Prince William County Police Department’s Chief Barry Barnard met with community residents in Dale City.
During his conversation with residents, he shared an update on the new police station and fire station being built on a 70-acre plot in Woodbridge.
“We’re building a new police station on Davis Ford Road, which will be known as the Central District Station…this station will be open probably this winter sometime – January timeframe – and we’re very excited about it,” said Barnard.
Unfortunately, following the meeting, the construction site of the new police station caught fire, potentially delaying the project.
Barnard also spoke in support of the Prince William Board of County Supervisor’s recent decision to move forward with building a new animal shelter.
“The shelter we’ve had is 1975 and a community of this size – wanting to provide the very best animal care that we can – we’re very excited to have the shelter put in place,” said Barnard, sharing how the police department actually oversees the operation of the shelter.
In terms of manpower, Barnard spoke about identifying a staffing number that would allow the department to consistently have the coverage that it needs.
“Everybody could always use more police officers and all that – the community has been very supportive and the board has – and so what we need to do as we increase our staff is to is have predictable and sustainable staffing. Whatever the number is,” said Barnard.
He also spoke about the latest updates on the department’s new body-worn camera program. According to Barnard, Prince William will be the largest department in Northern Virginia to have body cameras, and they’re still in the process of rolling them out.
“So we train a few officers every day, and when they get trained up, they leave with their camera and when they come and work the next day they wear their camera,” said Barnard.
Barnard did state that the department was concerned about privacy in terms of releasing videos, and will keep video of incidents only on file for 60 days, if an incident occurs.
“We keep it for 60 days so if people have a concern about the behaviors,” said Barnard.
