What is the Community Policing Act?

The Virginia Community Policing Act is a state law enacted to promote community policing practices within law enforcement agencies across Virginia. The act emphasizes building positive relationships between police officers and the communities they serve through collaboration, communication, and problem-solving. It encourages law enforcement agencies to engage with residents, local organizations, and other stakeholders to address the unique needs and concerns of each community.

Additionally, the act aims to enhance transparency, accountability, and trust between law enforcement and the public. It outlines guidelines and provides resources for implementing community policing strategies to foster safer and more cohesive communities throughout the state.

In an effort to reduce law enforcement officers from engaging in bias-based profiling, the Virginia Community Policing Act requires law enforcement agencies to collect demographic information during all traffic and investigatory stops. This data is submitted to a statewide Community Policing Reporting Database maintained by the Virginia State Police.

The statewide data will be analyzed to determine the prevalence of bias-based profiling.

To read the Community Policing Act in the Code of Virginia, please visit online.

To view the Community Policing Data for Shenandoah County, please visit Virginia Open Data Portal.