Welcome, and thanks for checking in!
A lot has happened lately. Below, we'll cover what is happening with the Virginia General Assembly, and Prince William County Police Department.
Virginia General Assembly
The Virginia General Assembly deadline to draft bills has passed - so now we will see additional bills being added to the docket as the Clerk processes them. We are closely monitoring these bills on LIS, and you can too. Click here for LIS, and we recommend searching by Bills & Resolutions, by Committee, and then by Courts of Justice, Public Safety and Judiciary Committees. The general themes of this session thus far are reforming parole & probation, recreational marijuana legalization, and gun control. When we have analyzed all the bills until the December 22nd deadline, we will release information and send out a very important call to action. Thus far, we plan on advocating for changes to marijuana legalization, enforcing mandatory minimums for cop killers, and other amendments.
Election 2021
Virginia will be electing a Governor, Lt. Governor, House of Delegates, and other officials in 2021. Research your candidates. Find out their voting history on law enforcement issues. More on this soon.
Prince William County Police Department
Blue Line Families of Virginia is founded in Northern Virginia, so we took a special interest in PWCPD. Recently Supervisor Candland of the PWC Board of Supervisors proposed a resolution to remove suggestions about re-arranging funding from the PWC 2021-2024 Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan is put together by a specific committee, with input from the community. This plan informs what PWC BoS COULD prioritize for funding for the next three years. This does not mean PWCPD will be defunded yet, however this opinion from a very small part of the community will be represented in the plan.
Overall, the Board sentiment was that PWC loves their police department, and does not intend to defund them. However, this is certainly concerning, and we will be reaching out to members of the PWC Board to get their perspective on the plan.
