If someone calls and claims to be from the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office while demanding money, it’s a scam.
That’s the message local law enforcement is trying to get out, as more city residents report receiving phone calls from scammers. It’s not a new scam, but it’s pervasive, leading officials to continue to spread the word.
(Updated at 1:45 p.m.) The Alexandria City Council unanimously adopted City Manager Jim Parajon’s $839.2 million fiscal year 2023 budget on Wednesday night (May 4), and despite giving all city employees raises, Mayor Justin Wilson says inflation will likely mean more raises in future budgets.
“We’re staring into a significant inflationary environment that pinches our employees very hard, just like it pinches everyone hard,” Wilson said. “We’re going to have to continue to have this conversation every year about how we make sure we invest in the level of compensation and benefits required to not only attract but retain the best and the brightest in the city.”
There were a few tears and lots of laughs as former Alexandria Sheriff Dana Lawhorne was honored for his career in law enforcement on April 5 (Tuesday).
“I do not know where I would be without the kindness of others,” Lawhorne told friends, family and former law enforcement colleagues packed in Fellowship Hall at the First baptist Church of Alexandria (2932 King Street).
The George Washington Birthday Parade returned to Alexandria on Monday after a two year hiatus. The streets of Old Town were lined with celebration for Washington’s 290th birthday.
Alexandria’s health care workers and first responders marched as parade grand marshals. The parade, which started at Gibbon and Fairfax Streets and snaked around City Hall, was attended by thousands. The event is the largest of its kind in the world honoring the founding father and first president.
(Update at 2:45 p.m.) It’s no secret that Alexandria’s public safety agencies want a raise in the upcoming city budget, but if they are to get a compensation increase it will be outside of the boundaries of collective bargaining.
After more than a year of organizing, the elections for collective bargaining representation for the city’s first responders will be held between Feb. 5 and Feb. 22. But with a staffing crisis and compensation issues within the Fire Department, Police Department and Sheriff’s Office, it will not be until 2024 until negotiations will be fruitful.
Alexandria Sheriff Sean Casey says the recent actions of a deputy against a YouTuber outside the city jail are “inconsistent” with its policies and procedures.
In a video that posted today (Jan. 20), an Alexandria Sheriff’s Deputy asked that “Constitutional activist” Sean Paul Reyes of Long Island Audit not film outside the city jail. Reyes tells the deputy that he is an independent journalist exercising his First Amendment rights, and then refuses to provide the deputy with his full name.
With packed boxes by the door, retiring Alexandria Sheriff Dana Lawhorne gets a little emotional in his office. After all, he’s been wearing a uniform for 43 years.
There’s a large framed poster of the classic 1950 film “Harvey” on the wall next to his desk — a gift from his deputies who share a fondness for nostalgic movies. In the film, Jimmy Stewart’s good-natured character is pressured against his philosophy of being “Oh, so pleasant,” rather than “Oh, so smart,” in life.
Over the last decade, Alexandria’s jail has been getting a little less crowded.
Since 2011, the average population at the William Truesdale Adult Detention has generally trended downward. Even pre-COVID there was an 18% population decrease since 2011, which only became more pronounced during the pandemic. In 2011, the average daily population in the Alexandria jail was 430. In 2019 it was 352. This year it’s 277.
Hundreds of people turned out for the lighting of the menorah and Christmas tree at Pat Miller Square in Del Ray on Sunday night, December 5.
The evening was full of families and friends caroling with hot chocolate with marshmallows.
The Alexandria City Council will likely hire the next city manager before the end of the year, and next week the city will hold a hybrid town hall on the “qualities and values” the next manager should possess.
After six years as the highest-ranking government employee in Alexandria, City Manager Mark Jinks hinted to ALXnow in May that he was going to retire, and then made it official a month later. The city is currently undergoing a national search for his replacement.
In his award-winning poem “I Cry”, Anthony Talbert laments over being incarcerated in the Alexandria Jail.
“Growing up I was told that the eyes are the windows to the soul,” reads Talbert’s poem. “So I cry to cleanse my soul of all the torment it holds.”
