The Virginia Association of Counties, or VACo, recently announced the recipients of the 2022 Achievement Awards, of which three Prince William County agencies were among this year’s winners. The awards recognize excellence in local government programs. VACo received 100 submissions this year, and only 29 recipients were chosen. Winning entries focused on addressing issues of the pandemic, connecting citizens, and other challenges that counties face daily.
The Prince William County Department of Economic Development earned an award for promoting life science and biotechnology in the county. The Prince William County Police Department helped establish a Critical Incident Response Team which investigates police actions resulting in loss of life or critical injury. The Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office garnered an award for launching its Early Diversion Program for Domestic Violence cases.
Northern Virginia Bioscience Center
More than 100 life science and biotechnology companies in Prince William County employ roughly 1,600 people. The industry has seen a 31 percent growth increase since 2014. That growth created a need for affordable wet lab space.
Prince William County Department of Economic Development worked with Holladay Properties in a public-private partnership to bring the new, 30,000-square-foot Northern Virginia, or NOVA, Bioscience Center to the county. The bioscience center offers a unique opportunity to provide mid-size companies with accessible wet lab space. It also helps smaller life science companies enter and stay in the Northern Virginia economy. Halladay Properties and the county worked with George Mason University’s Science and Technology Campus for input and connections with the overall biotech ecosystem throughout Virginia.
The partnership helps bolster the life science industry to bring more high-growth job opportunities to the region. In the works for several years, the delivery of the NOVA Bioscience Center took clear vision and constant collaboration between all partners.
Visit VACo to see the award submission.
Critical Incident Response Team
The Prince William County Police Department received an achievement award for its work with the Northern Virginia Critical Incident Response Team, or CIRT, which consists of 12 multi-jurisdictional agencies throughout the region. The team’s purpose is to investigate critical incidents involving law enforcement officers within the cooperating jurisdictions.
The team includes seasoned criminal detectives, crime scene technicians and commanders from the participating agencies. A critical incident may include a serious use of force or other action by law enforcement officers that results in the death or serious bodily injury to any person, the unexplained death of a person in police custody or the suicide of an officer.
After a critical incident, the team will complete a comprehensive, thorough and impartial investigation. At the close of the investigation, the team will present the facts and evidence of the investigation to the local commonwealth attorney’s office or designated prosecuting authority. At the same time, the agency where the incident occurred will continue separate administrative investigations.
The team will provide efficient, effective and standardized investigation for high-profile events. The team will also provide a high degree of impartiality since team members are not solely reviewing peers in their department.
The team’s structure ensures checks and balances throughout the entire investigative process. The CIRT will foster and maintain trust and support from the communities that deserve transparency and accountability from their law enforcement agencies.
Visit VACo to see the award application.
Early Diversion Program for Domestic Violence
If police officers are called to a home for a reported a fight, argument or other domestic situation and can determine an aggressor, Virginia law compels them to make an arrest.
Circumstances do not always warrant an arrest if they include minor incidents such as a shoving match between family members or siblings fighting over something minor. Law enforcement officers often express frustration with the mandatory arrest policy and advise prosecutors that an arrest was dictated by that policy and not one that was necessarily appropriate.
The Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office received a VACo Achievement Award for establishing its Early Diversion Program for Domestic Violence.
Assault and battery against a family or household member is charged as a Class 1 Misdemeanor, with a possible punishment of up to one year in jail and up to a $2,500 fine. Family members often refuse to pursue the case because they do not want their family member charged and convicted of a criminal offense. Often, domestic assault victims don’t show up in court or recant their testimony.
To divert a case to the program, the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office reviews the case and contacts the victim to try and understand the nature of the relationship and determine the cause of the assault in cases that do not involve a high degree of violence or threat of violence. The Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office also seeks input from the arresting officer regarding the case. If the victim and police officer agree, cases go to the Early Diversion Program.
Early intervention services can include anger management, mental health treatment, family or individual counseling, substance abuse treatment, parenting classes and more. If intervention services are satisfactorily met, a staff attorney resolves the matter without the parties having to appear in court. Early intervention allows families to focus on helpful solutions to the underlying problem that led to the violence and the arrest.
The program also allows judges more time for other cases and promotes the efficient use of government and prosecutorial resources.
The program, which includes the Prince William County Police Department, the Manassas City Police Department and other local law enforcement agencies, as well as the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court, boasts a zero percent recidivism rate. So far, none who have had their case diverted has been rearrested.
Visit VACo to see the award submission.
Original source can be found here.
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