The Fairfax County Sheriff's Office, officially the Fairfax County Office of the Sheriff, serves a population of 1,116,897 residents in
Fairfax County, Virginia
Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C. ...
, a
Northern Virginian suburb of
Washington, D.C. It is one of the largest Sheriff's Office in
Virginia with nearly 600 sworn deputies. The Sheriff and her deputies are fully sworn law enforcement officers with full arrest powers within
Fairfax County,
City of Fairfax and the Towns of
Herndon and
Vienna. The Sheriff's Office assists the
Fairfax County Police Department and other law enforcement agencies to maintain peace and order in Fairfax County.
History
The Sheriff's Office was formed in 1742 when Fairfax County was created from
Prince William County, Virginia. The sheriff is a position established under the
Virginia Constitution
The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia is the document that defines and limits the powers of the state government and the basic rights of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Like all other state constitutions, it is supreme ...
. The sheriff is elected every four years. There have been 70 elected sheriffs in Fairfax County. the current Sheriff is Stacey Kincaid, who was first elected in a 2013 special election, and is the county's first woman sheriff.
The Fairfax County Sheriff's Office responsibilities have changed since its inception. It was the primary law enforcement agency in the county until 1940. That year Sheriff Eppa P. Kirby persuaded the
Virginia General Assembly to separate the law enforcement role of the county police from the Sheriff's Office. On July 1, 1940, the
Fairfax County Police Department became a separate agency under the control of
Board of Supervisors
A board of supervisors is a governmental body that oversees the operation of county government in the U.S. states of Arizona, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Virginia, and Wisconsin, as well as 16 counties in New York. There are equivalent agenc ...
.
In 2015,
Natasha McKenna
Natasha McKenna (January9,1978February8,2015) was a 37-year-old African-American woman who died in Fairfax County, Virginia while in police custody. The catalyst event, extraction from her cell and being tasered while shackled, was captured on the ...
died in the Fairfax County Jail after corrections officers tasered her during transport.
Since the establishment of the Fairfax County Sheriff's Office in 1742, two officers have died in the line of duty:
* Deputy George A. Malcolm, April 7, 1905; gunfire.
* Sergeant Frederick H. "Butch" Cameron, January 12, 2021; SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19).
Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office (3543949029).jpg, A Fairfax County Sheriff's Office cruiser in 2009
Fairfax July 4th QD3J0052 (28131194235) (cropped).jpg, Sheriff Stacey Kincaid appearing in a parade in July 2016
See also
*
List of law enforcement agencies in Virginia
This is a list of law enforcement agencies in the state of Virginia.
According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics' 2008 ''Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies,'' the state had 340 law enforcement agencies employing 22,848 sworn ...
*
Fairfax County Police Department
References
External links
*
{{Fairfax County, Virginia topics
County sheriffs' offices of Virginia
Government in Fairfax County, Virginia
Organizations established in 1742
1742 establishments in Virginia