The Fairfax City Police Department strives to hire officers that reflect our community and embrace our policies and philosophies of de-escalation and valuing the sanctity of life for all.

Our community is diverse — and as such, our goal is to hire officers who provide diversity in ethnicity, religious beliefs, work experience, life experience, and cultural experiences.    

All officer candidates are subject to a rigorous set of tests, including: polygraph, psychological exam, written exam, health exam, and a comprehensive interview.  We also conduct an extensive background investigation on all applicants.  

The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) is a contemporary management model developed by public safety executive practitioners. CALEA presents the chief of police, city manager, and mayor and city council with a blueprint that promotes the efficient use of resources and improves service delivery by maintaining uniform compliance standards.

The city police department is in the process of becoming a CALEA-accredited agency.  This process mandates an extensive review of all policies to ensure they meet nationally excepted standards.    

There is a value to accreditation: requires an agency to develop and follow a comprehensive, uniform set of written policies. It is one of the most successful methods for reaching administrative and operational goals while also providing direction to personnel. Accreditation strengthens an agency's accountability, and within the community, through a continuum of standards that clearly define authority, performance, and responsibilities.

CALEA encourages consistency in the agency’s policies, procedures, and enforcement actions. It also demonstrates that internationally recognized standards for law enforcement have been met, as verified by a team of independent outside CALEA-trained assessors.

CALEA was created through the joint efforts of law enforcement’s major executive associations:  

• International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP)  
• National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE)  
• National Sheriffs' Association (NSA)  
• Police Executive Research Forum (PERF)  

Fairfax City Police Department Chief's Advisory Council (CAC) is an advisory board that makes recommendations to the police chief on how the police department can fulfill its mission and support the community

The police department begins de-escalation training when our recruits attend the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Academy: de-escalation is a large part of their training.

The Fairfax City Police Department defines de-escalation as an attempt to achieve a positive outcome, where neither the officer nor the subject is injured, through the utilization of communication, empathy, instinct, and sound officer safety tactics skills.

We also assign officers trained in crisis intervention techniques to de-escalate incidents as part of the department's strategy in dealing with difficult situation — as described in the Use of Force General Orders. This same policy states the city police department should include de-escalation techniques during all use-of-force training. 

Fairfax City Police adopted a Body-Worn Camera (BWC) program in December 2016, and the accompanying policy was developed with the assistance of ACLU and NAACP representatives. Other law enforcement agencies have modeled their policies on our policy, and have sought our department's guidance in developing BWC programs.

The policy expressly states that the police department is committed to protecting the constitutional rights of all people

The BWC policy requires officers to activate their BWC prior to arriving at the scene of "any call for service where there is at least a reasonable belief that they will have direct law enforcement interaction with or exercise police authority over a member of the public unless doing so would be impractical or unsafe.”

BWC is just one way the city police department uses technology. City police patrol cruisers are outfitted with In-Car Mobile Video Recording (MVR) technology, which captures the actions and dialogue between  officers and those they encounter. Supervisors review In-Car MVR videos of officers on their squad to ensure each officer's interactions are consistent with our policies.

The City of Fairfax Police Department approaches this goal with a detailed, multifaceted approach.

Please see the list, below — each bullet point is addressed in separate FAQs. 

• Ethics and Cultural Sensitivity Training  
• Biased-Based Police Training   
• Operational Tactics Training  
• Administrative Investigations   
• Hiring Values and Hiring Process  
• Use of Technology: Body Worn Cameras (BWC), In-Car Mobile Video Recordings, BWC policy  
• Use of Force/De-Escalation Policy  
• CALEA - Accreditation Process  
• Chief’s Advisory Council (CAC)

Please feel free to share our information: copy and paste information from the city website if needed. Click here to reach out to the police department directly with questions, and comments.   

The City of Fairfax Police Department has policies in place, consistent with national standards, that require thorough investigations of all police use-of-force incidents.

We encourage citizens to report misconduct, and we investigate all allegations of employee misconduct.

The investigative process uses evidence that includes:

• body-worn camera footage
• in-car video footage, and
• interviews of victims, witnesses and all other persons involved.

The investigation is conducted by a police supervisor and is reviewed by a commander, and then reviewed again by the chief.

The Police Department is accountable to the city manager, the mayor, and city council. Violations of improper use of force are serious offenses and have resulted in termination of employment.    

Fairfax City officers accused of engaging in misconduct similar to that witnessed against George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020 would be immediately relieved of duty and not allowed to function in the capacity of a police officer. The Professional Standards commander would conduct an administrative investigation, and the Criminal Investigations Division would conduct a criminal investigation. While both investigations would be conducted concurrently, the department would prioritize the criminal investigation.

When the criminal investigation has been completed, the findings of the inquiry would be presented to the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, whose staff would make a decision regarding appropriate charges. More information on our policies can be found in the police department's general orders; click here to view them.

Officers receive yearly training on biased-based policing.

The City of Fairfax Police Department defines bias as, "Prejudice or partiality that may be based on preconceived ideas, a person's upbringing, culture, experience, or education.” (City of Fairfax Police Department General Order 4-30).

Biased policing is defined as, “Stopping, detaining, searching, arresting, using force or attempting to stop, detain, search, arrest or use force against a person based upon his or her race, sex, sexual orientation, gender, national origin, ethnicity, age, or religion in violation of constitutional safeguards.” (City of Fairfax Police Department General Order 4-30). 

All enforcement actions — particularly stops of citizens (for traffic and other purposes), investigative detentions, arrests, searches and seizures of persons or property — must only be based on the standards of reasonable suspicion or probable cause as required by the Fourth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution and statutory authority. 

In all enforcement decisions, officers must be able to articulate specific facts, circumstances, and conclusions that support probable cause or reasonable suspicion for arrests, searches, seizures, and stops of citizens. Officers may not stop, detain, arrest, search, or attempt to search anyone based solely upon their race, sex, sexual orientation, gender, national origin, ethnicity, age, or religion.

Officers receive mandatory, regular training in an array of topics that emphasizes their responsibility to treat everyone fairly, equitably, and impartially.

We impress the importance of enforcing the law while ensuring everyone’s constitutional rights are protected. Our officers have, and continue to receive, training in ethics, control of bias in police actions/Biased-Based Police Training, and cultural diversity.  

The training is designed to help them focus as individuals, with the underlying emphasis of what the department and the city expect of them when interacting with the community. 

Fairfax City police officers receive extensive operational tactics training that incorporates — and stresses — the importance of using effective de-escalation tactics.

City training staff develop real-life scenario-based training that emphasizes effective communication and de-escalation techniques. This allows instructors to teach and evaluate an officer’s ability to effectively deal with conflict with the least amount of force necessary.

The police department also provides crisis intervention training for officers that guides interactions between officers and those living with mental illness. Our philosophy and practice are to provide assistance to those in mental crisis and to use current and effective tactics to calm situations, rather than escalate them.

We understand our community. Our officers have amazing diversity in ethnicity, religious beliefs, cultural experiences, and work and life experience. It is very important to the police department and the community that officers are aware and respectful of the diversity of our city — and, as such, we require cultural diversity training for all of our officers.

General Orders are formalized statements of City of Fairfax Police Department policies on particular issues.

General Orders provide transparency to the public on a police department's policy and practices actively in use by a department. Nearly every American police department relies on them.

Click here to read the City of Fairfax Police Department General Orders