State: More police officers banned from Va. law-enforcement agencies under new reforms

Last fall, state lawmakers made it easier to permanently ban problem police officers from working for Virginia law enforcement agencies by expanding the state’s decertification statute. Already, the new law has led to more officers being taken off the street. 

Between March 1, when the law took effect, and June 16, 11 Virginia law enforcement officers were decertified, which is more than typically occurs in an entire year in Virginia, according to information provided by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services.

From 2011 to 2020, 78 officers were decertified – or about eight per year, according to DCJS records. 

The new laws, which are backed by Virginia police chiefs, add excessive use of force and lying to the list of actions that can lead to the decertification of police officers. The reforms also closed a loophole that allowed officers to avoid being decertified if they resigned during a decertification proceeding, allowing them to find a job with another law enforcement agency. 

Previously the state only decertified officers who were convicted of a felony or certain misdemeanors, failed a drug test or did not maintain their training requirements. 

Decertifications that took place after March 1 included two Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail officers, two Arlington County police officers, a Tazewell County Sheriff’s deputy, a Longwood University police officer, a Powhatan Sheriff’s deputy, an Emporia police officer, a York-Poquoson Sheriff’s deputy, a Fairfax County Sheriff’s deputy and a Virginia Marine Resources Commission officer, according to DCJS records.

Of those 11, six were decertified for lying during internal police investigations and one was decertified for a use-of-force violation – violations that previously would not have banned them from working in law enforcement in Virginia. 

Virginia DCJS keeps a list of decertified Virginia police officers that is available upon request. The list includes the reason for the officers’ decertification and the departments for which they worked. Officers who have been decertified are no longer able to work as a police officer in Virginia and are added to a federal database. 

David Cotter, policy director for the DCJS, said an uptick in police officer decertifications “is the expectation,” at least initially. 

“That may level off because once these officers are taken out of the pool, they won't be able to get jobs anywhere else,” Cotter said in an interview with Prince William Times. “... It could be there's a big spike as we get rid of a bunch of people and then it tapers off.”

Dana Schrad, executive director of the Virginia Association of Police Chiefs, said the association backed the new rules, which were included in the General Assembly’s police reform omnibus Senate Bill 5030 that was approved in the fall of 2020. 

“Our police chiefs recommended a strong decertification statute that includes a truthfulness standard. This allows our chiefs to identify bad actors and make sure they can’t be rehired by another agency,” Schrad said in a June 18 emailed statement.

In addition to the new decertification statute, state Senate Bill 5030 also banned police from using no-knock warrants and chokeholds, prohibited police from shooting at moving vehicles and prohibited the hiring of officers who were fired or resigned during use of force investigations. 

The police reform bill was sponsored by state Sen. Mamie Locke, D-2nd, and co-sponsored by state Sen. Scott Surovell, D-36th, who represents part of Prince William County. 

“What we heard from the sheriffs and from the chiefs was that it was extremely difficult to decertify an officer who had either a use of force problem or an honesty problem,” Surovell said in an interview with Prince William Times last week. “Under our old system … you had officers with repeated violations just sort of moving around from department to department around the state.”

Reach Daniel Berti at dberti@fauquier.com