Governor Glenn Youngkin called for increased funding to support law enforcement and partnerships with localities as part of the administration’s Monday announcement of Operation Bold Blue Line. The proposals were the result of his violent crime task force, which he said found Virginia lacks law enforcement officers, prosecutors, programs for at-risk youth, and support for witnesses and victims.
“It’s often said that our law enforcement heroes represent a thin blue line,” he said in a speech outside a City of Norfolk Library alongside Attorney General Jason Miyares and Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears.
“Friends, with nearly 40 percent law enforcement vacancy rates in some cities, with too few prosecutors actually prosecuting, with diminished community engagement and witnesses and victims less willing to come forward, that thin blue line is getting far too thin.”
Youngkin listed five actions Virginia needs: to address law enforcement pay compression; recruit officers from outside the state and develop more local talent; provide more training and equipment; make sure that prosecutors back up law enforcement; and provide more resources to victims and witnesses while funding community partnerships.
Earlier this year, the Virginia State Police Crime in Virginia 2021 report found that overall crime was down last year compared to previous years. Violent crime in 2021 was higher than 2020 and lower than 2019.
On Monday, Youngkin also highlighted the importance of support from local officials, with Norfolk Mayor Kenneth Alexander introducing the administration, and attending officials including Petersburg Mayor Sam Parham.
Youngkin touted a recently announced partnership with Petersburg as an example. He said that was focused on a concern over rising violent crime.
“After a brutal week of fatal shootings in the city earlier this year, we provided a Virginia State Police-backed surge of additional law enforcement capability on the ground. And thanks to this police involvement in Petersburg, along with the city’s implementation of many measures, including a curfew, homicides and shootings have declined by more than 50 percent,” he said.
Miyares announced that Virginia’s Operation Ceasefire program will partner with 12 cities to address violent crime through gang prevention, victim protection funding, community policing in high-crime areas, and getting the worst offenders off the street. Miyares’ press release said that would include about five Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys (SAUSAs) to work with his office to prosecute violent crime, hiring at least two group violent intervention coordinators, funding a victim and witness protection program, and more money for Operation Ceasefire. Legislators allocated $5 million for the program in the recently passed budget.
“Today, in partnership with partner cities, local elected officials and law enforcement, Attorney General Jason Miyares declared a Ceasefire in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Miyares’ release said.
Miyares has been critical of progressive prosecutors in Virginia who advocate for criminal justice reforms and say they’ll use prosecutorial discretion to not prosecute certain crimes. Commonwealth’s attorneys are locally elected, and Miyares has relatively little power to get involved in local prosecutions, generating tension and competition over policy, power, and funding between the OAG and local commonwealth’s attorneys’ offices in many of Virginia’s large cities.
Progressive prosecutor Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi responded to Youngkin’s announcement in a letter shared on social media. He praised the plan to fund witness protection, which he said House Republicans killed in 2022.
“I am heartened to hear the Governor and Attorney General announce efforts to address the ongoing shortage of law-enforcement officers around the Commonwealth,” he wrote. “I am also heartened to learn of a possible effort to fund Virginia’s unfunded Witness Protection Program, an initiative I have championed for over a year along with Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Morales, and other progressive prosecutors.”
But he warned that the plan to hire assistant attorneys general as SAUSAs could exacerbate local shortages of experienced trial lawyers.
“Rather than poach talent out of local prosecutors’ offices, I urge the Governor and Attorney General to support the full funding of Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Offices as they did for police, both to satisfy a decades-long under-funding of our felony prosecution obligations and to amend Virginia law to require and fund local prosecutors to be involved in misdemeanor prosecutions,” Fatehi wrote.
– – –
Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
