not sure if this has been covered anywhere on this forum, and i couldn't find anything by searching, so here goes:

can someone give me a run-down of how police jurisdiction works here in fairfax (and possibly arlington) county? i mean--there's herndon po, vienna po, fcpd, acpd, and state troopers, plus some others as well. some are obvious, but others not so obvious. do they share/overlap, or are they clear-cut?

i saw a state trooper, for example, pulling someone over on glebe road in the ballston area, and i was wondering about that. what is the deal with state troopers? can/do they mostly just stick to the highways or what?

sorry if this is a repeat, but i don't think it is.

thanks!!!

face

I was told one time they all have concurrent jurisdiction, meaning state can do county and local and county can do local. No idea if the guy was right or not.

Concurrent jurisdiction makes sense: State PD has jurisdiction of the entire state, County has jurisdiction over entire county, etc. IANAL, but I know people that have been stopped by state troopers in town, etc.

-"The best way to stay in business is to give your competitor all of the risky contracts" Dr. H Randolph Thomas, CE 432 - Construction Project Control, Penn State University

In your more rural parts of the state, the Virginia State Police may be the only law around and will do any manner of patrol and law-upholding. Around here though, VSP will mostly stick to the highways because of all the other local PDs.

Here is how it goes - right now there are 4 main types of Police that you will see around the Northern Virginia area that all have authority over you in some way or another.

1) The Virginia State Police
2) The Fairfax/ Loudon/ Arlington/etc... County Police (County Oriented)
3) The Vienna/ Herndon/ Fairfax City/etc... (Town Oriented) Police
4) Military Police / Government Police (these include anything from Fort Belvoir to the Navy Fed' Credit Union)

First you need to think of all of these entities as follows:
The Town Police are subordinate to the County Police who are subordinate to the State Police and the Gov/Military Police are their own thing.

The VSP have control over almost every aspect of the state of Virginia - the only parts they have limited or no access are the Military and Government installations that have their own police, and sets of rules - however in some circumstances a VSP will work with a MP.

The VSP can also go into the county and town police's jurisdiction; this isn't rare but doesn't happen that much as it isn't needed - the VSP will police the highways and major roads instead.

As far as the town police go they can only go out of their jurisdiction's if they see a criminal act being committed within 300ft of their boundries ending - the same goes for the county police with only different ranges.

Good info, Bob!

I was once told by a Fairfax County sheriff's deputy that within virginia police can pursue a vehicle for two miles into another jurisdiction for a misdemeanor offense, or for an unlimited distance if a felony has been committed.

I'm pretty sure that speed to elude is a felony, so don't try to speed into another jurisdiction to get away from a chasing cop.

She also said that virginia has agreements with maryland and dc to pursue vehicles into their territory until that jurisdiction takes over the chase.

She also claims that local police forces only have jurisdiction in their county or town, whereas sheriff's deputies have authority in the entire state. Doesn't make much sense to me as she was a FAIRFAX COUNTY sheriff's deputy.

Can anyone confirm or deny?

va state can go anywhere in va state
fairfax county can go all over the county including cities
city can only stay in the city

think of it like a circle traget
city in the middle
county on the next
and state on the next

Cary,

I checked with the police officer assigned to the school I work and he advised me that in Virginia a police officer can pursue a fleeing misdemeanant anywhere in the state and a fleeing felon anywhere into any adjoining state. Needless to say, it's probably not a great idea to flee the police.

Apparently that's not the case in DC, shitloads commit crimes in DC then flee like hell to Prince George county in Maryland and I guess the capitol police can only pursue them for a select few crimes. I'm not sure but that's what I heard.

Capitol police is different from DCPD so it may not always be the case. Capitol police is federal so they would have no jurisdiction on state land (MD).

perhaps just nobody wants to go into PG county. :)


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

I think I mentioned this before, but a cop and I were talking about shitty jurisdictions one time.. and this guy had been stationed on parkland in SE DC, so he knew about shitty jurisdictions..

Anyway, I'd say someplace was bad, and he'd go, "at least it's not PG county". I was naming some pretty mean places.

thanks guys. i was fairly certain that the jurisdiction just worked in concentric circles, loosely. but you never know with NoVa...


appreciate all the helpful info.


face

In Virginia, police only have criminal jurisdiction within the actual political boundaries they serve. However, Sheriff's Office deputies have criminal and civil jurisdiction within their own city/county, AS WELL as civil jurisdiction within the entire state.

Can Arlington cops chase a speeder into FFX county and still issue a valid ticket? The VA Statey's definitely can, but what about county or city level cops? How far can they conduct a chase, and for what types of crimes?

any jurisdictional boundary crossed during the pursuit would have to be corssed with your flashing lights on to legally pull someone over. They can't let you leave and then decide to come get you. Not for traffic infractions.

TheMeeper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Can Arlington cops chase a speeder into FFX county
> and still issue a valid ticket? The VA Statey's
> definitely can, but what about county or city
> level cops? How far can they conduct a chase, and
> for what types of crimes?

Yes, because the crime was comitted in Arlington, the Arlington police can persue as long as they want.

One thing to remember too is that while Fairfax can legally persue out of Fairfax County, there are specific rules that must be followed to persue. First and foremost, if the persuit is too dangerous (persuee driving all over the road, going really fast in neighborhoods, etc), and the crime isn't too severe, they'll probably end the persuit for safety reasons. Any persuits that go outside of Fairfax must be approved by a Fairfax supervisor and a supervisor of whatever jurisdiction that the persuit is entering (if there's time).

your theories are blown out of the water by the number of times you misspell pursue, pursuit, etc. If you were as knowledgable as you would like to think you are, you would know how to spell that particular word. Perhaps you're one of those educated police officers spoken so highly of in a different post? Your education shows through brilliantly.

PP, I think I am right about the lights thing too, they can't just follow you to another county lights-off and then flip them and pull you over when you cross.

that makes sense to me in the metropolitan area. I've heard of agreements between jurisdictions to cover these sorts of things.

PaperPusher Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> your theories are blown out of the water by the
> number of times you misspell pursue, pursuit, etc.
> If you were as knowledgable as you would like to
> think you are, you would know how to spell that
> particular word. Perhaps you're one of those
> educated police officers spoken so highly of in a
> different post? Your education shows through
> brilliantly.

Because you did not quote any post, or say any names, I'm unclear who your comments above are directed at. Could you clarify?

Me Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> PaperPusher Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > your theories are blown out of the water by the
> > number of times you misspell pursue, pursuit,
> etc.
> > If you were as knowledgable as you would like
> to
> > think you are, you would know how to spell that
> > particular word. Perhaps you're one of those
> > educated police officers spoken so highly of in
> a
> > different post? Your education shows through
> > brilliantly.
>
> Because you did not quote any post, or say any
> names, I'm unclear who your comments above are
> directed at. Could you clarify?

It was you, moron. You were the only person to even attempt to use the work persue, or any of it's variants, in this entire thread. Who else would he be referring to?

ComicRelief,
wow... you are a fucking retard. not only did you mispell pursue but you wrote "work" instead of word. oh yeah... perhaps you should look up at Me's post. dumbass.

Me wrote:
Yes, because the crime was comitted in Arlington, the Arlington police can persue as long as they want.


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

Yeah, so my spelling isn't always up to par. Eh . . .
Hopefully, you can look past that, and see the information in my posts.


One other thing that makes jurisdiction a little more complicated in this area is the number of police agencies.
For instance, Metro Transit police have jurisdiction for about 3 (not positive on the number) miles around every metro bus/train route - which gives them jurisdiction in pretty much the entire area.
Airport police have jurisdiction on and around National and Dulles, and all along the toll road.
And there are more in the area, such as the Park Police, Pentagon Police ("Pentagon Force Protection Agency"), Military Police, Federal Protective Service, Defense Protective Service, CIA Security Protective Service, and the list goes on.
Alot of those "Protective Service" agencies are simply glorified security guards who have special police powers.

yeah going to have to agree, who cares about spelling if the point gets through.

normally I'd have overlooked the misspellings because I'm no Webster myself ... BUT in this case, the post attempted to sound authoritative but the misspelling of the most critical word in the post (many times over I might add) killed any authority that may have come through had that particular word been spelled correctly.

Fairfax Sheriffs officialy duties are running the courts and the jails, but they also transport prisoners from correctional facilities all over the state to fairfax county. They also have civil and concurrent jurisdiction in Fairfax County, Vienna, and Herndon. And of course any federal officer (FBI, DEA, ATF, marshalls, secret service,INS, etc.) can do anything on US soil within their scope.

how many sheriffs are there in fairfax? i always see like five different cop cars with sheriff plastered on the side at the fairfax courthouse.


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

there is only 1 sheriff about 700 sheriff deputies here in ffx

and all the deputies have cars that read "sheriff"?! lies, they lie to me!


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

no, they have cars that read "Fairfax County Sheriff's Department", which would be the truth, since it is a department headed by THE sheriff.

So what about federal jurisdiction? Does the FBI have jurisdiction OVER the Fairfax police? or do they share equal power? what decides who gets the investigation?

In VA, the sheriff and his deputies in any county have full law enforcement authority anywhere in the state over state code. This is because their authority derives from the state constitution. Unless a police department is established, they have primary law enforcement responsibilty within their county. They also have the authority to serve civil process. In many cases, the run the jails, and they are responsible for court security.

The VA State Police have full law enforcement authority over state code anywhere in the state, with some complications on federal property, like military bases and national parks.

County police, when created according to statute, have primary law enforcement responsibility within the county, over state and county code. Similarly, town, city, campus and other similar agencies have primary authority and responsibility within their county.

Generally, state and local police have no federal authority, and federal law enforcement has no state or local authority. Federal and state or local jurisdiction are completely separate. A police officer in Fairfax County, whether state, county, or municipal cannot arrest someone for a violation of federal law, and the FBI or other federal agents can't generally arrest people for local offenses.

... with exceptions like the Park Police.

I know for a fact those guys enforce local laws, but I believe the areas where they do it touch national parks. When I got a ticket for running a red light on constitution ave, in front of the mall, the park police wrote me the exact same ticket a dc cop would have.

Just a little clarification to Bob's post way up. Bob mentioned "town police" as including Fairfax City.

This should be clarified a little. Fairfax City, along with Alexandria and Falls Church City are fully independent cities - not subject to the control of Fairfax County. FFX police do not have direct jurisdiction in these cities.

Compare that to town such as Herndon and Vienna which, while legal townships, are still subsumed within Fairfax County.

Somebody else mentioned an interesting point about police agencies. I think the Post did an article on it, but there are probably over 100 police forces.

Just think about it for a second:

each city (and most towns) have a separate police force.
Each independent city and county has a sheriff's department.
GMU has police
WMATA has police
MWAA has police
the Pentagon has police
Amtrak has police
GSA has police
the Supreme Court has police
the Library of Congress has police
BEP has police
the Smithsonian has police
the Capitol has police

add in the White House secret service, FBI, Diplomatic security service, Federal protective service, federal marshals, U.S. park police, VA state police, DC police, and you've got a LOT of police forces.

just look for the helicopter.