, interview, and take law enforcement action without prior authorization of the school administrator or contacting parents, especially when timely information will help prevent injury, death or evidence destruction. For all other non-exigent circumstances, when it becomes necessary for the SRO or law enforcement officer to interview a student on school premises, the school principal or their designee shall be contacted immediately…

Police vehicles should be parked in the garage. Parking in front of the school should be avoided unless required for traffic control support or police emergency. c. Long arms. Long-arms (e.g. shotgun, rifles) should not be openly displayed in the school or around the campus unless there is an emergency. d. Body cameras. Body camera video should not be used in the school setting unless there is a law enforcement purpose. If used, such recording(s) must be strictly controlled and protective of juvenile information per legal requirements.

It isn’t the first time Alexandria SROs have come under fire: in 2018, an SRO accidentally discharged his gun inside George Washington Middle School.

The updated MOU must be signed by Alexandria Police Chief Michael Brown and Superintendent Gregory Hutchings, Jr. by November 2, 2020.

The Alexandria City School Board next month will hold a bi-annual review on its memorandum of understanding with the Alexandria Police Department.

“We’re looking at our collaboration with the Alexandria Police Department,” ACPS Executive Director of Communications Helen Lloyd told ALXnow. “We’re making sure that it’s a public review process.”

School resource officers were reassigned to the APD patrol division when the pandemic shut down the school system in mid-March for the remainder of the school year. The MOU would continue the agreement to provide officers at T.C. Williams High School and other ACPS schools when buildings eventually reopen.

“As a general practice, unless there is a clear and imminent threat to safety, requests from school staff for SRO or other law enforcement assistance are to be channeled through a school administrator,” according to the 2018 MOU. “SROs are responsible to lead the investigation and questioning of students related to suspected violations of criminal law.”

In 2018, a SRO was put on administrative leave after discharging his firearm inside his office at George Washington Middle School. The officer was later reassigned by Police Chief Michael Brown. The officer is no longer an SRO.

The MOU continues, “Whenever practical, arrests of a student or staff member should be accomplished outside of school hours in order to not disrupt the educational process or school setting.”

Sometimes that isn’t possible. In February, a T.C. Williams High School student was arrested during school hours and charged with murdering two people.

The public hearing on the MOU will be held virtually at 4 p.m. on October 1, and the updated document must be signed by Brown and the superintendent by November 2, 2020.

An Alexandria police officer has been dismissed and is facing criminal review after allegedly using unjustified force against an unarmed man.

“A white male officer reported using weaponless force against a white male subject’s leg, in order to take him to the ground,” the City of Alexandria said in a press release. “The subsequent investigation determined that the use of force was unjustified because no force was necessary.”

Termination proceedings have been initiated, but the police department has also referred the use of force to the Commonwealth’s Attorney to consider criminal charges.

“Three supervisors who failed to investigate the use of force promptly enough have also been disciplined,” the city said.

City spokesman Craig Fifer said that because the termination proceedings and criminal review were still underway, the city would not release the name of the police officer at this time.

“Use of force is dehumanizing and should be avoided whenever possible, even when legally justified,” said Police Chief Michael Brown in the press release. “Unjustified use of force is completely unacceptable, and we will continue to hold officers accountable in the rare cases when violations of this policy occur. Alexandria police officers do not typically use force at all, because they are required to de-escalate interactions and situations when possible by communicating effectively with subjects, maintaining distance, and employing other measures to protect themselves and those around them.”

The full press release is available below:

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